Eugene Burton Ely Eugene Burton Ely ( October 21 , 1886 – October 19 , 1911 ) was an aviation pioneer , credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing . Background . 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 . Although some sources indicate that he attended and graduated from Iowa State University in 1904 ( when he would have been 17 ) , the registrar of ISU reports that there is no record of him having done so ( nor did he attend the University of Iowa or the University of Northern Iowa ) . Ely likewise does not appear in the graduations lists for Davenport High School . By 1904 he 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 . Ely was living in San Francisco , California at the time of the earthquake and fire and was active there in the early days of the sales and racing of automobiles . He married Mabel Hall on August 7 , 1907 ; he was 21 and she was 17 , which meant the marriage required her mother ' s consent ; they honeymooned in Colorado . The Elys relocated to Nevada City , California in 1909 , and for a time he drove an " auto stage " delivery route . The couple moved to Portland , Oregon in early 1910 , where he got a job as an auto salesman , working for E . Henry Wemme . Soon after , Wemme purchased one of Glenn Curtiss ' 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 , bought the wreck from Wemme . Within a few months he had repaired the aircraft and learned to fly . 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 . After an unsuccessful attempt in Sioux City , Iowa , Ely ' s first reported exhibition on behalf of Curtiss was in Winnipeg in July 1910 . Ely received Aero Club of America pilot ' s license # 17 on 5 October 1910 . Naval aviation firsts . In October , Ely and Curtiss met Captain Washington 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 " . The aeroplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83 - foot platform runway ; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising . 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 . John Barry Ryan offered $ 500 to build the platform , and a $ 500 prize , for a ship to shore flight . 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 . Ely flew from the Tanforan airfield in San Bruno , California and landed on the " Pennsylvania " , which was the first successful shipboard landing of an aircraft . This flight was also the first ever using a tailhook system , designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson . Ely told a reporter : " It was easy enough . I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten . " Ely communicated with the United States Navy requesting employment , but United States naval aviation was not yet organized . Ely continued flying in exhibitions while Captain Chambers promised to " keep him in mind " if Navy flying stations were created . Captain Chambers advised Ely to cut out the sensational features for his safety and the sake of aviation . 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 . " To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flight , Naval Commander Bob Coolbaugh flew a personally built replica of the Ely Curtiss from the runway at NAS Norfolk on November 12 , 2010 . The U . S . Navy plans to feature the flying demonstration at Naval anniversary events across America . Death . On October 19 , 1911 , while flying at an exhibition in Macon , Georgia , his plane was late pulling out of a dive and crashed . Ely jumped clear of the wrecked aircraft , but his neck was broken , and he died a few minutes later . Spectators picked the wreckage clean looking for souvenirs , including Ely ' s gloves , tie and cap . On what would have been his twenty - fifth birthday , his body was returned to his birthplace for burial . 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 . " 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 .