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sold to the Army. On March 25th he flew at Pinehurst, North Carolina, with Beachey; and the 28th to 30th at Daytona Beach, Florida; then on April 2nd he was at St. Augustine, Florida. April 12th and 13th he flew at Knoxville, Tennessee; 27th to 29th at Nashville, Tennessee with Ward and Beachey; then, at Washington, D.C., May 4th to 7th with Beachey and Robinson. May 11th to 14th McCrudy and Beachey flew at Bridgeport, Connecticut. On the 14th while at Bridgeport, McCurdy assisted with further wireless experiments from his plane in flight. These tests were conducted and supervised by Lt. Fickel of the U.S. Army. During the tests McCurdy's signals were received at the World Building in New York City, 55 miles away.
May 19th and 20th McCurdy and Beachey flew at New Haven, Connecticut, for the Yale Aero Club and May 29th to June 2nd McCurdy flew at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with Beachey and Ward. June 8th and 9th he was at Springfield, Massachusetts, and June 15th to 20th at Buffalo, New York, with Beachey and Witmer.
Just before that time McCurdy announced that he was leaving Curtiss to build a new plane and go into business with Charles Willard. June 25th he was flying at Mineola, New York, and his first new plane was under construction by the Queen Aeroplane Company of New York. There is evidence that early Curtiss mechanic and student pilot F.A. "Doc" Wildman was supervising this work and later did some flying of these machines.
The McCurdy-Willard Aeroplane Company of New York was formed to build and market the new plane and give exhibitions. The machine was a headless pusher biplane with Farman-type landing gear and powered by a 50 hp., 7-cylinder Gnome engine. McCurdy conducted first flight tests of the new plane at Nassau Boulevard, New York, in early July and the company began booking exhibitions, under the name of McCurdy-Willard Aviators. More planes were under construction, and Willard flew the first one at Utica,