Viewing page 8 of 20

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

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 4th he flew an exhibition for the company at Iowa City, [[strikethrough]] Iowa [[/strikethrough]] using a Curtiss-type plane. July 21st he was at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] on September 7th he flew an exhibition at the Hardin Country Fair at Eldora, Iowa, then finished out the season of 1912 with the National Company as a mechanic and doing some flying.
In the spring of 1913 Kastory [[strikethrough]] rejoined [[/strikethrough]] continued with National at Cicero [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] with operations getting 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 it through that month. With [[strikethrough]] this plane [[/strikethrough]] it Kastory flew for his license on August 12th, obtaining No. 261, granted September 3rd, 1913 at Cicero. [[strikethrough]] , on what [[/strikethrough]] It was known as the Beech-National Biplane, using a Roberts 6-cylinder engine. During September at Cicero he did considerable test flying on the new DuVries Tractor with a Roberts 6-cylinder engine [[strikethrough]] at Cicero [[/strikethrough]]. About this time Kastory became associated with Elmer Partridge and Henry Keller, well known early Chicago plane builders, as test pilot and instructor, [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] He also filled some exhibition dates for them.
During the summer of [[strikethrough]] 1911 [[/strikethrough]] 1914 Kastory was again associated with Partridge and Keller. They made several new planes and continued filling occasional exhibition engagements out of Chicago. At this time he also tested planes for others at Cicero. In the fall he became instructor for the Pallissard and Company 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-tpe tractor biplane, using a 6-cylinder Smith radial air-cooled engine. [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] Kastory made the initial flight tests on this new plane on August 29th, and [[strikethrough]] He did [[/strikethrough]] 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, Indiana. In flying back to Cicero from Hammond he had a smashup when he was forced to make a landing in a fog, but was
3