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many well-known aviation dignitaries. In April 1920, Rohlfs established a speed record of 138 m.p.h. at the Naval Air Station, Rockaway Beach, Long Island flying a Curtiss Wasp triplane on floats, with a Curtiss C-12 engine. That year the Curtiss Company designed and built a special high-speed racing plane and made formal entry in the Gordon Bennett Trophy Race to be held in France that fall. This plane, built for Mr. S. E. J. Cox of Houston, Texas, was christened the "Texas Wild Cat." Rohlfs was selected as its pilot. It was a small biplane which could be converted to a monoplane if desired and was powered by a C-12 400 h.p. [[strikethrough]], [[/strikethrough]] Curtiss engine. The plane was taken to France by Rohlfs and crew, but they were unable to bring the Trophy back to America due to insufficient test and development work prior to the competition. In January, 1921, Rohlfs left the Curtiss Company to join the Aeromarine Airways as Operations Manager. One of the first post World War I scheduled airlines in the United States, it was located at Miami, Florida for the winter season, then alternated between there and Detroit-Cleveland operations for the summer season. This continued until 1924. During 1924-1925 he was with the fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation on experimental work. From late[[strikethrough]]r [[/strikethrough]] 1925 through 1928 [[strikethrough]]1928 [[/strikethrough]] Rohlfs was sales manager for Claude Neon Lights of New York City. While there he developed and patented a system whereby neon tubes could be attached under the wings of a large airplane and used for night advertising. This specially constructed plane was at the time the largest actively flying in the United States. Following this Rohlfs obtained Transport Pilot License No. 3628 and became Operations Manager for Metropolitan Air Ferries, a subsidiary of the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, Inc. for New York City. In 1933 he went to the Pitcairn Autogiro Company of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, to study autogiro development. He was there about one year then joined the Heart Island Transportation Corporation as Operations Manager of their autogiro and fixed-wing facilities until 1938, when he became Chief of the Technical Section, U. S. Air Safety 4.