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C. RAY BENEDICT
Early Benoist Pilot

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FROM THE
FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES
OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE

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   C. Ray Benedict was born November 18, 1890 in Laurens, Otsego County, New York. In his infancy the family moved to Norwich, New York, where he later attended public schools. After moving to Binghamton, New York, Benedict finished High School. As a youth he was very interested in aviation and read everything available on the subject.
   He was determined to learn to fly and enrolled for instruction with the Aero Exhibition Company of Chicago, Illinois in the late fall of 1911. The firm set up a so-called flying school at St. Augustine, Florida in January, 1912, but it proved to be a hoax and Benedict received no instruction there. Disappointed, he then went to St. Louis, Missouri and joined the Benoist School and there he was taught to fly during the early spring months of 1912 by company instructor Tony Jannus. During this time Benedict's father purchased a Benoist plane for him, which was delivered the latter part of May. After getting his plane, Benedict started flying exhibitions, and a young Benoist employee, Walter Lees, went with him as mechanic. Together they toured the middle west and plain States that season. During the winter of 1912-1913 Benedict and Lees took the plane to St. Augustine, Florida, where they carried passengers and flew daily exhibitions at a winter resort. At that time he had his plane on