Viewing page 22 of 25

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[stamped]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamped]]

Q96906

EDWARD A. "AL" JOHNSON
Early Curtiss Pilot - Instructor

[[image]]

Edward A. Johnson was born at Newport, Rhode Island, January 14, [[strikethrough]] 1890 [[/strikethrough]] 1885.  During his youth the family moved to California where he attended public schools in both San Francisco and Oakland.   He then attended Business College at Sacramento and later the Polytechnic College of Oakland.  After completing his education Johnson became President and General Manager of the Motor Express and Motor Drayage Company of San Francisco in 1905 and remained in that position until 1915.

During this period he had become intensely interested in aviation and spent from May to October, 1915, at the San Diego, California, and Buffalo, New York, Curtiss [[strikethrough]] F [[/strikethrough]] flying [[strikethrough]] S [[/strikethrough]] schools, then joined the Curtiss Company and was sent to England as their British representative.  Johnson was there until the fall of 1916, and during that period received additional flying instruction at Hendon.

Upon returning to the United States Johnson left Curtiss and became a Senior Civilian Flying Instructor at the newly established U.S. [[strikethrough]] Signal Corps [[/strikethrough]] Army school at Ashburn Field, Chicago, Illinois.  This was one of the first [[strikethrough]] G [[/strikethrough]] government training posts prior to World War I and there also as instructors were T. C. McCaulay, Victor Vernon, J. S. Hill, C. R. "Sinny" Sinclair, and E. M. Laird among others.  In

1