Viewing page 18 of 21

                        From the Flying Biographies
                        of Harold E. Morehouse
        
             JOSEPH L. CATO
Pioneer West Coast Plane Building - Pilot - Aviation Engineer

    Joseph L. Cato was born at    [[image]]
North Yakima, Washington, Febru-
ary 18, 1889. Later his parents
moved to Vancouver, Washington,
where he attended private schools.
The family then moved to Stockton,
California, where Cato continued
his schooling. Being mechanically
inclined, he obtained work in a ma-
chine shop after school to advance
his knowledge of using tools and
machinery.
    Cato first became interested
in aeronautics in 1903 when he read
some articles on gliders and gliding in the Scientific American Magazine in the
local library. Cato became so absorbed that he read everything he could find
on the subject, including the experiments of the Wright brothers. This
resulted in his building some model wing sections which he towed in the wind to
determine the centers of life and pressure. He started the design and con-
struction of a 28 foot glider with which he succeeded in making one good hop
before a smashup ended that project. Later he moved to San Francisco where he
studied engineering in night school.
    In February, 1908, having learned that the War Department in Washington
had prepared specifications and was requesting bids for a military airplane, Cato
became one of the forty-one persons who submitted a price proposal which was
                                                 1