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

DANA C. DeHART
Pioneer West Coast Aviator - Instructor - Air Mail Pilot

Dana C. DeHart was born at Los Angeles, California June 17, 1886 and attended local schools. The family later moved to San Jose where he graduated from High School in 1907. Mechanically inclined he loved automobiles and motorcycles and became quite an expert with engines, which led to a genuine interest in aviation.
During the early Spring of 1911, while working as a steam pumping station operator at an oil field near Los Angeles, he decided to take a day off, go out to Inglewood and have a talk with Frank and Warren Eaton who were building an airplane and planning to start an aviation business. As a result of his visit, the Eatons agreed to take him on as a mechanic and later, when they got the plane flying, as a student.
Warren Eaton had designed the plane, which was a combination of Curtiss and Farman features, using a 60 H.P. Hall-Scott engine. For grass cutting practice they used a revamped Ford automobile engine in this plane, which, at full throttle, would give just enough power to bounce then into the air for a brief hop then settle back to the ground. DeHart worked for the Eaton Brothers that summer, helped build some planes and slowly taught him-