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Toward the end of 1905 Baldwin visited Curtiss at Hammondsport, New York, which was the beginning of a lifelong and valued friendship. While there he bought a 4-cylinder engine for a new airship, called the "20th Century," with which he made 53 flights in various parts of the United States. Late in 1906 this ship was lost in a fire in San Francisco.
Following this Baldwin returned to Hammondsport, where an airship hangar was erected and in it he made a new ship, powered by a 4-cylinder, 16 h.p., Curtiss engine driving two propellers, one behind the other, rotating in opposite directions. Baldwin made he first flight with this ship on June 2, 1907, and during the test that followed Curtiss also operated it, probably his first experience in the air. Baldwin then flew this ship in exhibitions in New Jersey and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. At that time, he also had two additional California Arrow-type ships under construction at Hammondsport, which he later flew at the St. Louis Balloon and Airship competition in October, and then at the State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Mississippi. During 1907 Baldwin was granted Federation Aeronautique International Airship Pilot License No. 1; he already held Balloon Certificate No. 9.
In December, Baldwin was asked to bid on an airship for the Signal Corps, U.S. Army. The contract was awarded in January, 1908, with delivery scheduled at Fort Myer, Virginia, by July 27th. Designated the Army Dirigible No. 1, it was to carry two men, 150 pounds of ballast, and fuel for two hours at a speed of 20 mph. Ascent and descent were to be performed by inclining the long cylindrical bag upward or downward, or by dropping ballast to rise of valving gas to descend. An internal ballooner, one-eighth the size of the main envelope, was to be pressurized by an air pump to maintain equal pressure at all times. The airship bag was 84 feet long, 18 feet in diameter, and had a frame 60 feet long underneath which carried the men, motor and controlling surfaces. There were large biplane surfaces forward, and a rudder and elevator at the rear intercon-