Evening star., 1939-07-31
Notion-W Flights to Mark
Air Corps 3Oth Birthday
Wednesdays Principal Celebration Set at
Dayton; Record-Settine Craft to Be Shown

Of the pioneer military flyers. The
exercises will serve to commemorate
the services of the early military
aviators who blazed the trail fol-
lowed in the development of military
aeronautics during the last three
decades. Most of these officers have
held, and some still occupy, positions
of trust and responsibility In and
have contributed much to the de-
velopment Of the Army Air Corps.
IL Of "a Pioneers Alive.
OF the Army's first "a military
aviators, ali of whom were qualified
during 1912 and 1918, IL survive
Still remaining in active service are
Gen. Arnold, Brig. Gen. Herbert A.
Dargue, wing commander at Albrook
Field. Corozal. Canal Zone: Col
Lewis H. Brereton, Barksdale Field,
Shreveport, La; Col. Frank P.
Lahm. air ofacer on the stan Of the
commanding general, End Corps
Area, Governors Island, N. Y. and
Col. Hollis lie R. Muller, Coast Ar
tillery Corps, on duty with the Or
ganized Reserves, at Wilmington,
Del.
The following six how are retired
Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois of
Ventnor, N. j.. former chief of Air
Corps; Col. Roy c. Kirkland of
Coronado. Calf; Col. Thomas De
Witt Milling of Denver, Colo; 1t.
Col. Joseph E. Carberry of Pasa-
dena, Calf: 1t. Col. Carleton G.
Chapman of Jacksonville, Fla, and
1t. Col. Lewis E. Goodier, jr., of
Santa Barbara, Calf.
Others of the first "a rated mill
tary aviators, now deceased, were
Col. Charles De F.. Chandler of
Washington, who died recently at
his home here; Capt. Paul w. Beck
and Its. Townsend F. Dodd, Eric
L. Ellington, Harold Geiger, Hugh
M. Kelly, Samuel H. McLeary, Jo-
seph c. Morrow, jr.; Joseph d.
Park. Henry B. Post, Fred Seydel,
w. R. Taliaferro and Robert H.
Willis, jr.
The rating of military aviator"
was established In 1912 and the first
group Of four to attain the rating
qualified July S of that year. They
were Gen. Arnold, Col. Milling. Col.
Chandler and Capt. Beck.
Wrights Gave instruction,
The contract for purchase Of the
first Army airplane required that
the Wright brothers give flying in
structions to two Army officers. The
records of the Wright brothers show
that the first solo fight credited to
an Army onlcer was made by 1t.
Frederic E. Humphreys, Corps OF
Engineers, who on October 26, 1909,
flew for a period of 3 minutes. He
was followed Immediately by 1t.
Lahm, who soloed for a period of 13
minutes. 1t. Humphreys now is
serving with the New York National
Guard as a colonel of engineers. He
received the rating Of junior mill
tary aviator during the World War
and was honorably DISCHARGED from
the Army In 1919.
In trials of standard Army Bit
bombardment airplanes, with their
regular crews and without special
equipment of any kind. conducted
preliminary to the Wednesday ami
versary celebration, the Army Air
Corps has set up three new national
aircraft performance records for al
titude with various loads and seven
records for speed with and without
loads.
The instruments of the flying
fortress used for the altitude trial
indicated, subject to final revision
on the basis of celebrations of spe-
cial paragraphs by the Bureau of
Standards, show that an altitude of
23,800 feet was reached with q load
OF 5000 kilograms, or 11,023 pounds
This vas the flrsk time such . record