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[[stamp: From the Flying Pioneers Biographies of Harold E. Morehouse]]

[[image: photo of Max Stupar]]

Max Stupar
Early Chicago Plane Builder - Aviator

Max Stupar was born at Mottling, Austria, September 23d [[23rd]], 1885, son of a cabinet maker. The family moved to the United States and settled in Chicago, Illinois when he was a small boy and where he became a citizen with his father in 1894. He attended grammer [[grammar]] school in Chicago, then Sayres Business College there in 1900, and Imperial Art School, Chicago, in 1904.

Stupar developed an early interest in flight and followed the gliding experiments of Octave Chanute at Dunes Park. As a result he had built and was conducting tests with a Chanute-type biplane glider in 1908. Following this he made a second glider of his own design. After some gliding experiments at Dunes Park he began making a Santos-Dumont Demoiselle monoplane in 1909 and late that year organized the Stupar Aero Works, Erie Avenue, Chicago, successor to the J. Stupar Pattern and Model Shop.

Early in 1910 he began advertising his business: Propellers, Santos-Dumont planes to order, and Aero Supplies of all kinds. Reportedly he built and sold seven Santos-Dumont monoplanes at $1,000 each. By this time he was determined to make aviation his life work.

His ads continued through 1910 and 1911 and during late 1910 Stupar built a Bleriot-copy monoplane, making some short flights with it in 1911. During late 1911 he re-organized the firm to become the Chicago Aero Works, H. S. Renton, President, Max Stupar, Vice-President and Engineering Manager. In 1912 they