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CORD MEYER
Early Wright Pilot- World War I Aviator

Cord Meyer was born in New York City November 15, 1894. He attended St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and Yale University 1913-1917, graduating with a Ph B. His parents lived at Great Neck, Long Island, New York, and during his schooling years he spent summers there. 

Meyer became interested in aviation in 1910 when Glenn Curtiss made some of the first public flights on Long Island. As a result, he frequented the early Long Island flying fields with his friends hoping at some time to get a ride. Finally, in 1911, he had his first flight at the Mineola Fairgrounds. Following this he was determined to learn to fly, and after obtaining his parents' reluctant consent, enrolled for flight instruction with the Beatty Flying School at Hampstead, New York, during the summer of 1912. His instructor was George Beatty, and on October 2, 1912, Meyer obtained a F.A.I. Pilot License No. 176 flying a Wright Model B. During his license tests he obtained an altitude of 1,200 feet which, in 1912, was a new Aero Club record.

Since Meyer was still in school his flying practice was somewhat limited for a while. In college, however, he took advantage of every opportunity to gain additional aviation experience. In the early spring of 1916 he joined a group of about twenty students to form the Yale Aero Corps. Arrangements were made for them to take an aviation ground school course at the State Armory, New Haven, Connecticut, on the new DN-1 airship built by the Connecticut Aircraft Company. At that time Meyer was one of the few in the group already holding a F.A.I pilot license. A short time later he joined a group of Yale oarsmen to form an Aviation Corps, after just having been elected as a Captain of next year's Yale crew. In 1915 he had been a member of the all-American crew.