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this plane at Fort Wayne in May and started practicing acrobatic maneuvers. Late that month DeLloyd Thompson made loops at Fort Wayne in his Gnome-motored Day-Tractor, the first Smith had ever seen. Then on June 26th Smith made his first loop, followed by seven over the city the next day. He continued looping practice briefly, then he and his wife started another exhibition tour of the central states.

Smith looped and put on his new show at Coldwater, Michigan on July 22d, then made a wonderful showing at the Michigan State Fair at Detroit, Michigan for one week starting September 7th, before huge crowds. From there he flew at Toledo, Ohio, then Fowler, Indiana and back to Detroit for the Auto races. He next exhibited at St. Louis, Missouri, then at Decatur, Illinois on October 1st and 2d, and October 3d to 5th at Cincinnati, Ohio. After this he put on shows at Auburn and Angola, Indiana. That fall he bought his parents a fine new home.

During the winter of 1914-1915 Smith overhauled and rebuilt his acrobatic plane with a rudder about twice the normal size, and move the entire tail back three feet further from the wings to give greater leverage in maneuvers. He also wanted to add night flying with fireworks and arranged to attach slow burning, multi-colored special Roman candles to his plane with a means of igniting them in flight. He started these exhibitions in early March at New Orleans, Louisiana, where he looped at night with burning fireworks for the first time. From there he exhibited at Grant Park, Chicago, where he put on an astounding show, making thirty two daytime loops, then flew with his nighttime fireworks display.

At that time Smith was offered the job of completing Lincoln Beachey's unfinished exhibition contract at the Panama Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, California. As a result he started at the Exposition April 4th, 1915 and remained there until the contract expired on August 8th. During this period he made as many as 23 consecutive loops on one flight, and in July started writing his name in the sky with a trailing smoke tracer, probably the first skywriting. It has been generally conceded that Smith really fell heir to Beachey's title during this engagement and that his wonderful performances were certainly as good, if not

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