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PART ONE 
MAY 1967
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Laird airplane, circa 1916, had converted Excelsior motor-cycle engine. Owners L. E. Holt and Al Johnson shown in this photo supplied by late Charles Arens to author.

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This same airplane as in top photo with young Matty. (One report has it that craft, specially constructed for Howard Lynn and Art Orr, was laird B-4--Ed.)

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Another Charles Arens pix catches the famous Buck Weaver in rear seat of the "Bone-shaker" biplane. This was shot at Ashburn field in Chicago in 1916.

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26

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THE MATTY LAIRD STORY
Current President of the "Early Birds", Emil M. Laird played a significant part in growth of U.S. aviation 
by John W. Underwood
With photos from the William F. Yeager Collection, Joseph P. Juptner, Major T.C. Weaver, and others

To those who remember the years between World Wars 1 and 2, the name Laird will evoke memories of fast, finely-finished biplanes powered with the mighty Wasp and Whirlwind engines. Laird became synonymous with speed, be it on the field of competition or in ordinary aerial commerce. Matty Laird had his own factory when he was twenty-three and many credit him with the distinction of having built the first practical commercial planes in America. Be that as it may, the Laird factory in Wichita was the seed from which a large part of today's aircraft industry sprouted.
  Emil Matthew Laird was an office boy in the First National Bank of Chicago when he watched Walter Brookins flying a Wright-B pusher biplane over Lake Michigan for the old Record-Herald. The year was 1910 and in all his fourteen years he had witnessed nothing quite so impressive. Then and there Matty Laird knew that he must abandon all thoughts of a banking career and learn to fly.
  Laird had a friend, George (Buck) Weaver, a bright young fellow with an aptitude for mechanics, who was equally obsessed with the prospect of flying. In the days and months following Brookins' exhibition, the boys saturated their minds with whatever they could find in the way of aeronautical technology and science. They built model planes and became charter members of the Illinois Model Club which had been founded by Bill Stout. Chicago was then a Mecca for such early-day aviators as the Janus brothers, Katherine Stinson, Max Lillie and Bud Mars. The flying fields of Cicero and Ashburn became favorite haunts of the aspiring airmen.
  Although he enjoyed model building, Laird was determined to advance as rapidly as possible into the league of full-scale aeronautics. By 1911, he had graduated to man-carrying gliders and was experimenting with a monoplane type which seemed to have possibilities. In due course, after making a few short hops, Matty and his pals from the model club decided to install an engine in their glider and try for sustained flight. Their financial resources being nil, they had to settle for a second-hand motorcycle engine.

(Opposite, top) Laird "Baby Biplane" at Cicero Field in Arens photo. Craft was built in attic of the Laird home in Chicago. Matty's brothers and fellow members of the Illinois Model Aero Club assisted in its construction.

(Center, from left) Round-the-world flier Lt. Lowell Smith, famed aviatrix Katherine Stinson, Col. Charles Dickinson and Matty Laird at Chicago, September 1924. Miss Stinson shared spotlight with Ruth Law as one of the Leading ladies of the air. In 1916-17 she flew Laird's "Bone-shaker" exhibition plane in the Orient. Col. Dickinson, founder of the Aero Club of Illinois, began flying in 1910, later purchased Laird planes for his air mail line between Chicago and Milwaukee (United Press International photo).

(Bottom, right) Buck Weaver and Matty Laird (in white shirt) with the "Baby Biplane," circa 1915. Airplane flew well even though it only had 12 horsepower engine.

AIR PROGRESS