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A roster of those who have been accepted for membership in this organization reads like a roll call of the Aeronautical Hall of Fame. One of the most venerated, while also one of the most active, is Frank P. Lahm, now a retired Brigadier General, but, in 1908, he was the first Army officer in the world to fly as a passenger with Orville Wright at Fort Myer, Va. He, too, learned to fly in the Army's first airplane. He was taught to fly by Wilbur Wright at College Park, Md. in 1909.

The second President of the Early Birds was Earle Ovington, now deceased, who, in 1911, became the first aviator officially approved by our Post Office Department as an air mail pilot. One of the early seaplane pilots, J. Lansing Callan, who retired from our Navy as an Admiral, was President in 1932. The late Walter Brookins, who had been one of the first pupils of the Wright Brothers' school, headed the group in 1937. His successors were Jack Vilas who made the first flight across Lake Erie in 1913; Beckwith Havens who flew as a National Guard pilot in 1910; and Frank Coffyn who, in 1912, took off from the ice-choked harbor of New York City to fly over the Statue of Liberty and take motion pictures of the ships below. These three pioneers are alive today, Coffyn being still active in the aircraft industry.

Other Early Bird officers and trustees who are still living include Igor Sikorsky who designed and flew the first successful helicopter in America; Grover Loening who was an engineering associate of the Wright Brothers in 1913, was first aeronautical engineer of our Army in 1915, designed the famous amphibian planes which flew around South America in 1927, and is now a consultant in aviation to our President; Captain Ralph Barnaby who was America's first licensed

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