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

BERTELL W. "BUZZ" KING
Pioneer Curtiss Flying Boat Pilot

Bertell W. King was born in Brooklyn, New York July 6, 1888. He attended local schools then Kimball Ground School. In his youth he was an enthusiastic and natural athlete and participated in a number of sports - wrestling, boxing, cycling, swimming and rowing, and reportedly was a professional at all of them, a hard man to beat in his day.

In the spring of 1913 there was a wave of wealthy sportsmen who bought Curtiss flying boats, among them New Yorker G. M. Herkscher. He wanted to engage a young man to fly it for him, so King took the job and was sent to Hammondsport, New York to learn to fly in order to become Herkscher's aerial chauffeur.

King arrived at the school and was one of nine students in the first 1913 class of Curtiss students when it opened on April 15th under the tutelage of instructor Francis "Doc" Wildman. By late May King was flying well and toward the end of that month the new Herkscher craft was taken to Lake Keuka for flight tests. King and Wildman made the initial flight on May 31st and acceptance tests continued into June. The craft was a beauty and very fast, embodying several new features. King remained with Herkscher through the 1913 season, then moved south with the flying boat migration to St. Augustine, Florida. There he carried passengers on the Matanzas River, gave exhibitions and flew at water carnivals and marine sporting events.

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