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

Gnome Rotary Engine and went on with her exhibition work. When the new crankcase was finished the Anzani engine was reinstalled. Miss Stinson returned to the United States in May, 1917, and this plane is now in the Ford Museum at Dearborn, Michigan. 

In January, 1917 the Signal Corps Aviation School was moved from Ashburn, Illinois to Memphis, Tennessee for the winter months, and Laird moved there with the group. In March he left and went to San Antonio, Texas where the Stinsons were operating a school. There a short time later he had the first and most serious accident of his entire flying career. While flying one of the Stinson Gnome-motored tractors, designed by Walter Brock, he lost control and got into a flat spin which resulted in a bed crash, putting him in the hospital with injuries that crippled him for life. He was discharged from the hospital after four and one-half months and returned to Chicago, but by that time World War I had been declared and in November, 1917 a ban was placed on all civilian flying. Before this ban was put into effect Laird had booked two exhibition dates during October at County Fairs, at Piedmont, Missouri and Sac City, Iowa. Later in November he suffered a recurrence of his former injuries and went back into the hospital where he remained until March 1918. After this he again applied for government Civil Service post in aviation, but before a decision was made the Armistice was signed. 

Meanwhile Laird had been building another new plane and had re-established his Chicago firm, the S. m> Laird Company. This new plane, called the "Model S" was designed for sport and exhibition flying, using a 50 H.P. Gnome rotary engine. It was his sixth powered machine and was completed in June, 1919. Soon after it was finished Laird sold it to Billy Durke, who had organized the National Exhibition Flyers in Oklahoma. A few more "Model S" planes were then built. 

A major turn of events then took place which eventually changed the course

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