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

FRED G. EELLS
Pioneer New York State aviator [[strikethrough]]- Plane [[/strikethrough]] [[squiggle above]] and airplane [[ / written above]] Builder

Fred G. Eells was born in Bath, New York December 20th, 1886; attended local schools, then learned the machinist trade. He became very interested in aviation following the early Curtiss experiments at nearby Hammondsport, and as a result built a glider in 1909 and even [[strikethrough]] made [[/strikethrough]] [[handwritten above]] constructed a slope to glide from.

He then made a Curtiss-type pusher biplane powered with a 25-30 H.P. Kirkham automobile engine [[strikethrough]] and there is evidence that [[/strikethrough]] [[above strikethrough, handwritten]] Apparently [[end handwritten]] Eells was associated with he motor manufacturer Charles Kirkham in this [[strikethrough]] work [[/strikethrough]], for it was called the Kirkham-Eells plane. [[strikethrough]] The machine [[/strikethrough]] It was completed about mid-July, 1910 and Eells began ground tests and short hops. The first week of August he was making circles and doing some very creditable flying, and on August 16th he circled the city and flew over a portion of it. 

Eells [[strikethrough]] continued practicing and [[/strikethrough]] gave his first paid public flying exhibition at the Naples, New York Fair September 15ht and 16th, 1910 before a huge crowd. that month they started advertising the Kirkham-Eells Aeroplane Company, Bath, New York: [[strikethrough]] for [[/strikethrough]] "complete planes, motor, propellers and exhibition flights arranged." In October Eells made flights at Rochester, New York and on the 19th he attempted to win a prize offered by J.D. Moore of the Temple Theatre [[strikethrough]] for a certain flight [[/strikethrough]]
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