Today in Technology History
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December 9
Today, we discuss one of the great pioneers of military aviation.
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois was born in Connecticut on December 9, 1879. He was educated in public schools and then apprenticed to his father, a plumber. When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, he ran away and used a fake ID to join the military as an engineer. He later joined the regular army, where he saw combat as an infantry lieutenant.
Foulois became avidly interested in aviation, and he piloted the U.S. Army's first dirigible. He then learned how to fly airplanes, teaching himself and taking lessons from the Wright brothers in 1909. He was actually the third pilot in the U.S. Army, but when the two soldiers who learned to fly before him were transferred in 1910, Foulois spent fourteen months as the only pilot in the U.S. military. He soon became the first U.S. military pilot to fly more than 100 miles nonstop, and the first to test the use of radio while in flight.
In 1916, Foulois commanded a team of U.S. airmen who flew missions over Mexico in the search for Pancho Villa. When the U.S. got involved in World War I, Foulois helped to plan the build-up of American air power, then was sent to Europe to oversee the air arm of the American Expeditionary Force.
He held a number of positions after the war, eventually becoming the first pilot to serve as chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Always a believer in air power, he reorganized the Army's aviation branch, emphasizing the ability to conduct strikes with bombers -- most notably the B-17, which Foulois introduced.
Major General Foulois fought long and hard for the creation of an independent air force and, although he retired in 1935, he lived to see the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947. He then lived another two decades, during which time he enjoyed being one of the last original aviation pioneers -- often giving talks about the history of military aviation, and serving for many years as president of the Air Force Historical Foundation. He died in 1967, at the age of 87.
Related links:
Click here to read about the history of the airport in College Park, Maryland, where Foulois and the other first U.S. Army pilots took flying lessons from the Wright Brothers.
Foulois's uniform is on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum.
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