THE U.S. ARMY’S FIRST AVIATORS

By Giacinta Bradley Koontz

In 1909, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale of France (FAI) issued the world’s first aviator’s licenses. In 1910, the FAI authorized the Aero Club of America (ACA) to issue licenses to fliers with evidence that they had flown 500 yards and glided to a stop with their aircraft’s engine off. Can you guess who was issued the ACA’s first aviator’s licenses? Did you know that the U.S. Army’s first aviator was in the Calvary?

Who Was Who —Then

Mandatory government licensing of pilots (and mechanics) within the U.S. did not take effect until 1927. Before that date many early fliers never bothered to obtain their certificate. At the discretion of the ACA the first 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. Clifford B. Harmon

7. Thomas S. Baldwin

8. J. Armstrong Drexel

9. Todd Shriver

10. Charles F. Willard

11. J.C. Mars

12. Charles K. Hamilton

For reasons historians still find difficult to explain, the first to fly, Orville and Wilbur Wright, were assigned licenses No. 5 and No. 6. Although the Wright brothers flew in 1903 and continued to improve and fly their aeroplanes, they remained secretive for years. Glenn Curtiss may have received license No. 1 because he made the first public flight witnessed by ACA officials 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 flying a Farman biplane in the U.S. and had already earned his FAI license in France during 1909. [The first 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 fly in 1909. Lahm is relatively unknown today but in 1906 he was one of the most famous people in the world.

Lahm was born in Ohio where he went through early schooling until his mother died. His father, Frank S. Lahm, was an international businessman who brought his young son to France where he finished his preparatory education and learned French. Returning to the U.S., Lahm graduated from West Point in 1901, as a second lieutenant in the Sixth Cavalry. From then on Lahm was either riding a horse, or piloting a balloon, often assigned to a foreign country where French was spoken. The elder Lahm was an accredited balloon pilot who had passed on his passion for flight to his son as early as 1904. From that date forward, Lt. Lahm accepted every opportunity the military offered him to go aloft. He was the right person in the right place at the right time to make aviation history.

  

The First Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race of 1906

The first “race” conceived and financed by millionaire James Gordon Bennett was actually a long-distance competition of 16 balloons piloted by two-man teams from England, France, Germany, Spain, America, Italy and Belgium. Balloons inflated with coal gas (none with hydrogen) were scheduled to depart at five-minute intervals from the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Capturing the wind from east to west, pilots hoped to float over the English Channel and land as far into the British Isles as possible. Native Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont qualified to enter the race representing the U.S. and offered the only ship with a small motor. The elder Lahm entered his balloon for the U.S. but as the September race date approached he was unable to compete. This left the U.S. without a second balloon, pilot or pilot assistant in the race. This all changed in the days immediately preceding the event.

Lt. Lahm was assigned to a Cavalry training base in France during the summer preceding the race. Learning that his father was unable to compete, he volunteered to take his place. Just hours before the official lift off, the French assistant chosen by Lahm was judged ineligible. Again it seemed the U.S. was without a second balloon in the race. By chance, and with only minutes to spare, help arrived from a fellow equestrian and balloonist. Author Cleveland Moffett described the drama:

“Most fortunately, Major Henry B. Hersey of the Rough Riders, an associate of Walter Wellman, and just back from their first Artic balloon expedition, happened to be on the grounds. Learning of Lahm’s predicament, he volunteered on the spot to fill the emergency. If Lieutenant Lahm had searched Europe over, he could not have found a better man.”

Stunned by his good fortune, Lahm was more than happy to wait while Hersey ran across the street from the launching field to retrieve his overcoat before he jumped into the waiting balloon basket. One aviation reporter of the day wrote, “And so started the greatest balloon race the world has thus far known.”

The Americans flew low over France, then paused at the edge of the English Channel before deciding to gamble on northwesterly winds to carry them across. Unknown to them at the time, Santos-Dumont had already dropped out of the competition due to mechanical problems, leaving Lahm’s ship the only hope for the U.S. Several teams ditched in France rather than chance a channel crossing that evening. Flying low over England, Lahm and Hersey used a trumpet to shout to people below for directions. They finally landed in Fyling Dales on the east coast of England and dashed to the nearest town to report their distance. The U.S. team’s balloon had traveled 410 miles and won the first Gordon Bennett International Balloon race.

The Army and the Wrights

For weeks following their victory, the American team was headline news, feted and honored wherever they went. However, Lahm was soon ordered back to the U.S. where he demonstrated balloons for the military. It is likely that Lahm’s father had introduced him to Orville and Wilbur Wright while in France. Although he piloted the Army’s first dirigible in 1908, Lt. Lahm knew that aeroplanes were the future of military aviation. Lahm was instrumental in convincing the Army to purchase Wright flyers and hire the Wright brothers to train officers as aviators. Lahm spent three hours of flight training with Orville, while Lt. Frederick Humphreys [1883-1941] received the same amount of instruction time with Wilbur. In 1909, Lahm and Humphreys became the U.S. Army’s first licensed aviators.

In the years that followed, Lahm was assigned foreign and domestic posts in command of either balloon or aeroplane instructions. In 1917, Lahm was promoted to captain, serving in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. He was the secretary of the army’s flying school at Rockwell Field, North Island, San Diego, during 1917, at the same time as (then) Captain H.H. “Hap” Arnold was the field’s supply officer.

Captain Lahm was chosen to head the balloon division of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe where he remained throughout WWI. He promoted aviation at every opportunity upon his return to the U.S. In 1926, he oversaw the construction of Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas, and subsequently held various important assignments in Europe and the U.S. Unfortunately, Lt. Humphrey’s career was cut short by illness, but Lahm retired as a brigadier general of the U.S. Air Force in 1941.

Frank Purdy Lahm enjoyed a long and busy retirement, eventually returning to his home state of Ohio where he died in 1963. The Gordon Bennett International Balloon races are an annual event organized by the FAI. 

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