On the day he first soloed in an airplane, securing a slice of military history for...
Maj. Benjamin Foulois, who made the first powered military flight in 1910 at Fort Sam Houston, sits in the cockpit of a Wright Flyer the following year. He selected a 677-acre tract of land on the city’s South Side as the site for Kelly Field because it was far from civilization. Photo courtesy of the Air Education and Training Command history office.After he soloed in an airplane, securing a slice of, Lt.
“The second day in March, I made four flights — my first solo flight and three more flights. It was a pretty good experience. My first solo flight was 7½ minutes,” Foulois said in an oral history taken in 1960 and preserved by Columbia University. “The fourth one, my fuel ran out. I had to land with a dead engine, and I landed a little high — and that put the plane in the shop for a week.
“Imagine being up above the trees and not having to ford the rivers and not having to ride on horseback, and then water a horse and all those other things, but to be able to carry a message from the forward lines to the rear and back again, and that was really the whole concept,” he said. The crackup at the end of the fourth sortie kept the plane, a Wright Flyer Model A called Signal Corps No. 1, grounded for repairs until March 12. On that day, five more flights from Fort Sam were entered into the logbook, one of them running more than 40 minutes. And with that, the nation’s only military pilot made aviation a thing in the armed services, with other airmen soon following him, one of them H.H.
The Wright brothers, in their response, wrote, “Accept our congratulations on your successful flights. We were astonished to see you do so well without any previous experience in flying alone especially without experience in landing.”There are caveats to the feat. Air Education and Training Command historian Gary Boyd said the first airman to solo was Humphries, an engineering officer and top-ranked West Point graduate from the class of 1906. The National Museum of the U.S.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Taiwan reports 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zoneTaiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday it had spotted 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zone in the past 24 hours, part of what Taipei calls regular harassment by Beijing.
Read more »
US Air Force looks to make jet fuel out of thin airConverting carbon dioxide into fuel is good but does not address the issue of carbon emissions that warm up the planet.
Read more »
U.S. Air Force flags plans to buy 26 E-7 planes from BoeingThe U.S. Air Force plans to buy 26 Boeing Co E-7A airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) planes to replace its ageing fleet of E-3s, the Department of the Air Force said on Tuesday, as it announced a contract worth up to $1.2 billion.
Read more »
Air Force signs $65M deal with startup to test 'sustainable' fuel productionThe Department of Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Air Force awarded startup Air Company a contract for its sustainable aviation fuel following previous tests.
Read more »
Air Force relieves six officers after failing safety inspection at nuclear baseThe defense official said that some of the vehicles and equipment that failed the safety inspection had failed a previous one and had not been brought into compliance with regulations.
Read more »
Air Force relieves 6 officers at nuclear base after lapsesWASHINGTON (AP) — Six Air Force officers who were in charge of caring for the infrastructure, fuel and logistics support for a North Dakota nuclear missile base were relieved of command due to a loss of confidence in their ability to carry out their responsibilities, the Air Force said.
Read more »