Arthur L Smith believed he could build a plane that would fly better than the Wright airplane, and as he worked on his design, he was careful to avoid infringing on their patents. This was the end result of two prototypes that crashed, mainly because Smith was teaching himself to fly as he went along.
It took him and a friend six months to build the single-place, open cockpit, biplane, which they moved through the streets of Fort Wayne at night to a field in what is now Memorial Park.
Built by Arthur L. Smith, a Curtiss-type biplane flown and crashed at Fort Wayne, Indiana, on January 18, 1910. The aeroplane reached almost fifty miles per hour before leaving the ground when suddenly it rose alarmingly, dipped, rose again, and crashed into the field in what is now Memorial Park. Art was thrown onto the frozen ground and badly injured. The machine was ruined except for the 40 hp Elbridge engine and never rebuilt.
A replica of this ship, built by Billy Parker and Bob McComb, is now hung on display at Ft Wayne Intl Airport terminal.
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