Viewing page 8 of 30

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

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

time the Curtis Exhibition Company was formed to arrange for and manage all exhibition flying by Curtiss aviators, and Hamilton joined the group. During July he was flying in the area of New York City.

In August friction developed between Hamilton and Curtiss and as a result he left the Curtiss Exhibition Team and started flying a borrowed plane at Mineola while he was having a special Curtiss-type plane built. This was to have a new 110 H.P. Vee-S Christio engine, with which he intended to start fly-exhibitions on his own. 
 This new plane, which he called the "Hamiltonian," was a lot of engine and very little wing, and proved to be very fast for its day.  Starting at once on a tour with it he had a bad smashup at Sacramento, California on September 9th and was severely cut, bruised and burned by water from the radiator. A month later he had the plane flying again at Pasadena, California.  On September 23th, 1910 Hamilton obtained F.A.I. Pilot License No. 12 on this Curtiss-type plane.

October 22nd to 30th he was a contestant at the Belmont Park International Aviation Meet in New York.  This was a large event and Hamilton competed with the top star aviators of the world.  He was still hobbling about somewhat from the crash at Sacramento and having some difficulty in handling and landing his fast tricky machine.  As a result his performance there was, for him, somewhat unspectacular.  John Moisant had brought over a team of European aviators for this event and as a result the Moisant Brothers formed the International Aviators" to tour the southern states during the winter months of 1910-1911.  Apparently intrigued by this setup Hamilton joined the group with his Hamiltonian.  Also flying in the group were Americans John Moisant and his sister Matilda, Frisbie, Seymour, and French aviators Barrier, Simon, Garros and Audemars.  This troupe exhibited at Richmond, Virginia, Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Tupelo, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana, where Moisant was killed on December 31st, 1910.  During the fall of 1910 Curtiss sued Hamilton for breach of contract and in January, 1911 Curtiss won the suit at Bath, New York.

From January to March, 1911 the International Aviators flew engagements in

5