David C . Schilling David Carl Schilling ( December 15 , 1918 – August 14 , 1956 ) was a U . S . Air Force officer , fighter ace , and leading advocate of long - range jet fighter operations . Kansas ' Schilling Air Force Base was named in his memory . Biography . David Schilling was born in Leavenworth , Kansas , on December 15 , 1918 . His family moved to Kansas City , Missouri , where he went to high school . He graduated from Dartmouth College with a B . S . degree in geology in June 1939 . Schilling joined the United States Army in September 1939 as an aviation cadet and received his commission in the Air Corps upon completion of flight training in May 1940 . The following summer he became one of the original members of the 56th Fighter Group . World War II . Schilling arrived with the group in England in January 1943 as commander of the 62nd Fighter Squadron and began combat missions in April flying the P - 47 Thunderbolt , recording his first kill on October 2 , 1943 . Schilling was promoted to group executive officer in August 1943 and to group commander on August 12 , 1944 , commanding the 56th Fighter Group until January 27 , 1945 . He was promoted to full colonel on October 1 , 1944 , at the age of 25 . In his time in Britain , he became the sixth - leading ace of the 8th Air Force , scoring 22½ kills against Luftwaffe aircraft . On December 23 , 1944 he downed five German fighters to become one of the 38 Army Air Force " Ace - in - a - Day " pilots . Schilling flew 132 combat missions in two combat tours with the 56th . USAF career . After the war , he again commanded the 56th Fighter Group and pioneered long - distance jet operations in the P - 80 Shooting Star . In early 1948 Schilling conceived an operation called Fox Able ( phonetic for " Fighter Atlantic " ) in which jet aircraft , then ferried to Europe by ship , could be flown across the Atlantic via Iceland and Scotland in 900 - mile legs and sold it to Air Force Chief of Staff , General Carl A . Spaatz . In the summer of 1948 he made Fox Able a reality and took the 56th FG to Germany in a show - of - force response to the Berlin blockade . Just prior to this , de Havilland Vampire s of No . LIV Squadron RAF had made the first jet crossing , flying from the UK to North America . In 1950 he flew from RAF Manston in the United Kingdom to Maine in the United States , in the first nonstop trans - Atlantic flight by a jet fighter . Using probe - and - drogue flight refuelling , Schilling , flying an F - 84E Thunderjet and another F - 84E flown by Col . William Ritchie , were refuelled by first a Flight Refuelling Ltd ( FRL ) Lancaster tanker near Prestwick , Scotland , followed by a refuelling from another FRL tanker , this time a Lincoln near Iceland . In a third and final tanker rendezvous , Ritchie ' s nose probe , which had been damaged in the refuelling with the Lincoln , was unable to transfer fuel from the final tanker , a USAF KB - 29 offshore from Labrador , forcing him to eject over Labrador when he ran out of fuel . Ritchie was safely picked up shortly afterwards . Schilling ' s refuelling went as - intended and he landed at an airbase at Limestone , Maine , after a flight of ten hours and eight minutes . For this flight , Schilling received the Harmon Trophy . In 1952 , he took command of the 31st Fighter Escort Wing at Turner Air Force Base , Georgia , flying F - 84 Thunderjet s , and led a non - stop flight across the Pacific Ocean to Japan in Fox Peter One . On August 14 , 1956 , while serving as Inspector General in the Strategic Air Command ' s Seventh Air Division , Schilling died in a car accident on a narrow , two - lane country road in England between RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall — Royal Air Force station s used by the U . S . Air Force . Colonel Schilling was driving a Cadillac / Allard sports - racing car ; he , General Curtis LeMay , and other race enthusiasts had each purchased a model to form a stable for Sports Car Club of America events . On the day of the accident , he was driving to Mildenhall to meet at the Officer ' s Club with an Army lieutenant who had expressed interest in buying the car . At fairly high speed , he approached another car from behind , intending to pass . The cap he was wearing started to blow off and as he reached up to grab it , the car skidded sideways and struck the stone side - railing of a bridge at Eriswell in Suffolk , cutting the car in half at the driver ' s seat and causing the front of the car to topple into the stream below . Schilling died instantly . The day before his death , he had flown his last flight in a B - 47 . At the time of his death he was on Temporary Duty ( TDY ) from the HQ of 7th Air Division at South Ruislip to RAF Lakenheath . On March 15 , 1957 , Smoky Hill Air Force Base in Salina , Kansas was renamed Schilling Air Force Base in his honor . The Air Force Association ' s Award for Outstanding Flight , which Schilling won in 1952 , was named for him after his death . Awards and decorations . Command pilot Air Force Outstanding Unit Award American Defense Service Medal American Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal National Defense Service Medal Distinguished Flying Cross ( United Kingdom ) Croix de Guerre with Palm ( France ) Croix de Guerre , with Palm ( Belgium )