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After recovering from his illness, Brown became an instructor at the Martin School until the spring of 1916, when he went east to become a test pilot for the Standard Aircraft Corporation at Plainfield, New Jersey. That season he did his first acrobatic flying and in June made the first loops while flying at Mineola, Long Island, New York.

Brown remained with Standard Aircraft until March, 1917, when he returned to Los Angeles and built a new biplane of his own design intended for exhibition flying.

World War I put an end to his plans, then in early 1918 he returned east as a civilian instructor and test pilot for the Signal Corps, Aviation Section, U.S. Army at Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan, where he remained until the war was over.

He then returned to Los Angeles, where he designed and built another exhibition-type biplane powered by a Curtiss OX-5 engine which he soon sold to the Mexican Government. Following this Brown [[strikethrough]] became [[/strikethrough]] was employed at Mexico City in charge of design and construction of Government aircraft until January, 1922. He then barn-stormed for two years in Central America, giving exhibitions, carrying passengers and doing some crop dusting.

In 1924, Brown returned to Los Angeles and started to design and build planes, later organizing the Lawrence W. Brown Aircraft Company in nearby Inglewood, California, making special planes on order to customer requirements. His business continued in a small way, later specializing in planes for racing and contest flying. 

About 1933-1934 Brown brought out a light sport monoplane. By the mid-1930's he built some high-speed Menasco-powered low-wing monoplanes for pilots who entered the National Air Race events of that period.

In 1936-1937, Brown built a special speed plane for nationally known Roscoe Turner, who was always a foremost race pilot. Called the "Turner Meteor", it was a mid-wing, 25-foot span, monoplane, powered by a 1,000 h.p. twin-row Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine. [[strikethrough]] All these planes were in [[/strikethrough]] It was in the 250-300 mph class. One of Brown's last planes was a Menasco-powered, single-seat personal monoplane, with Handley Page slots and wing flaps.