Existing comment:
Those Marvelous Men...
When the flying school opened in June 1911, six officers reported for duty: Capt. Paul Beck, Lts. Henry "Hap" Arnold, Frank Kennedy, Roy Kirkland, and Thomas Milling, and their commanding officer, Capt. Charles Chandler. Every flight drew large crowds of spectators to watch the feats of America's new military aviators. The officers became the focus of much media attention, particularly the dashing young Hap Arnold and Thomas Milling who were household names by the fall of 1911.
Thirteen new officers were added by 1912 in what became known as the Army Aviation School or Signal Corps Aviation School. These officers continued to break records and garner firsts in aviation for themselves and the school.
Late in 1912, the War Department created new criteria for these pilots in order to receive the Military Aviator Rating. The criteria included "attaining an altitude of 2,500 feet, flying in a wind of at least 15 mph, carrying a passenger to a height of at least 500 feet followed by a dead-stick landing within 150 feet of a designated point, and making a reconnaissance flight of 20 miles cross country at an average altitude of 1,500 feet." When officer aviators passed these tests, they were considered graduates of the flying school and our country's earliest military aviators. |