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FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE
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ed in making some flights on the Smith aeroplane with 100 H.P. Emmerson two-cycle engine. There, during the Spring and early Summer of 1911, Kastory also built a new plane for the Company, using a Hall-Scott engine. It was first flown in July and later used by Aviator Paul Peck in exhibition work. During this time Kastory had progressed with his flying practice to the point he wanted to try for his pilot license, but the Company refused him the use of aeroplane for this purpose as they were afraid he would leave and go into the exhibition business. This irked Kastory, so he left the Rex Smith Co. and went to Chicago and joined the aviation fraternity at Cicero in May, 1912.

At Cicero he was employed by the National Aeroplane. as a mechanic, with the promise that he could continue practice and obtain his license. They had four planes and Kastory soon had some practice on different type machines. On July 4, 1912 he flew an exhibition for the Company at Iowa City, Iowa, using a Curtiss-type plane. July 21st he flew at Stevens Point, Wisc., and on September 7th flew an exhibition at the Hardin County Fair at Eldora, Iowa, then finished out the season of 1912 with the National Co. as a mechanic and doing some flying.

In the spring of 1913 Kastory rejoined National at Cicero and operations got under way about May 15th. Among others, they had a plane which had not been a success in 1912 and Kastory was told he could use this plane for his license tests if he could get it flying. Accordingly he rebuilt the plane, started flying it in early July and continued to practice on through that month. With this plane Kastory flew for his license on August 12th, obtaining No. 261, granted September 3, 1913 at Cicero, on what was known as the Beech-National Bi-plane using a Roberts 6-cyl. engine. During September, he did considerable test flying on the new DeVries Tractor with Roberts 6-cyl. engine at Cicero. About this time Kastory because associated with Elmer Partridge and Henry Keller, well known early Chicago plane builders, as test pilot and instructor, and also filled some exhibition dates for them. 

During the summer of 1914, Kastory was again associated with Partridge an Keller. They made several new planes and continued filling occupational exhibition engagements out of Chicago. At this time he also tested planes for others at Cicero. In the fall of 1914 he became instructor for the Pellisard and Co. School of Flying. This was a partnership between Joseph M. Pallissard, Elmer Partridge and Henry Keller, and the main purpose of the group was that all would learn to fly. They had just finished a new dual-control school-type tractor biplane, using a 6-cyl. Smith radial air-cooled engine, and Kastory made the initial flight tests on this new plane on August 29th. He did considerably more flying for them on this plane during the remaining Fall season. On October 9th and 10th, Kastory flew two exhibitions a day at Hammond, Ind. In flying back to Cicero from Hammond he had a smash-up when he was forced to make a landing in a fog, but was not injured. In November, he did some test flying on a P-L-V Tractor, at Cicero, built by Messrs. Pontowski and Lichorsik and designed by Vought. It was a two-seater biplane with staggered and raked wings and had a 60 H.P. 6-cyl. Sturtevant engine. He continued to give the Pallissard group instruction on their school machine through the winter months, weather permitting, and into Spring of 1915.

In July, 1915, Kastory was also flying the P-L-V tractor, and that month flew an exhibition date for two days in South Dakota. Later in July he made the first test flights on a new loop-tractor especially built for Katherine Stinson, using the same 80 H.P. Gnome rotary engine Lincoln Beachey had used at San Francisco. Kastory remained active throughout the Full season of 1915 and then went to Anderson, Ind., where he was engaged by the Fraser Stove Works to rebuild and correct a plane which they had made that would not fly. After making some changes, it was flown to Indianapolis where he demonstrated it to the Indiana National Guard. 

During the late Fall of 1915 Cicero was abandoned as a flying field and all Chicago flying activities were moved to the newly formed Ashbourne Field for the Spring of 1916. Kastory was busy there that season and did a considerable amount of exhibition flying during the year, in additional to some instructing for the Pallissard school. During the winter months, while Kastory was around Chicago, he was engaged by the Eastern Electric Co. as a tool and