pilot Archives - First Flight Society

6 08, 2014

Tony Jannus

Inducted in 2006

World’s first airline pilot

1889 – 1916

Anthony Habersack Jannus was born in 1889 in Washington, DC. Tony Jannus was just twenty-one years old when he taught himself to fly and soloed in a Rexford Smith biplane at College Park, Maryland. Quickly becoming a skilled aviator, Jannus moved to St. Louis in 1911 to serve as the chief pilot for the Benoist Aircraft Company.

On March 1, 1912, Jannus and his passenger, Albert Berry, did something that had never been done. Although Berry was a parachutist, experienced in jumping from balloons, no one had ever jumped from a moving airplane. With Jannus at the controls, Berry dropped from the airplane at an altitude of fifteen hundred feet. His history-making jump was perfect. Later that year Jannus received worldwide newspaper coverage for his record-setting, 1,973-mile flight from Omaha, Nebraska, to New Orleans, Louisiana. In the process, the flight provided thousands of people […]

2 08, 2014

Bessie Coleman

Inducted in 1989

First Black Woman Licensed Pilot

1893-1926

Bessie Coleman was born into a poor Texas family, and although she was a bright student, poverty kept her from attending college. She moved to Chicago where she saw her first air show. The excitement and thrills created by the barnstorming stunt pilots inspired her to learn to fly.

Coleman refused to give in to the racial and gender prejudices of her day. Rejected by American flight schools, she went to France, learned to fly in Nieuport biplanes, and earned the first International Pilot’s License issued to a black woman.

Returning to America in 1921, Coleman yearned to open a flight school for black pilots. She believed “the air is the only place free from prejudices.” She turned her accomplishments into celebrity, appearing on newsreels, performing at air shows, and lecturing to encourage other blacks to pursue aviation careers.

By 1926, Coleman had raised almost enough money […]

2 08, 2014

Walter R. Brookins

Inducted in 1986

The First Civilian Pilot, 1910

1888 – 1953

The Wright brothers realized that if the science of aviation were to develop, it would first be necessary to win public acceptance of flight throughout the United States. This required that a demonstration team be assembled to fly exhibitions. The first pilot hired for the team was Walter Richard Brookins, a Dayton native and long-time student and friend of the Wrights.

Brookins learned to fly in 1909 at the Wrights’ flight school near Montgomery, Alabama, on what is now a portion of Maxwell Air Force Base. He made his first solo flight after only two and one-half hours of instructional flying. This qualified Brookins to be appointed the Wrights’ first instructor to train pilots for the new Wright Exhibition Team.

Brookins soon became one of the most legendary exhibition flyers in America, setting world records for altitude, cross-country flight and endurance. In 1910 in […]

1 08, 2014

Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge

Inducted in 1971

First Military Officer To Pilot An Airplane, 1908.

First Fatality In Powered Aviation, 1908

1882 – 1908

Lieutenant Thomas Etholen Selfridge, a young West Pointer from San Francisco, joined the Aerial Experimental Association as an observer for the United States government. He corresponded with the Wright brothers on behalf of the A.E.A. and is credited with designing the A.E.A.’s first airplane, the “Red Wing.”

The group’s second machine was the “White Wing.” During tests of this airplane on May 19, 1908, at Hammondsport, New York, Selfridge piloted the craft on a flight of 100 feet. This was the first solo flight by a military officer.

Later the same year, during tests for the United States Army at Fort Myer, Virginia, Selfridge accompanied Orville Wright on the ill-fated flight of September 17. A broken propeller sent the Wright “Flyer A” out of control. Despite Orville’s best efforts to right it, the machine fell 75 […]