page_title: Henry H. Arnold
section_title: Military aviation pioneer
hierarchical_section_title: Henry H. Arnold / Early life and career / Military aviation pioneer
caption_attribution_description: English: 2d Lt H.H. Arnold (25 yrs. old) sitting at the controls of a Wright Type B two-seater at the Wright Flying School, Dayton, OH, 1911.
context_page_description: Henry Harley Arnold was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, the only U.S. Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only officer to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services. Arnold was also the founder of Project RAND, which evolved into one of the world's largest non-profit global policy think tanks, the RAND Corporation, and one of the founders of Pan American World Airways.
  Instructed in flying by the Wright Brothers, Arnold was one of the first military pilots worldwide, and one of the first three rated pilots in the history of the United States Air Force. He overcame a fear of flying that resulted from his experiences with early flight, supervised the expansion of the Air Service during World War I, and became a protégé of General Billy Mitchell.
context_section_description: Arnold immediately sent a letter requesting a transfer to the Signal Corps and on April 21, 1911, received Special Order 95, detailing him and 2nd Lt. Thomas DeWitt Milling of the 15th Cavalry, to Dayton, Ohio, for a course in flight instruction at the Wright brothers' aviation school at Simms Station, Ohio. While individually instructed, they were part of the school's May 1911 class that included three civilians and Lt. John Rodgers of the United States Navy. Beginning instruction on May 3 with Arthur L. Welsh, Arnold made his first solo flight May 13 after three hours and forty-eight minutes of flight in 28 lessons. On May 14, he and Milling completed their instruction. Arnold received Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate No. 29 on July 6, 1911, and Military Aviator Certificate No. 2 a year later. He also was recognized by a general order in 1913 as one of the first 24 rated military aviators, authorized to wear the newly designed Military Aviator badge.
  After several more weeks of solo flying in Dayton to gain experience, Arnold and Milling were sent on June 14 to the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps station established at College Park, Maryland, to be the Army's first flight instructors. There Arnold set an altitude record of 3,260 feet (990 m) on July 7 and thrice broke it (August 18, 1911, to 4,167 feet (1,270 m); January 25, 1912, to 4,764 feet (1,452 m); and June 1, 1912, 6,540 feet (1,990 m)). In August 1911, he experienced his first crash, trying to take off from a farm field after getting lost. In September Arnold became the first U.S. pilot to carry mail, flying a bundle of letters five miles (8 km) on Long Island, New York, and he is credited as the first pilot to fly over the U.S. Capitol and the first to carry a United States Congressman as a passenger. The following month Arnold moonlighted as a pilot in the filming of two silent movies, doubling for the leads in The Military Air-Scout and The Elopement.
  The flight school moved in November 1911 to a farm leased near Augusta, Georgia, hoping to continue flying there during the winter. Training was limited by rain and flooding, and they returned to Maryland in May 1912. Arnold began to develop a phobia about flying, intensified by Al Welsh's fatal crash at College Park on June 11. In August Arnold was at Marblehead, Massachusetts, with 1st Lt. Roy C. Kirtland conducting acceptance tests of the Burgess Model H, an enclosed-fuselage tandem-seat seaplane and the Army's first tractor (front-mounted propeller and engine). The pair received orders to fly the new aircraft to Bridgeport, Connecticut to participate in maneuvers but high winds forced them to land on Massachusetts Bay on August 12. Attempting to take off again, Arnold caught a wing tip in the water turning into the wind and crashed into the bay off Plymouth. Arnold suffered a lacerated chin during the mishap but the aircraft was salvaged and repaired. Another crash at College Park on September 18 killed 2nd Lt. Lewis Rockwell, an academy classmate of Arnold's.
  In October, Arnold and Milling were ordered to enter the competition for the first MacKay Trophy for "the most outstanding military flight of the year." Arnold won when he located a company of cavalry from the air and returned safely despite high turbulence. As a result, he and Milling were sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, to experiment with radio and other communications from the air with the field artillery. Arnold's flight on November 2 in Wright C Speed Scout S.C. No. 10, with 1st Lt. Follett Bradley as his wireless operator, successfully sent the first radio telegraph message, at a distance of 6 miles (9.7 km), from an aircraft to a receiver on the ground, manned by 1st Lt. Joseph O. Mauborgne of the Signal Corps. Three days later, Arnold flew on an artillery spotting exercise with 1st Lt. Alfred L.P. Sands of the 6th Field Artillery as an observer. Spiraling down to land in S.C. No. 10, the plane stalled, went into a spin, and they narrowly avoided a fatal crash. He immediately grounded himself and applied for a lea
caption: A young Henry Arnold at the second-seat controls of a Wright Model B airplane 1911
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