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VERNE CARTER
Early Wright and Benoist Pilot

Verne Carter was born in Wyandotte County, Ohio, March 3, 1893, and attended local schools. Following an extended interest in flying, he enrolled for a course at the Wright School, Simms Station, Dayton, Ohio for the early summer class of 1915. He had gone to Dayton in May and started training in June, along with J. A. McRae, Maurice Coombs, T. D. Pemberton and a Japanese student, Goroku Moro. Howard Rinehart was the instructor of the class. Carter was the last of the class to start training, but being an apt pupil, was the first to complete the course. On July 30[[strikethrough]] th [[/strikethrough]], 1915, he was granted Pilot License No. 332, passing his tests at Simms Station on the Wright school machine. 

After obtaining his license Carter joined the Attica Aviation Company of Attica, Ohio, as a company pilot. The firm had two planes and planned to do exhibition work. One was a high-wing monoplane with an unknown engine, the other was a Curtiss-copy biplane, less engine. All the equipment was old and in bad condition. Carter proceeded to fix the monoplane, then tried to hop it, but he soon found it lacked sufficient power to fly. Its engine was removed and a 4-cylinder Roberts motor substituted but this also did not have enough power. By this time the company had contracted for some exhibition engagements and insisted that Carter make a determined effort to make a flight if at all possible. The control of this plane differed widely from the Wright system [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] to which Carter was accustomed and the field was short in length, very narrow in width, [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] and had telephone wires at one end a fully grown cornfield at the other. In addition, there was a gusty crosswind blowing that morning, but Carter was determined to get the plane in the air. After several attempts he succeeded in bouncing it off, and in trying to hold it in the air in a semi-stalled condition one wing dropped and caught in the grass, careering the plane around and resulting in a  

Transcription Notes:
some extraneous check marks that I did not transcribe yet