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

with floats installed. 

As the early spring training season started Johnson was made Chief Instructor at Hammondsport, and in his first class that year were several students who went on to considerable renown in aviation. Several notable wealthy sportsmen bought Curtiss Flying Boats and as a result Johnson taught Robert Glendinning and Clarice Thompson of Philadelphia, E. K. Jaquith of Chicago and B. H. Kendrick of Atlantic City. The school had an active class that spring but by mid-Summer Curtiss sent Johnson to Russia with Tony Jannus to deliver an order of Model "K" Curtiss Flying Boats to the Russian Admiralty at Sevastopol on the Black Sea. This assignment involved assembly and preparing the planes for flight, their acceptance tests and the training of Russian military officers to fly them. Johnson remained there for some months, and upon his return Curtiss sent him to Marblehead, Massachusetts where he conducted the initial flight tests on a new dual control, tandem training hydro-aeroplane for the Navy during February and March, 1916 at the Burgess Aeroplane Company factory. 

In April, 1916 Johnson left the Curtiss Company to take charge of the Philadelphia School of Aviation at Essington, Pennsylvania. This school had just been organized by Robert Glendinning, wealthy Philadelphia banker, clubmen and aviation enthusiast who had been taught to fly by Johnson at Hammondsport the previous Spring. The school opened on May 15th, 1916 with seven students, using two hydro aeroplanes and one flying boat. There Johnson put in a very active summer, averaging six to eight hours a day in the air while he trained and graduated a number of students. 

In early 1917 the Government took over the Essington School as a Military Training Base and sent four additional planes, with Caption William Ocker as Government Representative and Supervisor, but Johnson was retained as Chief Civilian Instructor. The school operated there during the summer season of 1917 but in the fall it was moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

Johnson was stationed there for a short time only, when he and some of 

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