Viewing page 22 of 23

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

season. He flew and looped this new plane at Atlantic Beach, Fla., on March 29 [[strikethrough]] th [[/strikethrough]], 1915, and was at Oak City, Illinois, April 22nd. He flew over the Continental Divide at Butte, Mont., July 16th, reaching altitudes well over 10,000 feet. He had a very active exhibition season that year and was at the Missouri State Fair for one at St. Louis early in October.

In the spring of 1916 Thompson was employed by the Sloane Aeroplane Co. at Garden City, Long Island, as a test pilot, flying military-type Hall-Scott [[strikethrough]] motored [[/strikethrough]] engined tractor planes for his [[strikethrough]] old [[/strikethrough]] friend Charles Day, who was Chief Engineer there. In mid-April he flew at Washington, D.C., for the company, and late in April made a new passenger altitude record of 13,950 feet at Garden City in one of the new Sloane-Day planes. Following this Thompson set a new American speed record, with passenger, of one mile in [[strikethrough]] 33 [[/strikethrough]] thirty-three seconds, at Garden City in a Sloane military tractor. On May 4th he had his first serious accident [[strikethrough]] there [[/strikethrough]], flying as a passenger with Lt. Harold Bleakley of the New York National Guard. The plane stalled on takeoff and spun in from a low altitude and Thompson suffered a compound fractured ankle in two places. As a result he was laid up for [[strikethrough]] some time. [[/strikethrough]] about two months.

About midsummer, 1916, Thompson started flying at major [[strikethrough]] large [[/strikethrough]] U.S. cities, "bombing" with pyrotechnics at night to show his trail through the sky, [[strikethrough]] in behalf of national defense. He became [[/strikethrough]] becoming known as the first [[strikethrough]]"Human Comet"[[/strikethrough]] to show the need for aerial preparedness. In addition, he also gave daytime exhibitions at Wheeling, W. Va., in late June, and raced the then well-known lady auto-race driver, Elfrieda Mais, at the Minnesota State Fair September 4th-9th at St. Paul. Following this he was at the Western Michigan State Fair at Grand Rapids from September 18th to 22nd, the Montana State Fair at Helena September 25th to 30th, [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] the Peoria, Illinois Fair one week starting October 4th, and [[strikethrough]] from there went to [[/strikethrough]] was at the State Fair, [[strikethrough]] at [[/strikethrough]] St. Louis, Mo., for one week late in October. He flew a few exhibitions in the spring of 1917, and after deciding to give up flying flew his last public appearance at Arden Downs near his hometown of Washington, Pa. 

Thompson then entered into the coal business and for a time operated a mine in western Pennsylvania, after which he joined a construction company. In 1937

4

Transcription Notes:
Changed state names back to abbreviations to preserve the writing style of the document Also added a few missing commas Changed the 4 to have a bracket note to reduce confusion.