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pusher biplane with a Kirham 4-cylinder 50 H.P. engine. By mid-May Niles was flying well and on June 10th he made a cross-country flight to Savona, New York where the Kirkham Company did some work on the engine and fuel system, then Niles flew back to Bath the next day.  He continued his practice and remained with Thomas Brothers through the mid-Summer months.  In late August he arranged to do some flying for the CurtissExhibition Company and his first assignment was at the New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York on September 12th to 14th.  Just prior to this event Niles flew his license tests, qualified and on November 6th was granted F.A.I. ticket No. 181. Also flying at the Fair was Beckwith Havens, Walter Johnson and William Hemstrought. Niles made a good shawing in his first public exhibition flying, winning second place in a race on the 14th.  His next exhibition was at Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Curtiess on September 17th, then back at the Tempkins County Fair at Glen Falls, New York on September 19th.  There he flew before 20,000 people and carried a passenger.  Following this he returned to Thomas Brother where on November 4th he set up a new American Endurance Record of 4 hours, 15 minutes, flying a Thomas pusher biplane with a Kirkham 65 H.P. engine.  He had intended to stay aloft longer but was forced to land with a burned out engine bearing.
Niles evidently left the Thomas Brothers that FAll and was at Hammondsport in early April, 1913 where he signed up with the Curtiess Exhibition Team for the season. His first assignment was to fly at several points in western Canada for two weeks of additional flying. In September he made an exhibition tour of Fairs in Kentucky and West Virginia flying a headless Curtiss pusher. On October 13th Niles came in second in the annual Round-Manhattan Race, flying against William Luckey, Tony Jannus, C.M. Wood and Guy Gilpatrick. Following this event he took time out to go on a hunting vacation. Upon his return he left the Curtiss Exhibition Company and joined the Moisant organization at Hempstead, Long Island, New York and began flying a Kantnor-Moisant "Bluebird" monoplane with a 70 H.P. Gnome rotary engine.
Niles had been interested in aerobatics flying for some time as there were a number of maneuvers he wanted to try and now he had a michine idealy suited for
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