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FROM THE HAROLD & MARVEL MOREHOUSE AVIATION PIONEERS COLLECTION NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

VICTOR VERNON
Pioneer Curtis Pilot - Instructor

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Victor Vernon was born in Rome, Italy, October 1, 1883, son of a minister who had a church there. During his youth the family moved to the United States and settled in Syracuse, New York, where Vernon attended Madison School,then Syracuse University until 1902 when he enlisted in the Infantry, United States Army, where he served until 1905.

Vernon returned to Syracuse where he was an office appliance salesman for the Smith-Premier Typewriter Company in central New York State. He remained in this activity through 1910. In 1911 he established an automobile agency which he operated through 1913.

That fall, while on a short vacation trip, he saw a Burgess-Dunne hydroaeroplane in flight at Marblehead, Massachusetts and became interested in water flying. As a result, Vernon went to Hammondsport, New York to visit the Curtiss Company and investigate their flying school. He was so impressed that arrangements were made to purchase a Curtiss flying boat and to take flying instruction in the early spring of 1914.

He was a member of the first spring class of 1914 students at Hammondsport and was taught by Francis "Doc" Wildman in May, which he took delivery of his new Curtiss flying boat which he named the "Betty-V". Vernon did not obtain his flying license at that time, and William "Gink" Doherty joined him to

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