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New York using two Liberty-12 engines. In the fall he carried a load of distinguished passengers from New York to Kansas City for the American Legion Convention, and also flew a revamped Italian S.V.A. biplane in the 1920 Pulitzer Air Races at Mitchel Field.

In 1921 Acosta continued his test flying and was engaged by the Curtiss Engineering Group at Garden City, New York, in the development of the Curtiss military racing planes and the Texas "Wildcat," all with D-12, 400 h.p. engines. He also did considerable flying that year on special assignments. On November 3rd, he set a new world closed circuit record winning the Pulitzer Trophy Race at Omaha, Nebraska, with an official speed of 176.7 mph flying a Curtiss Navy racer. On November 22nd he attained a speed of 197.8 mph during experimental tests of a Curtiss racer at Garden City, New York.

In the spring of 1923, at Curtiss Field in Mineola, New York, Acosta conducted initial flight tests of a new model Remington-Burnelli airliner. On one flight he took off with seventeen passengers on two-thirds engine throttle. In September, he flew a Fokker monoplane from Chicago to New York, non-stop, carrying reels of title fight movies.

On June 29, 1927, with Acosta and Clarence Chamberlin as pilots, Commander Richard Byrd in charge, and George Noville as navigator, the Fokker tri-motored monoplane "America," took off from Roosevelt Field, New York, on a transatlantic flight bound for Paris, France. As they approached the European mainland the Fresh coast was fogbound and the Paris airport was closed. After flying around for some time, Commander Byrd ordered a surf landing at Ver-Sur-Mer on the north coast of France near Trouville. They had logged forty-two hours and six minutes of flying time and estimated total distance of approximately 4,200 miles. After remaining in France for several weeks, in late July the Byrd expedition returned to the United States on the S.S. Leviathan. 

In 1929, Acosta the Richard Depew were elected members of the Advisory Board of the William E. Arthur Company of New York, a firm engaged in the planning