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on blimps. The job was mainly flight testing and Campbell made several improvements in the development of the Navy Class "C" dirigibles. While there he had his first personal experience in aerial acrobatics when quite often his duties required him to leave the airship car in mid-air, crawl out and hang on to the motor-supporting structure while he worked on a malfunctioning engine.
In March, 1919, the Army's Balloon Section took over this work and Campbell decided to join George "Buck" Weaver and his brother-in-law, Charles Meyers, on a barnstorming tour of the middle west. They were a couple of seasoned World War I pilots flying in war-surplus Curtiss JN-4 planes. Campbell started with them as a mechanic but soon induced Weaver and Meyers to allow him to try wing walking as an added stunt attraction. He made his first exhibition of this aerial dare-deviltry at Buffalo, New York, on May 16th, 1919. It proved to be a tremendous hit with the crowds when he climbed out on the wings, walked back and forth, then slid back onto the tail and ended up hanging on the cross axle of the landing gear. This was without doubt the very beginning of wing walking and aerial gymnastics in flight, which was soon widely copied by others and continued as a barnstormer's star attraction for some time.
Campbell kept improving and developing his famous bag of aerial tricks and easily kept ahead of his competitors throughout his extended career in this hazardous profession, which later made him internationally famous. He remained a part of the Weaver-Meyers troupe until September, 1919, then returned to California where he attended the formal opening of Venice Field when Thomas Ince, motion picture producer, took over its operation. Making his rounds to renew former friendships, Campbell learned that nearly everyone was flying for the movies and making large amounts of money. He told them what he had been doing and showed newspaper clippings of a number of his eastern exhibitions, then announced he would like to team up with two pilots and sell his aerial stunts