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[[stamp]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamp]]

8 ROBERT F. SHANK
24 Pioneer Aviator Air Mail pilot - Airport Operator

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Robert F. Shank was born at Hurricane, West Virginia, October 5, 1891, where he attended local grade and high schools. Mechanically inclined, he entered the automobile and motorcycle business at Huntington, West Virginia.

During the summer of 1915 Shank and a friend, Mr. Callahan, saw E. M. Laird fly at a fair and decided to buy a plane and get into the exhibition business. Later that year, and before either of them knew how to fly, they placed an order with the Chicago Aero Works for a Stupar tractor biplane, to be powered by a 70 [[strikethrough]] H.P. [[/strikethrough]] hp., Maximotor engine. Shank spent some time in the shop that winter while the plane was being built in order to learn plane construction.

Their plane was completed and taken to Ashburn Flying Field, Chicago, in May, 1916, where aviators C.R. Sinclair and Edward Stinson offered to help them fly it. Sinclair made a few initial test flights, then Shank was able to solo after about [[strikethrough]] 3 [[/strikethrough]] three hours of instruction from Stinson. Callahan decided not to learn to fly and withdrew from the partnership. Shank flew his first public exhibition at Nelsonville, Ohio, at a Fourth of July celebration, then after a few more exhibition dates Stinson engaged him as an instructor at the Stinson School of Flying at San Antonio, Texas, which was operated by the two Stinson sisters and their mother.

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