Viewing page 21 of 35

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

New York for G.C. Beidler of Rochester, New York. In December the American Aeroplane Supply Company suffered a bad fire at Hempstead, losing three completed planes. 

About April 1st 1914, Hild was engaged to do test flying for Maximillian Schmitt at Paterson, New Jersey on a new monoplane with Gnome engine. In early May Hild talked about the possibility of making a flight from Peterson to Washington, D.C. with this plane to demonstrate it to government officials. This cross-country flight attempt was cancelled but Hild remained with Schmitt through May demonstrating the plane to various officials. In July he was giving daily exhibitions at Secaucus, New Jersey, flying a Bleriot with 60 [[strikethrough]]H.P.[[/strikethrough]] hp Ashmusen engine. Apparently in the fall of 1914 Hild went to Europe where he was connected with the French Aviation Reserve for a time at Tours. 

It is not recorded just when the American Aviation Supply House went out of business but over the winter months of 1914-1915 Hild entered into a partnership with William C. Diehl of North Bergen, New Jersey to start flying school. Diehl had built a monoplane and made some hops in it at the Guttenberg Race Track there and also had acquired three other planes. They decided their chances of success would be better in the middle west so they shipped all equipment to Chicago, where they opened their school in the Spring of 1915. This venture was not a success, so they shipped everything back east that fall and established the Eastern School of aviation at Sheepshead Bay, Long Island in the Spring of 1916, with both Hild and Diehl as instructors. The school was quite a success and a goodly number of students were taught to fly.

Later that spring the company announced their new Eastern tandem tractor biplane using an 8 cyl. 120 [[strikethrough]]H.P.[[/strikethrough]] h.p. Maximotor. Edward Marshonet joined the firm as designer and construction engineer and a small factory was set up to build planes, designed to meet government specifications. Their first [[strikethrough]] finished [[/strikethrough]] airplane was demonstrated and offered for military training service at that time. First flight tests were made in late September, 1916 and favorable comments were soon re-

4