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Croydon Airport at London. There for some time he was putting on his usual show, landing and taking off wherever he wanted to go. 

On December 13th he started to fly to Holland for an appointment there. Shortly after starting out over the English Channel he seemed to be in some sort of trouble, then made a perfectly normal landing in the water near Rye. Life boats immediately started to his rescue, but when they reached his plane he was nowhere to be found. Charts and articles of clothing were found in the cockpit and it appeared likely that he had attempted to swim ashore since he was an expert in the water. The plane was taken ashore and first examination seemed to show that all was in running order, but later it was found that stuck exhaust valves were undoubtedly the cause of his forced landing.

An extensive search failed to locate his body for several days, then some weeks later it was found drifted ashore. The body was then brought to Long Island where services were held in Garden City on February 16th, 1924, with burial at Brookville. Ten Air Force planes from Mitchell Field circled and dropped flowers during the burial. The highest dignitaries of civilian and military aviation attended the service. 

Lawrence died at age 30 and was survived by his wife and two children, his parents and two brothers. He was a member of the Aero Club of America, The Garden City Golf Club, the Cherry Valley Golf Club and the Society of Automotive Engineers. 

Flying Pioneer Lawrence B. Sperry was truly an extraordinary contributor to the early history of aviation throughout the world. An expert pilot with over 3500 flying hours, much of it was devoted to risky testing of experimental equipment. With his famous father he developed an early serious concern for the necessity of better instrumentation in flight to reduce the toll of early fatalities and they pioneered in this field. His personal Messenger plane was always instrumented with their latest equipment and undoubtedly was the first truly blind flying combination of pilot and plane in history. With his auto pilot and various instruments he consistently flew in weather no other pilot would attempt. Well liked everywhere, he was one of the most brilliant figures in aviation of his era. 

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