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On January 20, 1914, they flew from Palm Beach to Stuart, Florida, and return. In February Thaw left for France to join the [[strikethrough]] American [[/strikethrough]] Escadrille Americaine. MacGordon remained at Palm Beach through February and March and that winter he carried over 200 passengers without mishap. He kept his flying boat at Lake Worth and also taught some pupils there during the winter. In April he shipped the airplane north, then in early May sailed for Europe to study aviation abroad and report for the New York "Sun." While there he took some land flying instruction on fast scout planes at Hendon, England, and obtained a British license flying an 80-horsepower Gnome-engined Sopwith scout biplane. He returned to the United States in September and brought back a new Sopwith plane. That fall he did some flying at Garden City, New York, but spent most of his time doing aviation writing for newspapers and aviation magazines about the use of aircraft in the new European conflict. Early in 1915, MacGorddon became connected with Chance M. Vought in the design and development of a new military tractor biplane in New Haven, Connecticut. It was a 38-foot span, 2-place, stagger-wing biplane powered by a 90 h.p. [[strikethrough]] -horsepower [[/strikethrough]] Gyro rotary engine. Called the "Mayo" tractor, it was built in the plant of the Mayo Radiator Company at New Haven. MacGordon made the initial 17-minute flight of the new plane at Pratt Field, New Haven, on May 14th, it proved to have excellent climb and load-carrying capabilities with a maximum speed of 82 mph. By June 1st the plane was flying at Garden City, Long Island, where MacGordon flew it before American and British military officers and demonstrated it to Leonard Bonney for the Mexican Government. It was also flown for Grover Loening who cam to witness flights for the Signal Corps School at North Island, San Diego, California. On June 16th MacGordon flew as a passenger with Charles Niles when he looped and flew upside-down in a 90 h.p. Gyro-engined Bleriot-type monoplane made by Harold Kantner. Later that month he did some test flying for the Heinrich 2 [[left margin]] ascent [[/left margin]]