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 FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE 

PHILLIP BOYER
Early Wright Sportsman Pilot
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Philip Boyer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 20, 1885. He attended Episcopal Academy, then Groton and Harvard and took up banking. In 1910 Boyer organized the firm of Slade and Boyer, which later became Boyer, Griswold and Co. In 1913 he made a partner in W.C. Langley and Co. In 1916 he became associated with the well known firm of Hayden Stone and Co., with whom he operated in the brokerage business intermittently until 1945. 

Boyer became interested in aviation during its early days in the New York area, and to stimulate water flying there, he organized the Hudson-Wright Aero Company in the early spring of 1915. Organizers were Philip Boyer and Morgan J. O'Brian. Also interested in the firm, with offices at 242 West 59th Street, was aviator A. B. Gaines, Jr., who was a graduate of the Wright Flying School at Dayton and was to be company pilot. They proposed to demonstrate and sell planes, carry passengers and operate a flying school, using a Wright flying boat on the Hudson River. Their first boat arrived June 24, 1915 and was put in operation at once.

On July 11th Gaines and Ed. A. Morse were planning to attempt a flight from New York to Albany up the Hudson River. While making a short check flight before leaving Gaines hit a log floating in the river as he landed, which resulted in a bad smashup. Gaines and passenger Morse were thrown into the river but were quickly rescued by nearby boats. The disabled plane was towed ashore and found to be so badly damaged that it was returned to the factory in Dayton for repairs. The Wright Company immediately sent another boat to New York