[5] Construction of a prototype by Payne and his students commenced the following year but ended shortly thereafter when the school was forced to close as a consequence of the Great Depression.

[5] This aircraft was damaged in a forced landing due to fuel exhaustion during a demonstration flight for the press, and parts of the airframe were reused to build the second Knight Twister in 1935.

[5] This machine, powered by a converted Ford Model A automobile engine, was built for an Argentine buyer[6] who eventually declined to take delivery.

[5] After it had passed through several hands, Payne himself bought the aircraft back after World War II and his son, Richard, was killed in it during a test flight on which the engine failed shortly after take-off.

[5][7] In the 1970s, Don Fairbanks competed with a Knight Twister preserved initially at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America museum in Novi, Michigan,[5] and later in the lobby of Sporty's Pilot Shop at Clermont County Airport, Batavia, Ohio[citation needed].