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[[stamped]] From the Flying Pioneers Biographies of Harold E. Morehouse [[/stamped]]

HARVEY CRAWFORD
Pioneer West Coast Plane Builder-Engineer-Pilot-Instructor

[[image]]

Harvey Crawford was born at Healey, Missouri, November 12, 1889, son of pioneer aeronaut John Crawford. As a youth he moved with his parents to Perkins, Oklahoma where he attended local schools. Being a son of air-minded parents he developed an early interest in aeronautics, and in 1900 at age 11 made his first ascension and parachute drop from his father's hot air balloon, and for some time during his youth made the County Fair circuits of the mid-west with his father. A brother, W. H. Crawford, was also an aeronaut.

Later Crawford started as an apprentice machinist at Alamogordo, New Mexico but continued ballooning with his family whenever possible. In August, 1904 Crawford moved to Santa Paula, California where he made a 40-foot dirigible, using a 10 H.P. motorcycle engine, which did not prove to be successful. It was so under powered Crawford was unable to make satisfactory flights, so the project was abandoned. In addition to these activities he studied marine engineering and mechanical drafting from 1905 to 1907.

Crawford's interest then turned to aeroplanes and he started to build his first machine at Tacoma, Washington in 1908, before he had ever seen one. It was a biplane with a 40 H.P. 4-cylinder Elbridge engine. He experimented with this plane through 1909 and 1910 and by himself succeeded in getting a

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[[image: photo of Harvey Crawford]]