Question of the Week: Do you have any aviators in your tree? [closed]

Question

Do you have any pilots or aviators in your family tree? 

Tell us about them with an answer below. You can answer on Facebook or share the question image with friends and family on social media to get them talking.

Comments

My uncle has had his pilots license for 20+ years, and became an instructor pilot and got his commercial pilots license about 10-15 years ago. He currently owns three small planes.

Also, my grandfather had a plane and used to fly back in the early 1960s, but never actually had a pilots license. He sold his plane sometime in the 1960s.

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I placed some postems about my father's 2nd cousin at FreeBMD Entry Info 

You can read about the crew and see the memorials at:  

Recherche de France-Crashes 39-45 (francecrashes39-45.net)

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Sir George Cayley and the Wright brothers are my distant cousins.

My grandfather and his brother flew biplanes in WWI for the RFC.

I hold a couple of Airline Transport Pilot certificates.  A few years back, my father and son and I flew the world’s only three generation formation aerobatic airshow, to the best of my knowledge.

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My mother-in-law became a pilot during WW II. She went through the training and solo’s. She was in the civil air patrol and they were getting ready to fairy aircraft for the war effort. One of the guys in the group crashed their plane and it couldn’t be replaced. But she got her certificate and a picture to prove it.

I’m not sure but about 19 years old at the time.

Answer 1

My husband, Capt. Mike Nelson, was an Air Force pilot during the Vietnam era. He flew C-141s and a combat rescue helicopter out of Phan Rang, Vietnam. This is a photo of him that was taken in 1967.

Comments

Wow, that's such a cool photo!

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Léa , thank you for your nice comment.

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My brother was a combat medic in Vietnam 1967-1969, jumping out of helicopters with a 100 pound pack on his back. He may have flown with your husband.

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Eloise, thank you for your comment. Your brother certainly was a brave, and probably was responsible for saving several lives.  I see you are from a military family; these wars are so hard for families.

Answer 2

My dad was in the Army Air Corps during WWII. He was not a pilot, but a gunner and mechanic. The skills he learned were applied to the old tractor on our farm. He was a construction worker and farmer, but could draw and then make just about anything he could imagine.
 One of my uncles went through training at the local airport and got his single engine license. I would dearly have loved to do that myself!

Comments

So thankful for your dad's service.
My dad said his gunners and mechanics were so very important to him as a Pilot in Vietnam.
My grandpa was a Gunner's mate on several Battleships in WW2. What brave men they all were. :)

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Just yesterday I learned that during WWI, a relative, Andrew Belcher Flagg, retooled his jewelry factory (Attleboro, Massachusetts) to furnish airplane parts for the U.S. government. I haven't added this branch to Wikitree yet, but will soon, as I am making progress with research.

Answer 3

My dad went for flying lessons back in the early to mid 1970s and eventually got his private pilots license. But he never did anything with it. He could not afford to buy or own a plane. He just wanted the challenge. I think he also got a glider pilots license as well.

It was a highlight for the weekend for us girls to go with dad to the airport where the flying school was. It was about an hours drive away from our home. While he was up having his flying lesson, we girls were given some coins ( usually 50 cents) to buy candy from the airport shop. We would then hang around the flying school classroom and play pool on the teachers pool table. That is how I learned to play pool!! I would have been aged around 9 to 11 years old.

We moved away from that area when I was 12 and never went back.

AFAIK- there is noone else in my family with a pilots license.

Answer 4

My uncle was a pilot and navigator in WW2 - initially he trained others to fly but then was sent to the Mediterranean to fly WW2 bombers in over Italy and Greece.  By the time time hostilities in the area ceased, two-thirds of his squadron had been lost though he survived.

Answer 5

Glenn Curtiss (Curtiss-352) the aviation pioneer is in my tree. "On June 8, 1911, Curtiss received U.S. Pilot's License #1 from the Aero Club of America, because the first batch of licenses were issued in alphabetical order; Wilbur Wright received license #5." My uncle, son of (Fahey-1088) earned a private pilot license. I went up with a pilot friend twice. He let me take the controls for several segments. I borrowed his private pilot instruction manual. The meteorology section seemed to take up half the manual. It stands to reason it should, if you've ever flown in a single engine, two seater, but it dampened my enthusiasm to even take a first lesson. On my second flight, my friend needed a number of night take offs and landings to maintain his rating. We flew to the closest other regional airport and asked the tower for permission to do a series of "touch and goes," landing and immediately taking off without coming to a complete stop about five times. This fulfilled his rating requirement. In 1979, NY Yankees captain, Thurmon Munson died, crashing  on approach in Akron on a third "touch and go" attempt, piloting his new Cessna six passenger, Citation jet with his flight instructor sitting next to him. Munson failed to engage the flaps and lost lift just short of the runway, a wing clipping a tree and tearing off. I am very nervous landing as an airline passenger but I found flying at night in a single engine plane and landing multiple times as a passenger very exciting. I feel much more in control as a passenger in a small plane than in an airliner. I guess it's because you always know immediately what is going on in a single engine plane, no uncertainty.

Answer 6

A failed aviator. In 1943 my father, then an Ordinance Corps 2nd Lt., was accepted into the US Army Air Corps pilot training program.  A couple of weeks before he was to report he badly injured his ankle in a judo course, and was issued a medical discharge from the Army a few months later.  He was to fly B-25s.  Given the rate at which B-25s were lost in combat, his broken ankle may be the reason I can write this.

Comments

That's quite a close call, David. Thank you for sharing the story. We have a sticker for worldwide disasters. Maybe we need a sticker for accidents that likely prevented tragedies.

Answer 7

Both of my grandmothers were connected to aviators by marriage.

My paternal grandmother's cousin Norma Cameron married a man who was described in the wedding announcements in the newspapers as a "well-known American aviator". His name was C. Lindsey Niebel, and he was born in New Jersey about 1906. He was still living there with his parents in 1930, the year of his marriage to Norma, and working as a machinist in a factory. Since this was just three years after Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, the simple fact of being an aviator was still worth calling out in the papers.

My maternal grandmother's sister Elizabeth Smellie married Robert George Eaton in November 1942. After obtaining a commercial pilot's license in 1938, Eaton served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a flying instructor. One week after marrying my grandaunt, he went overseas. On Nov. 3, 1943, he piloted a Halifax aircraft on a bombing sortie to Dusseldorf as a member of the RCAF's No. 428 "Ghost" Squadron. As they returned to England, the aircraft crashed in Lincolnshire, and all aboard were killed.

Answer 8

My grandfather, Robert Hamel, was a staff sargeant in the US Air Force during the second world war and up to the Korean War. The birth of my mother clipped his wings. But, he still served for decades. 

Answer 9

Grandfather Truslow became a U.S. Navy pilot shortly after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1926.  Initially stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in 1935, he was assigned to the U.S. Naval Air patrol squadron and was part of a record-breaking flight from San Diego, CA, to Honolulu, HI in 1938.  A year later, he assigned to a Patrol Bombing Squadron based in Pearl Harbor, HI.

Answer 10

My husband joined the Army at 18 years old specifically to fly helicopters. He succeeded in his training at Ft. Wolters, Texas and at Ft. Rucker, Alabama and at 19 years old was flying gun ships in Vietnam. On Christmas Eve 1965 he was shot down but, thankfully, he and his crew were rescued and flown out of the battle area.

My Mom's first cousin {{Killingsworth-369}} Ike Killingsworth, was a pilot and was shot down over France on D-Day. I have a bit of his story on his profile page and this reminds me that I need to add to his story.

Answer 11

My great uncle, Edward M. Coon, was a navigator on a B-29 that flew missions against Japan in World War II.

My first cousin, three times removed, Clair L. Stong was a barnstormer in the 1920's.

Not an aviator, but my grandfather was the Chief Engineer of the Wiley Post Aircraft Company in Oklahoma City in the 1930's.

Comments

Roger, I will be leaving for Baltimore on Thursday to go to a B-29 reunion. It looks like we may only have three veterans this year, so these reunions will probably not go on much longer. The veterans that I will be with flew out of Guam, only one of them was a pilot. Do you know where your great uncle Edward was stationed?

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Alexis:

      He also flew off Guam.  He was in the 62nd Bombardment Squadron, 39th Bombardment Group.  

      Ed and his wife used to go to a lot of squadron reunions, too.

     Our families just seem to keep brushing up on each other.

                                Roger

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Roger, I will be with the 39th Bomb Group, the same group your great uncle was with. They are from all different squadrons. I started going after I found them on the internet, and this will be my 7th year to go. It was big group seven years ago, but sadly most of the veterans are gone now.

Yes, it is amazing how much our families are connected.

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Roger, I am at the reunion, and they all remember your uncle Ed and Billie and their friends Owen and Beth Whitfield. They came to many of the back reunions.

Answer 12

My great uncle, Allan Illingworth Meacham (Meacham-1072) (1898 - 1968) was a pilot in the First World War, first in the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service) and then in the RAF (Royal Air Force).

In May 1916 Alan (born 1898), then an apprentice in the Electrical Department of Mather & Platt, Park Works, Manchester, enlisted in the Army Reserve. In August 1917 he was instructed to report to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, where he was appointed Temporary Probationary Flight Officer at the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service), where he took courses in Internal Combustion Engines, Theory of Flight, Electricity and Gunnery Instruction.  In late September he was posted to Vendôme, France, where he took further courses on Theoretical Navigation, Theory of Flight, Aeroplane Construction, Aeroplane Rigging and Aeroplane Engines, and took his first flights.  By October he was flying solo in a Curtiss JN-4 (“Jenny”) and a Caudron G3 (both biplanes).

 

At the end of October he was posted to RNAS Cranwell, Lincolnshire, for further Officer Training, flying Avro,  BE2C/E,  Bristol Scout,  Sopwith Pup,  Sopwith Camel, and  Sopwith 1½ Strutter aeroplanes. He took courses on Wireless, Engines, Carburation, Ignition and Timing, Aerial Bombing and Photography. In January 1918 he held the height record for the station at 18,200 feet flying Sopwith Camel aeroplanes. He was reprimanded for flying “stunts” (loops and spins) in a Sopwith Pup, and was promoted to Temporary Flight Sub-Lieutenant.

 

At the end of February 1918 he was posted to RNAS Freiston Shores, Lincolnshire,  for gunnery and bombing practice. He flew solo  in a DH6. In March he was posted to RNAS Manston, “War Flight” in Kent.

 

In April 1918 the RNAS and the RFC (Royal Flying Corp) were combined to form the RAF (Royal Air Force), and his rank was changed to Lieutenant. In July he was posted to Stow Maries, Essex, flying Sopwith Camels for Home Defense. He fretted at being stuck in a backwater, when he would rather be at the front. He made a number of modifications and invention to “his “ plane, including a “patent box” for holding Very (signal flare) cartridges. He moved the pressure pump from the top outer strut to the undercarriage strut. He made and fitted a new petrol control on his machine, and other pilots copied him. He arranged a Union Jack on the top of his wing so he could salute flagships.  On one flight his plane was turned over by wind after landing. The plane was badly damaged, but he was uninjured. He did most of the repairs himself.  He continued to fly stunts in the repaired aeroplane.  The planes were all notoriously unreliable.

 

In October 1918 he moved to the 152 Squadron, which proceeded to British Expeditionary Force in France.  He wrote to his sister that “I’ve seen some of the most disgusting sights here that are imaginable. Simply Atrocious!!”. At some point Alan cut a rectangular hole in the upper wing of the machine. He also enlarged, into a rectangle, the semi-circular cut out on the rear edge of the wing. He received a commendation for these modifications that were designed to improve upward visibility, and was presented with a sterling silver model, of the aeroplane to commemorate the innovation.

 

He described the celebrations  when the Armistice was announced:

“All hostilities have ceased here. With the exception that we have been very busy pooping off 1,000’s of rounds of ammunition, Very lights, petrol, flares of every description and talk about rockets!!!, Well I can tell you it’s fine.

I was on patrol over Ghent when news of the Armistice came through. The searchlights opened up first, but instead of searching they all appeared to be drunk. I came to the conclusion that the Portuguese who run them must have had too much whiskey or something and were tight, for they simply whizzed round in circles. Then – lights and flares, blue, green white and red and yellow and rockets and every imaginable thing went up on both sides. All the whole line from Ghent as far South as I could see from 12,000 feet was a blaze of lights. The ceiling of the sky was lit up by it and it was magnificent and awesome to say the least of it. In a short while we are sending up our petrol dump.

Last night the squadron went to Lille and every other squadron round came also. We had a huge banquet and we “threw a big one”. i.e. we had a large!! binge. Tonight the squadron departs by tender for another. They’re going to throw a HELL of  big one. It’s a wonder they didn’t set fire to the place last night. Holt flares and lights, and Very lights etc fired at random and rockets too – in La grande place – Lille.

I wouldn’t have missed the sight from the air for anything. I was lucky enough to be up when they opened out. It’s true. I had the greatest fright of my life.”

 

Answer 13

In my own tree no - but in my husbands which I am profile manager for oh boy yes. One and its so sad. Douglas Haig Robertson was born on the West Coast of New Zealand. In 1930-31 he had joined the RAF. When war broke out he became a member of 220 squadron, they flew patrols from RAF Thornaby, as part of No. 18 Group. Piloting Ansons. In early November of 1939 they began training in Hudsons in preparation for performing strikes on Shipping in the North Sea. 

1939 - 8 November, Pilot Officer, Douglas Haig Robertson. Royal Air Force, 220 Squadron, was one of four RAF airmen aboard the RCAF Hudson N7290 aircraft which was on a training exercise; the aircraft stalled, causing it to crash near Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. All four airmen lost their lives. 

I will remember him on my birthday which is the 8 November and place a poppy on the Auckland Cenotaph website page for him.

Answer 14

My father, Robert L. Cooper, received his pilot’s license in 1936 at 16. Two years later he barnstormed to Iowa from California. He met my mother on that trip at a fair where he was giving farmers rides for $5. In 1940, he signed on with American Airlines. He worked for AA until 1982.

Answer 15

I have three.  The first is my great uncle Arthur Burge.  He was a younger brother of my grandfather, Thomas Andrew Burge.  He was a fighter pilot during World War II.  The second aviator is my wife's grandfather, Leo J. Gros. Mr. Gros, the first full-time paid fire chief for the city of Lafayette, Louisiana, operated a flying school in Lafayette and trained pilots for the military during World War II. Finally, my mother-in-law, Dolores Gros Young, began flying at an early age from her father's, Leo Gros, airfield facilities and obtained her pilot's license shortly before her sixteenth birthday.

Answer 16

Richard (Dick) Farrell Baer, graduated from Madison West High School

in 1941.  He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where shortly

after beginning classes he enlisted into the Army Air Force in early

1942.  His father Raymond W. Baer was on the draft board and they

thought it was wise for Dick to volunteer instead of being drafted.

Dick received his training and went to flight school in Texas and

California where he became B-17 bomber pilot and was assigned to

Europe and an Army Air Force base in England.  Interestingly, Dick's

crew had an insignia on the nose of their B-17 of the "The Mean Widdle

Kid", a character played by comedic/actor Red Skelton.

From England, Dick co-piloted and piloted many missions that departed

in the middle of the night.  Typically on each mission, the crew spent

about 20 hours cooped up inside of their B-17 Fying Fortress, which

ironically was somewhat cramped.  They routinely flew air raids from

England to Germany then returning back to base in England.  On one

such return trip, Dick's plane was shot down over France while

returning from a bombing mission run over Germany.  The whole crew

bailed out and parachuted to safety, except for Dick.  Instead of

putting on a parachute to bail-out, he preferred to stay in the plane.

He then safely crash-landed in allied controlled France.  On another

mission, the vertical stabilizer on the tail of his bomber was shot up

but Dick still managed to bring the crew home safely.

As the war in Europe was ending, Dick had just finished his run of

missions then was sent home on leave as routinely done.  At home

Richard realized that his next assignment would probably be in the

Pacific where the war with Japan was still going, but never went

because Japan surrendered while he was still on leave.  Richard was a

First Lieutenant at the time of his discharge.

Answer 17

My son was accepted to the US Air Force Academy, where upon graduation, he flew C130's, stationed in every base we have overseas. As he progressed in rank, he became an instructor of pilots wanting to be instructors. He also had the opportunity to be the lead plane in a flyover at an Oklahoma State football game. He finished his 20 year career as a Lt. Colonel. My father in law was in the Army Air Corp, soon to be changed to the Air Force, and was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by Japan. He was hit by a bomb, injured severely and ending his flying, as he spent 18 months in the hospitals having numerous surgeries.

Answer 18

My uncle was a member of RAF Bomber Command during the second World War.  Sergeant Eric James,  He was killed during the Battle of Britain.  

The Battle of Britain was fought by Fighter Command from the 10^th July to 31^st October 1940 (3 months and 3 weeks).

Eric was reported missing in action on 12^th September 1940.  Death presumed on 11^th September, 1940.   In a letter received from the Ministry of Defence, It states:

” I can confirm that Sgt E. James was the Navigator on Wellington Bomber L7809, which took off from Marham at 23.35 hours on 11 September 1940 for a raid on Oostende, Belgium.  This aircraft was part of a force of 133 bombers detailed to attack targets in both Germany and some of the Channel Ports.  At approximately 02.20 hours Wellington Bomber No.  L7809 was hit  by German Anti Aircraft fire, and crashed just behind the Central Railway Station  at Oostende, killing the entire crew instantly”. 

 

Answer 19

My Dad, Burton R Drum was an airline pilot of great experience and had flown everything from a Stearman Bi-plane to the Boeing 747. As a WWII veteran, he flew the TBM torpedo bomber off carriers in the Pacific then transitioned to commercial flying and rounded out his career as an FAA check pilot.  Dad and Bush (41) were in the same squadron

TBM Torpedo Bomber Squadron 153, 1945  1945 

Answer 20

I am supposed to be related to Amy Johnson, but i haven't found any link yet.  My aunty Beryl wood nee Johnson told me she was her cousin.  Whether she was trying to impress me or whether it was true, i haven't yet found out! she died in 2008!

Comments

Family mysteries are always fun to solve, if possible. Also fun is to disprove family myths. I hope you will be able to do one or the other.