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THE WORLD: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1927.

3 AIR VETERANS STILL COMMAND

Foulois, Milling and Arnold, Pioneers in Flying, Now Hold Washington Posts

ARMY CASUALTIES LARGE

History of Early Years in Aviation Experiments

From The World's Bureau
Special Despatch to The World
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7.—Three veterans of the Army Air Service, who as young Lieutenants were the first assigned to aviation duties when the first plane was purchased and survived the perils of early flying, to-day occupy important posts in carrying out the five year air program authorized by Congress. They had the real five-year program from 1911 to 1913, when the plane was a mass of wires and controls that would astound the modern flyer.

Eighteen of the thirty-six officers assigned to aviation duties during the first three years after the plane was adopted by the army laid down their lives on the altar of scientific progress, nine have quit flying or retired from active service and nine are still on active duty, with seven of this number still flying.

Lieut. Col. Foulois, now in command of Mitchel Field, made the test flight with Orville Wright in 1909, when the first plane met the tests prescribed by the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications of the Signal Corps of the army.

Major T. D. Milling, chief of the War Plans Division, training and operations group of the Air Service, and Major H. H. Arnold, in command of an observation squadron at Fort Riley, Kan., were the other two members of the trio forming Uncle Sam's pioneer eagles of the air.

Career of Selfridge

Lieut. Selfridge, for whom Selfridge Field is named, was the first man killed in aviation in 1908, but had not been detailed by the War Department to air service. Army aviation really started in 1911, although prior to that time the Signal Corps had outlined certain tests before a plane would be accepted. It was in an attempt to meet these qualifications that Lieut. Selfridge, while riding as a passenger with Orville Wright at Fort Myer, Va., in 1908, was killed. Wright was injured, but shortly recovered and continued his work. In 1909 he met the prescribed tests, with the then Lieut. Foulois as a passenger, and the army purchased the plane. It was sent to College Park, Md.


ARMY AIR SERVICE Veterans Still Holding Executive Posts


[[image]] [[caption]] Major T.D. MILLING [[caption]]

[[image]] [[caption]] Lieut. Col. B.D. FOULOIS [[/caption]]

[[image]] [[caption]] Major H.H. ARNOLD [[/caption]]


Lieut. O.A. Dickinson, now a Major in the field artillery and assigned to the 1st Corps Area at Boston, and Lieut. Humphries, who has since resigned from the service, were at College Park in connection with aviation, but never became pilots or followed through with the Air Service. The plane underwent changes, and was shipped to San Antonio, Tex., where it was remade in 1910. During this year Lieut. Foulois was in a wreck in which the plane was smashed and he was injured. In June the same year he returned to the infantry and remained in that branch until two and one-half years later, when he again entered the Air Service in December, 1913. 

Congress in 1911 made the first appropriation for the development of army aviation, $125,000, and plans were immediately started for a school of flying. Lieuts. Milling and Arnold were sent to College Park to receive instruction. 

Milling Always a Flyer

Incidentally, Major Milling is the only officer in the Air Service who has followed flying without interruption since the day he was first assigned to these duties. Major Arnold was out of flying from 1912 to 1916. 

About the same time when the army was experimenting with the Wright plane in an effort to encourage aviation, a plane was purchased from Glen Curtiss. Lieut. Paul W. Beck, who later died, and Lieut. G. E. M. Kelly, later killed in a plane wreck in Texas, were assigned for instruction with the Curtiss plane. 

Within a short time Capt. C. D. F. Chandler, now a Lieutenant Colonel, retired, and Lieut. R. C. Kirtland, now a Lieutenant Colonel on the General Staff, were assigned to College Park for duties in connection with the erection of hangars for the planes and general work. Lieut. Arnold instructed Capt. Chandler in flying and Lieut. Milling instructed Lieut. Kirtland. 

Lieut. Beck was ordered to College Park with the two Curtiss planes and was on duty at that point. Lieut. Foulois was soon relieved and the Wright plane which he had handled was presented to the Smithsonian Institution and is there to-day as the first of a collection of planes. 

In 1911, Major F. M. Kennedy, Infantry, was assigned to the school at College Park to have charge of the buildings and for other duties in connection with aviation. 

Adventures of Milling 

In this same year Lieut. Milling had his first crash in a plane, falling about fifty or sixty feet without serious injury. His second crash came in 1913, near Marblehead, when the plane which he was piloting, with Norman Prince as a passenger, went dead. He turned it so that it glided down from about 2,000 to within 175 feet of the ground. When it was about this distance from the ground he turned it into a spiral and as it crashed to the ground dived through the mass of wires without serious injury to either Prince or himself. Prince was killed in the World War with the Lafayette Squadron and was one of the noted aces of the War.

Training was continued at College Park during the summer of 1911. In the fall the planes were removed to Augusta, Ga., where training was continued through the winter. The group again trained at Augusta in the following winter. In January, 1913, the four or five planes then owned by the Army were transferred to Texas City on the Mexican border.

In 1913 Lieut. Milling made the first successful attempt at night flying, dropped the first bombs from the plane, tested the Lewis machine gun, which the War Department refused to purchase and
later became one of the most valuable weapons in the World War and also attempted observation for artillery fire at Fort Riley, Kan. These achievements marked the turning point of aviation as a military asset.

Prior to that time Lieut. Milling took part in a tri-State race in the vicinity of Boston and landed after dark by the aid of bonfires. Civilian flyers were his only competitors. He also established an endurance record with two passengers by flying 1 hour, 54 minutes, 43 2-5 seconds.

Later, in Texas, he established an endurance record, with one passenger, by remaining in the air 4 hours and 22 minutes on a trip from Texas City to San Antonio.