Army's First Eaglet Talks of Flying
Foulois, Once Our Whole Air Force, Recounts the Stirring Early Days With Wright and Some Later History
In 1910, Benjamin Foulois became the first-ever U.S. military pilot – and also invented such airplane innovations as wheels and the seat belt. In September 1925, he gave an interview about his experiences to New York Times Magazine.
On his experiences:
From January 1910 to March 1911, the active personnel and equipment of the United States Air Service consisted of: one pilot (Lieutenant Foulois); eight enlisted men; one plane.
Government had appropriated $150 a year for the maintenance of the plane. In 1910 Lieutenant Foulois spent $300 of his own money to keep up the Air Service, or two-thirds more than forward and upward looking Uncle Sam would spend on his growing eaglets.
On wheels:
Among other innovations Foulois had introduced wheels, doing away with the laborious method of launching the ship by releasing weights and gliding down the monorail. This new method was required because of the nature of the ground and lack of men and money. You could not move or carry along the cumbersome apparatus in the bad lands of wherever you happened to drop.
On the seat belt:
Foulois made use of a lifebelt for the first time to prevent being thrown either during rough landings or in taking off.
In 1963, 38 years after the article’s publication, Foulois appeared on the television game show I’ve Got a Secret, where he elaborated on the story:
“Well, the first thing I added to it was a belt. The second time I made it, after crashing the first time. I took it up, almost got thrown out, landed. An artillery officer came up there. I told him: ‘Fred, I want you to build a belt to keep me in that damn plane!’”
I was surprised to see that profanity, though mild by today’s standards, on a 1963 black-and-white network television appearance. Looking up when the first appearance of “damn” appeared on network TV, my quick research tells me it was a 1965 episode of the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian.
Is that incorrect? Do television historians not know about this 1963 I’ve Got a Secret episode? If anybody knows, please comment below.
Army’s First Eaglet Talks of Flying: Foulois, Once Our Whole Air Force, Recounts the Stirring Early Days With Wright and Some Later History
Published: Sunday, September 27, 1925
A minor note about spelling: while 1925’s article spelled his last name “Faulois,” basically all other references to him on the internet say “Foulois,” including his official biography on the U.S. Air Force website. Not sure why the discrepancy? But I’ve amended the spelling in the above post to the “correct” version, even though that’s not how it appeared in the original NYT article.