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Carlstrom. Rohlfs proved an apt pupil and quickly grasped the knack of flying although he did not solo at the time.

During 1916 Rohlfs continued his duties as a mechanic for the company on various assignments and became more closely related with many of the well-known Curtiss pilots, also getting as much additional flying experience as possible. That summer at the Curtiss flying school in Florida, Rohlfs took some additional flight instruction from Phil Rader at Bright's Farm, now a part of Hialeah, Florida. While there Rohlfs made an unintentional solo flight on December 15, 1916, thus qualifying for Early Birds membership which has a closing date for eligibility of December 17, 1916, the thirteenth anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flights. During the spring of 1917 while on assignment to the Miami, Florida, school, Rohlfs flew for his pilot license, No. 669, dated April 25, 1917. Later that season, after the tragic death of Victor Carlstrom, Rohlfs was made a full-time experimental test pilot for the Curtiss Company.

From the beginning of World War I Rohlfs was a member of the Curtiss experimental staff that turned out many new planes for both land and water use. The Company was also developing new and more powerful engines which received their first flight tests in these new airplanes. Rohlfs' work [[crossed-out]] ed [[/crossed-out]] in this program soon led to many of the notable flying achievements of his aviation career. During early 1918 the Curtiss Company formed a new Engineering & Experimental Development Division at Garden City, Long Island, and Rohlfs was transferred there. In the spring months he began flying a new advanced military fighter plane which showed great promise. Named "Wasp" it was a triplane, using the new Curtiss-Kirkham K-12 400 h.p. engine. It was designed as a two-place fighter to be at least equal to and combining the speed and maneuverability of the small single-seater foreign planes of that time. The early test of this plane aroused immediate attention at its performance was far ahead of any machine being produced in the United States for World War I service. During 1918 Rohlfs demonstrated this machine before the Aircraft Board at Dayton, Ohio, with full military load, showing a level flight speed of 163 mph, with a climb to 20,000 feet in ten minutes, making one climb to 26,300 feet. On 

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