Frederick M . Trapnell Frederick Mackay " Fred " Trapnell ( July 9 , 1902 - January 30 , 1975 ) was a United States Navy admiral and aviation pioneer . Trapnell was the first US Navy pilot to fly a jet aircraft , was considered the best , most experienced naval test aviator of his generation , co - founded the branch ' s first test pilot school , and played a pivotal role in both the development of future Naval aircraft and the survival of the post - World War II Navy ' s air arm . Trapnell was also a cousin of Bataan Death March survivor , LTG Thomas J . H . Trapnell and his nephew , the noted skyjacker , Garrett Brock Trapnell . Early life . Frederick Trapnell was born in Elizabeth , New Jersey to Benjamin Trapnell of Charles Town , West Virginia and Ada Probasco of Ohio . Trapnell came from a prosperous family with a long military tradition . His father and several cousins attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland - although Benjamin ' s military career was cut short by an infamous hazing incident . Several other cousins were officers in the United States Army as was his brother , Wallace Probasco Trapnell , who served in the Signal Corps . Following his father , Trapnell attended the Naval Academy , graduated , and was commissioned an ensign in 1923 . After serving for two years at sea on board the battleship USS California and the cruiser USS Marblehead , Trapnell was assigned to NAS Pensacola in 1926 for flight training , thus beginning his career as a naval aviator . Naval aviator . Trapnell reportedly had " a natural flying ability " and " a firm grasp of aerodynamics . " While at Pensacola , he flew in a variety of aircraft , garnering significant experience and further honing his skills . In 1930 , he was transferred to NAS Anacostia in Washington , D . C . . In June of that year , along with two other pilots , he was assigned to a new unit , the " Three Flying Fish " , the Navy ' s first official aerial demonstration team . Flying specially modified Curtiss F6C - 4 biplanes , they travelled around the nation performing intricate , aerobatic exhibitions . The team was disbanded in April 1931 , and Trapnell was soon assigned to the small plane unit attached to the Navy ' s dirigible airfleet . From 1932 to 1934 , he served on the USS Akron at NAS Lakehurst in New Jersey and her sister ship , the USS Macon at NAS Sunnyvale , California . At the latter installation , he was responsible for re - engineering the apparatus for hooking up aircraft while in flight as well as a rewriting the procedure . In 1938 , Lt . Trapnell flew in a squadron of eighteen bombers from San Diego , California to Honolulu , Hawaii in what was " the greatest over - ocean formation flight " to date . LCDR Trapnell returned to Anacostia in 1942 as the chief of the Test Flight Section . Two years later , and with promotion to commander , he relocated with the section to the new Naval Air Test Center in Maryland . With World War II raging , Trapnell dedicated himself to redesigning flight testing and procedures . He initiated a series of lectures and classes to familiarize pilots not only with the rudiments of flying but to learn the intimate details of flight engineering , performance , stability , and control . He required that the aviator know every aspect of his aircraft under all conditions . So respected was Trapnell ' s knowledge and ability that , in 1942 , he was personally requested by Roy Grumman to evaluate the new Grumman F6F Hellcat , the Navy ' s answer to the lethal Japanese Zero . Circumventing the usual testing procedures , Grumman had Trapnell take the fighter on a crash program . " He came to the factory and flew the prototype F6F . It suited him , as I remember , except for the longitudinal stability ó he wanted more of that . We built it in and rushed into production without a Navy certificate on the model . We relied on Trapnellís opinion . His test flight took less than three hours . Iím not sure we ever got an official OK on the Hellcat design . " Trapnell would later gain valuable knowledge of what the Hellcat and its predecessor , the Wildcat , were up against after performing extensive tests in a captured Zero recovered from a crash that same year . Trapnell ' s unit continued to test a host of American and British aircraft and was responsible for many innovations . Following Trapnell ' s recommendations after months of testing , engineers at Vought Aviation extensively redesigned a new fighter already under development , the famous F4U Corsair . Of the F7F Tigercat , Trapnell is reputed to have exclaimed : " It ' s the best damn fighter I ' ve every flown . " 1943 saw Trapnell on temporary duty assignment at the Muroc Army Air Field in California for secret testing . On April 21 , he became the first naval aviator to pilot a jet aircraft , the Bell XP - 59A Airacomet , the first such plane built in the United States . Shortly thereafter , he was promoted to captain . For the remainder of the war Trapnell served in the fleet , commanding two squadrons and an escort carrier . In October 1944 , he became chief of staff to RADM Arthur Radford , Commander Carrier Division Six , overseeing the remaining air strikes and amphibious landings in the Pacific theater . Naval Test Pilot School . In 1946 , Trapnell was back at NATC as test coordinator and sheparding the monumental changes in engineering , testing , and other procedures ushered in by jet aircraft . This included vastly upgrading and regularizing the unofficial Test Pilot School that had been in existence since the Test Flight Section had arrived in 1944 - 45 . Serving as acting commander of NATC for six months in 1947 afforded Trapnell the opportunity to make substantial changes . Working with chief project engineer CDR Sydney Sherby and with the backing of RADM Apollo Soucek , Trapnell devised a plan for an official test pilot program which was approved on January 22 , 1948 by ADM John D . Price , the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations . The Test Pilot Training Division began formal operation in April of that year under the direction of Sherby . Continuing his affiliation with the school , Trapnell assisted Sherby in selecting the candidates who would compose the first class , which begun on July 6 , 1948 . He also helped to outfit the school by procuring desks and other material . A collection of some 550 technical books that he had amassed over time became its first library . Additionally , Trapnell contributed to the school ' s highly popular textbook , " Airplane Aerodynamics " , writing its foreword . In June 1949 , Trapnell once again became commander of NATC . He also received the Octave Chanute Award that summer for " showing outstanding ability not only in flying every type of aircraft but also in detecting critical defects in new airplanes and suggesting ways to deal with them . " His work on carrier - based aircraft was particularly noted . In October of that year , Trapnell appeared before the House Armed Services Committee during the Revolt of the Admirals incident , where he provided crucial testimony on behalf of naval aviation . A reporter , covering the event for " Time " , observed that the famed aviator " ha [ d ] probably flown more types of planes than any other U . S . pilot . " Post aviator career . Trapnell was made commander of the USS Coral Sea , effective April 29 , 1950 . He immediately put his extensive aviator experience to use in order to increase efficiency . Among other innovations , Trapnell revised the system and appartus utilized for carrier take - offs , considerably streamlining the amount of time expended for the procedure . In February 1951 , he was promoted to rear admiral and became - in March - deputy commander of both Sandia Base and the Field Command Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Albuquerque , New Mexico . He served in this capacity until suffering a debilitating heart attack in April 1952 . That September , Trapnell medically retired with the rank of vice admiral . After the Navy , Trapnell worked as a consultant for Grumman Aircraft for the next 23 years and became a sailing enthusiast . On April 1 , 1976 the air field at NAS Patuxent River was officially named " Trapnell Field " in his honor . At the dedication ceremony , keynote speaker ADM Frederick H . Michaelis , Chief of Naval Material , said : In 1986 , Trapnell was inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor . Family . Trapnell was married to his first wife , Mary Elizabeth Belcher , in 1929 ; they had one son Frederick Mackay Trapnell . His second marriage , in 1936 to Alice Moffitt , produced one son , Herbert Wallace . Both marriages were to women of socially prominent West Coast families ; the Trapnells made several appearances in articles covering socialite circles usually involving festivities in Coronado , an affluent city near San Diego . Trapnell ' s extended family had a degree of public attention - both famous and infamous - attached to it . His father Benjamin had been discharged from the Navy while a midshipman at the Naval Academy after an incident aboard the Academy ' s training vessel , the , in August 1883 . In the first such trial of its kind , Benjamin Trapnell and several others were convicted of hazing younger midshipmen . Benjamin later served as a United States Attorney for West Virginia under the second Cleveland Administration . During a banquet given by former residents of Charles Town , WV at the St . Denis Hotel in New York , he caused a public stir when he lambasted the McKinley Administration ' s policies in regards to newly acquired territory from the recently concluded Spanish - American War . Trapnell ' s first cousin , Thomas John Hall , and first cousin - once removed , Garrett Brock , also had their own heroic and unheroic - respectively - notoriety . Trapnell ' s distant cousin Joseph likewise had a brief and ironic public appearance around the same time that his cousin Garrett ' s exploits made the front pages . On September 3 , 1971 , just under five months before his cousin would hijack a TWA flight , Joseph , then a captain for Eastern Airlines , foiled an attempted hijacking of his own aircraft . A Cuban refugee attempted to commandeer the plane , en route from Chicago to Miami , but was overpowered by the pilot and co - pilot .