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National Guard planes from Mineola to Princeton, New Jersey, to attend the Yale-Princeton football game. In December he was one of the pilots on a mass flight of Guard planes from Mineola to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and return. This was a practice operation, the planes landed at League Island, Philadelphia, [[strikethrough]]then returning [[/strikethrough]] and returned the following day. [[strikethrough]] The flight [[/strikethrough]] Captain R. C. Bolling was in charge of the flight.

In March 1917, Blakely flew in mock aerial war games at Mineola, and during the year divided his time between L. W. F. test flying, instructing National Guard students and special military flight maneuvers. L. W. F. prepared an [[strikethrough]] aero [[/strikethrough]] airplane for the first flight tests of a Liberty motor in late July, and Blakely made the first flight of this plane and engine combination on August 29th at Buffalo, New York. The first Liberty [[crossed out]] series [[/crossed-out]] engine flown at that time was the VEE-8-cylinder [[crossed-out]] model [[/crossed-out]] type developing 270 h.p. at 1850 r.p.m.  Blakely flew this plane on tests for the next few days, then returned to Garden City where further testing followed on Liberty-powered L.W.F. planes.  During this activity he took Colonel Theodor Roosevelt for a ride. On November 13th, he flew a Sturtevant-powered L.W.F. plane From Chicago to San Antonio, Texas in 9 hours and 48 minutes, with one stop at Muskogee, Oklahoma, for fuel - a new American cross-country record.

[[strikethrough]] Continuing his test flying at L.W.F., Blakely was killed on January 16th, 1918 in a crash at the company flying field near Hicksville, Long Island, New York flying a new plane powered by one of the first 12-cylinder Liberty [[crossed-out]] motors [[crossed-out]] engines.[[/strikethrough]] [[strikethrough]]Also killed was [[/strikethrough]] His passenger, E.J. Higgins, company purchasing agent was also killed. Immediately after take-off Blakely started some very wild and erratic maneuvers, then spun and dove in. It was later determined he had been doped by a loaded cigarette just before take-off [[crossed-out]] by a [[/crossed-out]]. The saboteur who had given it to him was arrested. Blakely was 28, married, and resided in Flushing, New York.

Flying Pioneer Harold W. Blakely was one of the very active early American aviators. Expert test pilot, instructor and first man to fly a Liberty engine, he flew for the love of [[strikethrough]] it [[/strikethrough]] flying.  While apparently tending to be a daredevil type, he was an expert at flight maneuvers and would certainly not have died when he did had he not doped.

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Transcription Notes:
The strikes through H.P. and R.P.M. are editing markups indicating that they should be lower case, otherwise meaning is lost.