Viewing page 14 of 20

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

"stunt" saying it would never amount to anything. This was nine years before Billy Mitchell's famed battleship bombing demonstrations. Following this, Waite made repeated attempts to interest the Massachusetts National Guard in aviation, but without success.

In June, 1912, Waite purchased Atwood's Burgess-Wright plane, a Model F, No. 20. Reportedly this was the same machine Atwood used when he made his historical first landing on the White [[crossed out]]Hours[[/crossed out]] House lawn in Washington, D.C. After repeated attempts to get his aviator friends to "check him out" on his own plane, he went at it along and taught himself to fly. He was very active and during August made 136 flights. Continuing his practice, Wiate recieved [[received]] his license, No. 186, on November 12, 1912 at Cliftondale, Massachusetts.  Following this he established the Cliftondale School of Flying at Cliftondale, to instruct, carry passengers and do exhibition work.  He flew actively at Cliftondale during the fall and winter months of 1912-1913 and did some instructing. He was probably one of the first to advocate and try to sell the use of the airplane for advertising purposes and did considerable early work to get this started.

In the spring of 1913, Waite became an instructor for the Burgess Company at Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he remained until September 25th of that year, recieving [[receiving]] a special letter of commendation from Mr. Burgess for his excellent flying record.  While there he assisted in the training of some of the early Naval aviators. That year Waite was also a Lieutenant in the U. S. Aviation Reserves.

After leaving Burgess, Waite joined the Berger Aviators for exhibition work in the South. He left Massachusetts on October 12th for North Carolina where, on October 14-17 he made eight flights at the Greensboro Central Carolina Fair. October 27th he flew at Union South Carolina, and on October 28-31 he made eight flights at the Charlotte, North Carolina Fair. November 4- he flew at the Waterboro, South Carolina Annual Fair. Following this he flew at Florence, North Carolina. While in the South, Waite flew Wright Model B and Burgess-Wright planes with Howard Rinéhart and George Gray.

2.