Benjamin Foulois Benjamin Delahauf Foulois ( December 9 , 1879 – April 25 , 1967 ) was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright Brothers . He became the first military aviator as an airship pilot , and achieved numerous other military aviation " firsts " . He led strategic development of the Air Force in the United States . Early military service . Benjamin " Benny " Delahauf Foulois was born on December 9 , 1879 , in Washington , Connecticut , to the son of a French veteran of the Franco - Prussian War ( 1870 – 1871 ) , and a Boston - born nurse . At age 18 he used his older brother ’ s birth certificate to enlist in the Army to support the Spanish - American War , but arrived in Puerto Rico just weeks before the armistice was signed . As an engineer , he fought off the rampant tropical diseases , and after five months , was shipped home and mustered out . On June 17 , 1899 , Foulois enlisted again , using his own name , as a private in the Regular Army and was assigned to the 19th Infantry , where he achieved the grade of first sergeant . After service in the Philippines at Luzon , Panay and Cebu , he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on July 9 , 1901 . Foulois was transferred to the 17th Infantry , and served in Manila , Cottabato and Mindanao . During two separate assignments in the Spring of 1902 and from 1903 – 1905 , he participated in engagements against the Lake Lanao Moros , successfully hunting down and defeating combatant tribal leaders . Foulois attended the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , from September 1905 to August 1906 . He was deployed to perform military mapping in Cuba before returning to complete Signal School in July 1908 as a 1st Lieutenant . His final thesis was " The Tactical and Strategical Value of Dirigible Balloons and Aerodynamical Flying Machines " , within which he demonstrated prescience in such statements as this : He forecast the replacement of the horse by the airplane in reconnaissance , and wireless air - to - ground communications that included the transmission of photographs . As a result , the staff of the chief signal officer selected Foulois for the aeronautical board designated to conduct the 1908 airship and airplane acceptance trials . After having selected the Thomas Scott Baldwin airship as the winner of the trial , Foulois was selected as the first military crewman . He took his first flight on August 18 as engineer - pilot while Baldwin controlled the rudder at the aft end . Aviation career 1908 – 1916 . Foulois ' first aviation assignment was to the Aeronautical Division , U . S . Signal Corps , where he operated the first dirigible balloon of the U . S . Government . The crash of the Wright Military Flyer , procured at the same time by the Army on its final test flight , September 17 , 1908 , claimed the first US military airplane fatality , 1st Lt . Thomas E . Selfridge , and also injured Orville Wright . After one year , Foulois had concluded through his experience , understanding of military dirigibles in Europe , and talks with Tom Baldwin , that there was no military future for lighter - than - air aircraft . In expressing this opinion to the Army General staff , Foulois recommended no more purchases of dirigibles , the first of many disagreements with the military establishment . The Wright brothers spent ten months following the fatal crash making engineering improvements to the airplane . By July 1909 , Orville was ready to complete the acceptance test for the Signal Corps . On July 30 , 1909 , Foulois ’ first flight in an aeroplane was the evaluation test flight from Fort Myer to Alexandria , Virginia . Pilot Orville Wright and Navigator Foulois broke previous speed , altitude and cross - country duration records , flying at 42 . 5 mph , 400 feet , and for 10 miles . The Army purchased this Wright Model A Military Flyer , which became " Signal Corps No . 1 " . The final condition of the contract was to train two pilots . Foulois and Lieutenant Frank P . Lahm were initially designated to take direct instruction from the Wright brothers , but the Chief Signal officer instead sent Foulois to Nancy , France in September 1909 as a delegate to the International Congress of Aeronautics , possibly as a result of resentment of his outspoken criticism of the dirigible . He returned on October 23 to College Park , Maryland , where Wilbur Wright had begun training Lahm and Lieutenant Frederick E . Humphreys . Humphreys made the first military solo in an airplane on October 26 , 1909 , followed by Lahm . Although not contractually obligated to do so , Wilbur took Foulois up and allowed him to handle the controls , then turned him over to Humphreys for instruction . Foulois totaled three hours and two minutes at the controls , virtually equaling the flight time of Humphreys and Lahm , but did not make any landings , nor did he solo . On November 5 , Humphreys and Lahm cartwheeled S . C . No . 1 during landing , damaging the rudder and necessitating replacement of a wing , at a time when neither Wright brother was available . In addition , both officers were recalled to their branches of service . While waiting to repair the airplane , the Signal Corps decided to seek a more favorable climate location for flying during the winter . Foulois was directed to report to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio , Texas and from there he was directed by the Army ' s Chief Signal Officer , Brig . Gen . James Allen , to “ teach yourself to fly . ” He did so , and at 9 : 30 a . m . on March 2 , 1910 , on the Arthur MacArthur parade field made four flights on S . C . No . 1 , which included his first solo takeoff , first solo landing , and first crash . In December 1913 , assigned to the Signal Corps Aviation School at North Island , San Diego , California , the 1st Aero Squadron was officially constituted as a unit of the Signal Corps , and Foulois became commanding officer of its 1st Company , comprising three Burgess aircraft and 26 enlisted men . Later in 1914 , Foulois became squadron commander . The Aeronautical Department experienced a spate of fatal accidents in 1912 and 1913 , most involving the Wright Model C airplane , and convened a board of aviators to investigate safety concerns and make recommendations . Foulois , along with Captain Townsend F . Dodd and Lieutenants Walter R . Taliaferro , Carleton G . Chapman , and Joseph E . Carberry , condemned not just the Wright C but all " pusher " aircraft as unsafe on February 16 , 1914 , and those remaining in the Army inventory were ordered to be immediately grounded . The following month , the board drew up specifications for a tractor - configured training airplane . On November 19 , 1915 , Foulois led the 1st Aero Squadron cross - country flight of six Curtiss JN3s from Post Field , Fort Sill , Oklahoma , to Ft Sam Houston , San Antonio , Texas , intended as the site for the first permanent base of the Aviation Section , the San Antonio Air Center . In 1916 , Pancho Villa crossed into New Mexico and killed 17 Americans . In response , Brig . Gen . John J . Pershing was directed to pursue Villa into Mexico , and Foulois was ordered to take eight airplanes to provide reconnaissance and communication . On 15 March 1916 , Foulois and the 1st Aero Squadron arrived at Columbus , New Mexico for duty . On 16 March , Foulois flew as the observer with Dodd on the first American military reconnaissance flight over foreign territory ( overflying Mexico in search of Villa ) . Within eight weeks , six of the aircraft had been destroyed as the airplane could not contend with the high altitude , severe weather and dry atmosphere . World War I . " Billy " Mitchell and Foulois would clash bitterly over the years . Both were ambitious , strong - willed , independent thinkers , but Mitchell came from an ostensibly wealthy family and was the son of a United States Senator . Foulois came from a working - class family , and impressed his peers with his willingness to roll up his sleeves and work with the mechanics . Moreover , Mitchell had been senior to Foulois until their mutual service in France , and would be again following the war . Both would play an important role in the development of the independent Air Force , but Mitchell worked by swaying public opinion , while Foulois preferred to make direct testimony to Congress , with often controversial verbal attacks against the military establishment . From March to September 1917 , General Foulois was charged with the responsibility for the production , maintenance , organization and operations of all American aeronautical material and personnel in the United States . In March Foulois worked with Major General George Squier , the Chief Signal Officer , and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to detail plans for appropriations of $ 54 million to support 16 aero squadrons , 16 balloon companies , and nine aviation schools . The French government requested the U . S . provide 4 , 500 trained pilots by the Spring of 1918 , which would require 4 , 900 training aircraft and 12 , 000 combat planes . The appropriation signed on July 24 , 1917 , was for $ 640 Million , the largest for a single purpose in the history of Congress . On the same date , Foulois was promoted from major to the temporary rank of Brigadier General , to enable him to oversee this responsibility . In October 1917 , he was transferred to France , and had the same responsibilities in France , the British Isles and Italy . In November 1917 he became Chief of Air Service , American Expeditionary Forces , and assumed additional duties as a member of the Joint Army and Navy Aircraft Committee in France ; representative of the commander in chief , American Expeditionary Forces on the Inter - Allied Expert Committee on Aviation of the Supreme War Council , and commandant of the Army Aeronautical Schools . Resentment of Foulois ’ s staff , with 112 officers and 300 enlisted men , most inexperienced and recently commissioned non - flying officers , led to strong criticism from Brigadier General Billy Mitchell , who commanded the Air Service Zone of Advance . In his Memoirs , Mitchell wrote : " Just when things had begun to work smoothly , a shipment of aviation officers arrived under Brigadier General Benjamin Foulois , over one hundred in number , almost none of whom had ever seen an airplane … . As rapidly as possible , the competent men , who had learned their duties in the face of the enemy , were displaced and their positions taken by these carpetbaggers . " Foulois wrote : " . . . this extract is proof of Mitchell ’ s disregard for facts " and " While Mitchell had every right to have an opinion about me and my staff , his attitude toward us made our jobs doubly difficult . The seeds of insubordination had already been sown when I relieved him , and his memoirs prove how distorted an opinion he had of himself as an expert on air matters . " Creation and deployment of tactical squadrons lagged badly behind the schedule Foulois had promised Pershing , and the supply situation for the Air Service was not improving . Friction between Foulois ' non - flying staff and the aviators in command of the instruction schools and the combat squadrons grew to the point of extreme inefficiency . In April 1918 Foulois tried to enforce a cooperative spirit from his own staff without success . In May he requested relief from his position as Chief of Air Service and recommended to General Pershing that Mitchell should be replaced . Pershing appointed Major General Mason M . Patrick to replace Foulois , who then became Patrick ’ s assistant . Foulois was appointed Chief of Air Service , First Army , with Mitchell still his subordinate , made chief of Air Service I Corps . The ensuing change of command and the unceasing bitterness between the two men continued . Foulois asserted in his memoirs that while he felt Mitchell was openly insubordinate , disloyal to his superiors , and constantly deviating from the military chain of command in giving orders , Mitchell also possessed the ability and experience to supervise air battles and create a high fighting spirit , exemplified with the battle of Chateau - Thierry . In August 1918 , when a major loss of coordination between offensive units and replacement units occurred at Toul , Foulois again requested relief from his position , this time to again be in charge of Air Service logistics , to straighten out the snarled lines of communication before the major offensives in the fall . He also recommended that Mitchell replace him as Chief of Air Service , First Army . Foulois briefly became Assistant Chief of Air Service , Zone of Advance , but that position was eliminated when the Service of Supply created a forward headquarters near the front in addition to its main headquarters in Tours , and Foulois became the Assistant Chief of Air Service , Service of Supply . Rise to Chief of the Air Corps . After the Armistice , November 11 , 1918 , Foulois served with Patrick on the Supreme War Council , drafting the air clauses of the Treaty of Versailles . Upon his return to the U . S . in July 1919 , Foulois was assigned to the Office of the Director of Air Service at Washington , D . C . , in charge of the Air Service Liquidation Division , responsible for the settlement of war claims against the United States . Just as quickly as he had been promoted to general officer rank , he was reduced along with thousands of other officers to his permanent establishment rank of captain , Infantry . He received promotion to major on July 1 , 1920 , when the Army Reorganization Act took effect , and transferred in grade to the Air Service , which the act had made a combat arm , on August 11 . In August 1919 , Foulois appeared before the Frear subcommittee hearings on aviation , and before the Senate Military Affairs Subcommittee considering the Crowell Commission report ( which advocated an independent air force ) in October . He testified with stinging accusations toward the Army General Staff and Franklin D . Roosevelt , the assistant Secretary of the Navy . Having stirred up Washington , Foulois heard that a military attaché was needed in Europe with aviation expertise . He was sent in April 1920 to The Hague as assistant air attache , with observer duties in berlin . At the same time his wife asked him for a divorce , which was decereed in 1921 . Since the United States had not yet ratified the Treaty of Versailles , the allies would not share any intelligence with Foulois , and technically the U . S . was still at war with Germany . Foulois found that the Adlon Hotel bar in Berlin was frequented by many aviation cognoscenti . By sharing food and Allied whisky , Foulois was able to obtain a large amount of aviation intelligence from German pilots who included Hermann Göring . After gaining the confidence of these sources , Foulois was invited to join the two top aviation organizations in Germany : the German Aeronautical Scientific Society and the Aero Club of Germany . During his time in Berlin , he met Elizabeth Grant , a Philadelphian working as a secretary in the American Embassy , and married her two weeks before his return to the United States in 1924 . Foulois gathered the equivalent of a railroad boxcar full of valuable documents , drawings , technical bulletins , magazines , books , blueprints and reports . By having talked with more than 180 individuals , he had a valuable collection of German aviation knowledge . However , he wrote : " I only hoped that it was being put to good use in America . To my eternal regret , it wasn ’ t . The lack of an air intelligence collection system , inexperience on the part of the military intelligence officers in regard to aeronautics , and a lack of appreciation for the potential value of the fruits of German genius caused much of the material I sent to end up unopened in a warehouse and later sent to the trash heap . " After many years , Foulois achieved his desire to command a flying unit , and was assigned command of Mitchel Field , Long Island , New York , in 1925 . The same year , Billy Mitchell was convicted in a court - martial , which resulted in his resignation in February 1926 . In December 1927 , Foulois began a four - year tour as one of the three Assistant Chiefs of the Air Corps , which carried with it a temporary rank of brigadier general , when James E . Fechet became Air Corps Chief , including a year as Chief of the Materiel Division at Wright Field , Dayton , Ohio , from June 1929 to July 1930 . In May 1931 he commanded the Air Corps exercises , leading an armada of 672 airplanes , coast - to - coast defense flights , combat competition and large scale attacks . The leadership of this exercise earned Foulois the Mackey Trophy for the most meritorious military flight of 1931 . On December 19 , 1931 , following Fechet ' s retirement , he was appointed Chief of the Air Corps by President Herbert Hoover , which carried the rank of major general . Foulois had already appeared before Congress on 75 occasions to testify on military matters . During the next four years , he was in constant communication with Congress on the future of the Air Corps , during a time when economic hardships were forcing severe budget cuts . While this initially resulted in a solid base of support from supporters of aviation , it eventually proved a two - edged sword : when he lost their support in 1934 - 1935 , his position as Chief of Air Corps became untenable . Coast defense had traditionally been a primary function of the Army , with the line of demarcation the range of its coast artillery guns . The range of aircraft ostensibly confused the issue and opened a competition between the Air Service and Naval Aviation for the mission , and thus for further development of its service . A compromise reached between the Chief of Naval Operations and General Douglas MacArthur in January 1931 gave the land - based Air Service the mission , while the Navy was to defend the fleet . Following that , the apparent invincibility of long range Martin B - 10 bombers against the slower Boeing P - 12 pursuit planes led Foulois and the Air Corps leadership to begin the development of long - range bombers in 1933 . Without this foresight , the development of the B - 17 ’ s and B - 24 ’ s , essential to eventual separation of the Air Force from the Army , would not have taken place . Foulois was Chief of the Air Corps during the Air Mail scandal of 1934 and committed the service to delivering the mail without consulting Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur , while knowing that the Air Corps was ill - equipped and untrained to fly in winter conditions . At the time , commercial air carriers derived stable income from carrying the U . S . mail . Allegations of a conspiracy to defraud the government in these contracts resulted in assignment of all air - mail delivery to the Air Corps , beginning on February 19 , 1934 , and lasting through May 17 , 1934 . The 1 . 5 million miles flown by the Air Corps pilots , with insufficient training , equipment , funding , and experience , resulted in numerous fatal crashes . Foulois became the middleman in a political battle between the commercial aviation owners , Congress , and the military . Foulois later wrote that the " fiasco " was just as historically significant as the first flight or the first air combat mission . He argued that its lasting effect helped identify the needs of the peacetime Air Corps and the Baker Board ' s recommendation for a GHQ Air Force . This was implemented in March 1935 . Retirement . The 1934 Rogers Subcommittee investigation into improper contracting and procurement awards charged him with violations of law in awarding contracts , mismanagement of the Army Air Corps Mail Operation , and making misleading statements to Congress . Chairman William N . Rogers called for the resignation of Foulois and threatened to hold up Air Corps appropriations . Although he carried his fight to the public through the media with the backing of Secretary of War George Dern , Foulois decided to retire , asserting that he did so that the focus could return to the vital task of building the Air Force in the face of a resurgence in German airpower . However , while he still had eight years remaining before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64 , his retirement date did coincide with the end of his four - year term as Chief of Air Corps . Foulois left active duty December 31 , 1935 , after 36 years of service . In spite of his remarkable career , he departed with no farewell from the General Staff , no parade , and no aircraft fly - by , all typical rituals of a retirement of a Major General . He accurately warned of the buildup of German air power , and the need to build a strong air force and to take defensive measures to protect the East Coast . Prior to World War II , he ran New Jersey ’ s civil defense program . In 1941 , Foulois ran as a Republican for , losing to four - term Democrat incumbent Elmer H . Wene . He turned down an invitation to return to active duty in 1942 , feeling that the job he was offered was unimportant , but continued to write and speak for 17 years from his home in Ventnor City , New Jersey . Following his wife ’ s death in 1959 , Foulois was invited by the Air Force Chief of Staff , General Thomas D . White , to live at Andrews Air Force Base and become the senior spokesman to promote Air Force issues . He traveled approximately 500 , 000 miles by air , emphasizing national security to the men and women of the U . S . Air Force at home and overseas . In 1963 , Foulois appeared on the television quiz show " I ' ve Got a Secret " , where his secret was that he had once been the entire U . S . Air Force . He recounted his inspiration for the airplane seat belt , saying that he ' d had it installed after a crash had almost thrown him from " the damn plane . " Foulois ' casual use of what was then a television vulgarity provoked a nervous look from host Garry Moore . General Foulois died on April 25 , 1967 , following a heart attack at age 87 , and was buried in his hometown of Washington , Connecticut . Foulois had worked for 18 months with Carroll V . Glines on a biography of his life , though he died before the publicity tour could take place . The book , titled " From the Wright Brothers to the Astronauts " , was published in 1968 , and Glines received ten copies which he sent to various Air Force and personal friends . According to Glines , publisher McGraw Hill accidentally destroyed all copies of the book and the printing plates , and were unable to provide Xerox copies of the book . The biography was republished in 1980 for sale to libraries ; only 400 copies were produced . A new edition of the biography , re - titled " Foulois : One - Man Air Force " , is due in March 2010 . As one of the longest living of the first military pilots , Foulois saw the steps into space of the Apollo Program – a direct legacy of his many career “ first ” milestones . He remains one of the most significant figures in the development of U . S . air power . Pronunciation of Foulois . Asked how to say his name , he told " The Literary Digest " " Rhymes with " to cloy : foo - loy ' . " " ( Charles Earle Funk , " What ' s the Name , Please ? " , Funk & Wagnalls , 1936 . ) The French pronunciation of Foulois family name is " fool - wah " .