Viewing page 4 of 13

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

development, as many of his sportsmen friends were buying them for personal use. During the fall months of 1914 Thompson made a number of flights with the Jannus brothers in their flying boats when they were operating at Baltimore, Maryland. Some flights were made to hunt ducks from the air. 

In June, 1915 Thompson ordered a new Curtiss Model F boat, with a Curtiss OXX engine, and went to Hammondsport, New York for some flying boat instruction to become acquainted with the controls and operation. When his boat was ready for delivery it was taken to Philadelphia where he did considerable flying with it at League Island for the remainder of the season. Philadelphia sportsmen Robert Glendinning, who already owned a Curtiss boat, was also operating his craft there. That fall Thompson entered the Curtiss Marine Trophy Contest, representing the Aero Club of Pennsylvania. 


Over the winter months of 1915-1916 he was one of the several wealthy sportsmen owning flying boats who took their machines to Florida for the winter to form a Sportsmans' Aviation  Colony at Miami.


Thompson continued to operate his Curtiss flying boat at Philadelphia School at Aviation later that season. 


In May, 1917 Thompson was commissioned First Lieutenant, Aviation Section, Signal Corps, assigned to an Aero Squadron at Kelley Field, Texas. In late June he was transferred to the 23rd Aero Squadron at Mineola, Long Island, New York. He was discharged from this service in late October, 1917 and transferred to the National Advisory for Aeronautics, later becoming assistant to Dr. George W. Lewis, head of that group. 


After World War 1 Thompson was connected with the Bureau of Municipal Research, Department of Government, Harvard University. Following this, he made his home in Santa Barbara, California for some time, then returned to Pennsylvania to live on his farm at Newton Square. Periods of illness clouded his later years and after gradually failing health he passed away February 7, 1940 at Providence, Rhode Island, at age 64. He was survived by his wife, a sister and a brother. 

Flying Pioneer Clarke Thompson was strictly a wealthy sportsman pilot who 

2