Viewing page 45 of 58

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

remained for the duration of World War I engaged on both plane and engine developments. The tremendous growth of aircraft production during this period was a great source of satisfaction to Robinson who had always hoped to see aviation become something more than just a circus stunt. The advent of airmail over scheduled routes also gave him much pleasure. Robinson apparently returned to the Curtiss organization after World War I and remained there until about 1930 in various capacities, both in New York and in Florida after Curtiss instigated later development work there. 

Robinson gave up active flying about 1939, after giving some nine hundred exhibitions in various countries with over three thousand hours time in the air, a fair portion of which was initial flights of new and untried machines, certainly a most noteworthy air record of early pioneer flying. Following this he became a private consultant to the government and various aircraft companies in Florida until about 1945 when he moved to Washington, D.C. There he and his son started an electronics research laboratory. Robinson retired from this about 1955 and made his home in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he passed away suddenly of a heart attack on March 26, 1963, at age 80. He was survived by his wife and two sons and was buried in Park Lawn Cemetery.

Early Bird, Flying Pioneer extraordinary, Hugh Robinson devoted practically all of his active lifetime to early American aviation progress. For some twenty years he was one of the small group of stalwarts who steadfastly helped Curtiss accomplish his world recognized position in the aircraft industry. Few men did more to assist and guide the course of American aviation progress, and history will long remember the great part he played in providing mankind with the modern air travel enjoyed today. As one of the founding members of the Early Birds he served in several official capacities in that distinguished organization. He also held International Pilot License No. 2, and was a coeditor of the early Curtiss Aviation Book published in 1912, which is now a 

10