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one day. This was a bird-like, gull wing, all-metal plane, having variable incidence, dihedral and tail area and a number of unusual features. Scale models were made and wind-tunnel tested and extensive laboratory work was involved. The plane and a special 9-cylinder, 180 h.p., radial air-cooled engine were designed and built in the Kirkham Factory on Long Island.

The plane and engine were completed in the fall of 1927 and taken to Mitchel Field where he did some ground tests and hopped it a few times. He was not satisfied with the results and it was returned to the factory where some changes were made during the winter months. The revised plane, known as the "Bonney Gull," was returned to the field in the spring of 1928 and there on May 4th he attempted his first actual flight. It took off, flew for about half a mile, during which he waved an arm in triumph to his wife and friends on the ground, then it nosed down abruptly and dived in to the ground. He was unconscious when aid reached him and lived only a few minutes. He had rejected accepted designs to build the plane of his dreams. Investigation failed to disclose what actually happened.

He was buried at Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, Long Island. He was indeed one of the true pioneers of aviation, entering the game at the very beginning, actively flying all types of planes throughout the country and teaching many people to fly, both in military service and out. He flight tested new experimental airplanes at a time when the art of proper strength and stability was still unknown to aviation engineering.

Leonard Bonney was a very active pilot and one whose name will ever be a part of early aviation history. His name appears on the Wright Memorial Plaque near Dayton, Ohio, along with the others who learned to fly on those historic grounds.