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[[stamped]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamped]]

at will. This worked out perfectly and through February he circled the Statue of Liberty, the Singer Building and lower Manhattan, flew over and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, around Ellis and Governors Islands, escorted incoming vessels up the harbor and his almost daily flights were witnessed by thousands of people. This work was indeed notable, for they probably were the first movies ever made from the air, and were shown all over the country at that time.

In early March Wilbur Wright came to see him and observe his work. During his extensive flying there Coffyn carried many passengers, members of his own family and city officials. On March 20th Coffyn was seriously injured in a taxicab smashup in New York, sustaining a fractured skull and other injuries that put him in the hospital for some time. While there Wilbur Wright visited him to express his regrets concerning this serious misfortune. In mid-July Robert Collier engaged Coffyn to do some occasional flying with his Wright Hydro to recuperate from his long confinement, and after an easy summer Coffyn went with the Burgess Co. and Curtiss in December, 1912 to be a test pilot and take charge of their flying school activities. 

His first assignment was to conduct initial and official flight tests of the new Burgess Coast Defense Hydro at Marblehead, Massachusetts. This was a new twin float machine using Burgess-Wright wings, but with a fuselage, standard Wright pusher propellers and a 6 cyl. Sturtevant engine. Coffyn satisfactorily completed these tests on January 20th, 1913, following which the plane was shipped to the winter school at Palm Beach, Florida, where he trained Army and Navy officers Lts. Call, Ellington, Murray and Comm. Richardson on this new plane. Coffyn remained at Palm Beach until April when the school was closed and he returned to Marblehead. He was kept busy during the summer months flight testing two new planes, first a pusher biplane flying boat for the Navy, using an 8 cyl. 70 H.P. Renault engine, then later a special pusher biplane flying boat for Robert Collier, using a 220 H.P. 20 cyl. air-cooled Anzani engine. In addition to this he tested some military planes built and delivered that season. In early October Collier's flying

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