Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox military person Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886<ref>1900 census, Scott County, Iowa.[1] Williamsburg (IA) Historical Commission Obituary Collection Index {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – October 19, 1911) was an American aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft takeoff and landing.
![[1]](http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/images/ely_1900_census.jpg){kind=link}
BackgroundEdit
Ely was born in Williamsburg, Iowa, and raised in Davenport, Iowa. Having completed the eighth grade, he graduated from Davenport Grammar School 4 in January 1901.<ref>Davenport Daily Leader, January 21, 1901, p. 4.</ref> Although some sources indicate that he attended and graduated from the Iowa State University in 1904 (when he would have been 17), the registrar of ISU reports that there is no record of his having done so – nor did he attend the University of Iowa or the University of Northern Iowa.<ref>Becky Jordan, reference specialist, Iowa State University, March 12, 2012</ref> Ely likewise does not appear in the graduations lists for Davenport High School.<ref>Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center, Davenport Public Library, March 26, 2012</ref> By 1904, Ely was employed as a chauffeur to the Rev. Fr. Smyth, a Catholic priest in Cosgrove, Iowa, who shared Ely's love of fast driving; in Father Smyth's car (a red Franklin), Ely set the speed record between Iowa City and Davenport.<ref>Iowa City Daily Press, August 26, 1904, p. 4; September 28, 1904, p. 4; December 3, 1904, p. 8; December 5, 1904, p. 1</ref>
Ely was living in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake and fire of 1906<ref>Williamsburg Journal Tribune, April 26, 1906, p. 5</ref> and was active there in the early days of the sales and racing of automobiles.<ref name="proceedings">Moore (January 1981) pp. 58–63</ref> He married Mabel Hall on August 7, 1907; he was 21 and she was 17, which meant the marriage required her mother's consent;<ref name="proceedings"/><ref>Genforum Genealogy courtesy of Cathy Gowder</ref> they honeymooned in Colorado.<ref>Williamsburg Journal Tribune, August 29, 1907, p. 10</ref> The Elys relocated to Nevada City, California, in 1909, and for a time he drove an "auto stage" delivery route.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The couple moved to Portland, Oregon, in early 1910, where he got a job as an auto salesman, working for E. Henry Wemme.<ref name="proceedings"/> Soon after, Wemme purchased one of Glenn Curtiss's first four-cylinder biplanes and acquired the franchise for the Pacific Northwest. Wemme was unable to fly the Curtiss biplane, but Ely, believing that flying was as easy as driving a car, offered to fly it. He ended up crashing it instead, and feeling responsible, he bought the wreck from Wemme.<ref name="proceedings"/> Within a few months he had repaired the aircraft and learned to fly.<ref name="proceedings"/> He flew it in the Portland area, then headed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June 1910 to participate in an exhibition, where he met Curtiss and started working for him.<ref name="proceedings"/> After an unsuccessful attempt in Sioux City, Iowa,<ref>Atlantic Daily Telegraph, July 2, 1910, p. 6</ref> Ely's first reported exhibition on behalf of Curtiss was in Winnipeg in July 1910.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ely received the Aero Club of America pilot's license #17 on October 5, 1910.<ref name="proceedings"/>
Edit
In October, Ely and Curtiss met Captain Washington Irving Chambers, USN, who had been appointed by George von Lengerke Meyer, the Secretary of the Navy, to investigate military uses for aviation within the Navy. This led to two experiments. On November 14, 1910, Ely took off in a Curtiss Pusher from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham.<ref name="proceedings"/>Template:Refn The airplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the Template:Convert platform runway; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising.<ref name="proceedings"/> Ely's goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as planned.<ref name="proceedings"/> John Barry Ryan, head of the U.S. Aeronautical Reserve, offered $500 to build the platform, and a $500 prize, for a ship-to-shore flight.<ref>Hiller B. Zobel, John H. Zobel, "Those Magnificent Men", American Heritage, Winter 2011, pp. 46–51</ref>
Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.Template:Refn Ely flew from the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California, and landed on the Pennsylvania, which was the first successful shipboard landing of an aircraft.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This flight was also the first-ever using a tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson.<ref name="proceedings"/> Ely told a reporter: "It was easy enough. I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Ely communicated with the United States Navy requesting employment, but United States naval aviation was not yet organized.<ref name="proceedings"/> Ely continued flying in exhibitions while Captain Chambers promised to "keep him in mind" if Navy flying stations were created.<ref name="proceedings"/> Captain Chambers advised Ely to cut out the sensational features for his safety and the sake of aviation.<ref name="proceedings"/> When asked about retiring, The Des Moines Register quoted Ely as replying: "I guess I will be like the rest of them, keep at it until I am killed."<ref name="proceedings"/>
Template:Annotated image To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flight, navy commander Bob Coolbaugh flew a personally built replica of Ely's Curtiss from the runway at NAS Norfolk on November 12, 2010. The U.S. Navy planned to feature the flying demonstration at Naval anniversary events across America.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
For his efforts to advance naval aviation Ely was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1965.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DeathEdit
On October 19, 1911, while flying at an exhibition in Macon, Georgia, his plane was late pulling out of a dive and crashed.<ref name="proceedings"/> Ely jumped clear of the wrecked aircraft, but his neck was broken, and he died a few minutes later.<ref name="proceedings"/> Spectators picked the wreckage clean looking for souvenirs, including Ely's gloves, tie, and cap.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On what would have been his twenty-fifth birthday, his body was returned to his birthplace for burial.<ref>Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, October 21, 1911, p. 16.</ref>
On February 16, 1933, Congress awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously to Ely, "for extraordinary achievement as a pioneer civilian aviator and for his significant contribution to the development of aviation in the United States Navy."<ref>U.S. Air Services, Vol. XVIII No. 3 p. 14 (March 1933)</ref> An exhibit of retired naval aircraft at Naval Air Station Norfolk in Virginia bears Ely's name, and a granite historical marker in Newport News, Virginia, overlooks the waters where Ely made his historic flight in 1910 and recalls his contribution to military aviation, naval in particular.Template:Citation needed
See alsoEdit
- List of fatalities from aviation accidents
- List of firsts in aviation
- Charles Rumney Samson, the first pilot to take off from a moving ship
- Edwin Harris Dunning, the first pilot to land on a moving ship
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- "The Short, Eventful Life of Eugene B. Ely", U.S. Naval Institute biography by John H. Moore
- Template:Find a Grave
Template:Aviators killed in early aviation accidents Template:Authority control