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Virginia, where he flew over the city.

January 3 to 6, 1911, McCurdy was at Charleston, South Carolina, with Ward, then the 14th and 15th they flew to Shreveport, Louisiana. While at Ormond Beach, FL  and Palm Beach, Florida, McCurdy became interested in trying to fly from Key West to Havana, Cuba. At Key West the Navy agreed to help and he made a quick trip to Havana by boat to look over the possibilities. As a result McCurdy attempted the flight on January 30th with four Navy torpedo boats stationed along the route to guide him. Two locally made pontoons had been attached to his plane as a safeguard in case he was forced down on the water. That served him well, as it was necessary to alight on the water when a leaking oil tank caused burned-out engine bearings as he approached the Cuban coast. The [[under-score]] U. S. S. Terry [[/under-score]] quickly took McCurdy and his plane on board, then went to the docks in Havana where an excited crowd gave him an affectionate welcome. Even though he failed to quite finish his flight he had set two new records  -- the longest in distance and the world's longest overwater flight of about 90 miles in one hour and fifty-nine minutes. It was also the first time a man had flown over water out of sight of land in any direction on a clear day.

At Havana an air meet was in progress and McCurdy joined Beachey, Ward and Russell until February 5th. There he flew at Camp Colombia and over Morrow Castle. After Havana, McCurdy flew at Colon, Cuba, then on February 19th at Tampa, Florida, with Beachey, and February 24th to March 6th at Palm Beach, Florida. While there McCurdy again engaged in some wireless experiments with DeForrest engineer Percy G. B. Morriss. McCurdy carried Morriss as a passenger to receive messages from a station on the ground and from vessels off shore.

March 9th to 11th McCurdy flew to Wilmington, North Carolina, with Beachey, then on the 17th he was at Washington, D. C., where before a large assembly of government officials he demonstrated the first Curtiss plane

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