THE U.S. ARMY’S FIRST AVIATORS
I
n 1909, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale of France (FAI) issued the world’s fi rst aviator’s licenses. In 1910, the FAI authorized the Aero Club of America
(ACA) to issue licenses to fl iers with evidence that they had fl own 500 yards and glided to a stop with their aircraft’s engine off . Can you guess who was issued the ACA’s fi rst aviator’s licenses? Did you know that the U.S. Army’s fi rst aviator was in the Calvary?
WHO WAS WHO —THEN Mandatory government licensing of pilots (and mechanics) within the U.S. did not take eff ect until 1927. Before that date many early fl iers never bothered to obtain their certifi cate. At the discretion of the ACA the fi rst 12 licenses were issued in the following order during 1910:
1. Glenn H. Curtiss 2. Frank P. Lahm 3. Louis Paulhan 4. Orville Wright 5. Wilbur Wright 6. Cliff ord B. Harmon
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7. Thomas S. Baldwin 8. J. Armstrong Drexel 9. Todd Shriver 10. Charles F. Willard 11. J.C. Mars 12. Charles K. Hamilton
Lahm (in uniform) chatting with Orville Wright at Fort Meyer, VA, with Wright Flyer, 1909. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
By Giacinta Bradley Koontz For reasons historians still fi nd diffi cult to explain, the
fi rst to fl y, Orville and Wilbur Wright, were assigned licenses No. 5 and No. 6. Although the Wright brothers fl ew in 1903 and continued to improve and fl y their aeroplanes, they remained secretive for years. Glenn Curtiss may have received license No. 1 because he made the fi rst public fl ight witnessed by ACA offi cials in 1908 while at the controls of an airplane he helped design. By 1910, Louis Paulhan, who earned license No. 3, had gained public recognition fl ying a Farman biplane in the U.S. and had already earned his FAI license in France during 1909. [The fi rst female to earn her license from the ACA was Harriet Quimby (FAI No. 37) in 1911.]
EQUESTRIAN AND AVIATOR Amid this list of famed aviators, license No. 2 was awarded to Frank Purdy Lahm [1877-1963], a student of the Wrights who learned to fl y in 1909. Lahm is relatively unknown today but in 1906 he was one of the most famous people in the world.
DOMmagazine
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