 On 13 December 1923 Sperry took off amid fog in a Verville-Sperry M-1 Messenger from the United Kingdom headed for France but never reached his destination.His body was found in the English Channel on 11 January 1924.A website using the name "Mile High Club" regards the "Club's" "founder" as pilot and design engineer Lawrence Sperry, along with "socialite Mrs. Waldo Peirce" (Dorothy Rice Sims)
 citing their flight in an autopilot-equipped Curtiss Flying Boat near New York in November 1916.