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ROBERT SIMON

Early Curtiss Pilot - World War I Instructor

Robert Simon was born at Providence, Rhode Island, March 15, 1893, where he attended local schools. Later his parents moved to Meriden, Connecticut, where Simon soon became a close friend of Leon Englehart, whose father operated the Meriden Auto Station. Mechanically inclined youngsters, Simon and Englehart became enthusiastically absorbed in the early articles on airplanes and flying, and in late 1909 started to build a biplane-type plane which they completed in 1910. They installed a 1909 Model-T Ford automobile engine and tried to fly it, but were not successful. 
Following this, in 1911 Simon and Englehart teamed up with another New England aviation enthusiast, Raymond V. Morris of Milford, Connecticut, to build a Curtiss-type biplane, using a 4-cylinder Roberts aviation engine owned by Morris. Reportedly, Morris had a little previous flying experience, and with this plane Morris was flying capably enough during the summer of 1912 for the group to take a two week exhibition engagement at New Haven, Connecticut starting about October 1st. There on October 12th Morris had a bad smashup which resulted in a broken ankle and several broken ribs.
In the early spring of 1913 Morris became a student at the Curtiss School at Hammondsport, New York, and persuaded Simon to join the Curtiss staff of mechanics. About August 1st wealthy sportsman, Gerald Hanley, took delivery of a new Curtiss flying boar and hired Morris and Simon as his pilot and mechanic. For the remainder of the 1913 season they were flying very actively at Newport, Rhode Island, carrying social passengers and making commuting trips to many nearby points. Simon remained with Morris on the Hanley boat assignment until the close of the season, then they returned to Hammondsport where Morris took delivery of a new special small high-speed monoplane flying boat designed for competition flying. Simon assisted with these tests, then went to St. Petersburg, Florida with Morris for further tests during the