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After the Los Angeles Meet the Aeronautical Society of New York sold the Golden Flyer to Charles J. Strobel of Toledo, Ohio, and Willard leased a plane from Curtiss.  With his own manager he proceeded to engage independently in exhibition flying.  Their first engagement was at Fresno, California, then to at Phoenix, Arizona.  On April 5th to 10th Willard, Curtiss, and Bud Mars flew at Memphis, Tennessee.  There Willard had a minor smashup but was not injured.  April 20th to 25th Willard and Charles Hamilton flew at San Antonio, Texas, then on May 14th Willard flew at Alexandria, Louisiana.  May 28th to 30th he and Mars flew at Joplin, Missouri, and there Willard was shot down by an angry farmer, forcing him to make a landing on a road with a damaged propeller.  June 22nd to the 26th Willard, Curtiss, Mars and Eugene Ely were at St. Paul, Minnesota; June 29th to July 1st Willard and Mars flew at Sioux City, Iowa; July 3rd and 4th Willard was at Kansas City, Missouri, and July 9th to 14th Willard, Curtiss, and Mars were at Omaha, Nebraska; then July 16th and 17th Willard flew at Decatur, Illinois.

At about that time Willard returned the leased plane to Curtiss to avoid any trouble with the Wright Brothers.  During this period Willard and his mechanics had been building parts for a new machine, piecemeal, while in transit.  It was a Curtiss-type, but larger than the standard plane, using the "Curtiss-Rheims" engine which Willard leased from Curtiss.  Willard made the first flight with this new plane at Hempstead, Long Island, on August 12th and on the 14th set a new passenger record there when he carried three men with this new plane.

On August 23rd Willard flew at Bradford, Connecticut, then August 27th to 29th he was at Greenfield, Massachusetts.  September 3rd to 16th he was a contestant at the 1910 Boston Meet of the Harvard Aeronautical Society.  Also flying at this event were Curtiss, Claude Grahame, White, A. V. Roe, Walter Brookins and Ralph Johnstone.  President Taft was there and Willard made a great showing when he carried as a passenger Lt. J. E. Fickel, and Army sharpshooter,

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