100 Years

 

"Brown Bird" Wright Flyer Replica over Fort Sam Houston.  (U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

From Fort Sam Houston, TX via the Air Force News Service:

3/2/2010 - FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (AFNS)  -- Servicemembers and civilians remembered 100 years of military flight during the Foulois Centennial Military Flight Celebration here, March 2.

The celebration honored Maj. Gen. Benjamin Foulois, a Signal Corps pilot who flew the "Wright "B" Flyer" aircraft. In his honor, a demonstration of two Wright "B" Flyer replicas were watched by the more than 1,500 in attendance at the MacArthur Parade Field at Fort Sam Houston.

On March 2, 1910, this parade field was where General Foulois made his first take-off, solo flight, and landing and after four flights, his first crash. He survived.

"General Foulois marked Fort Sam Houston and this great city of San Antonio as the birthplace of military aviation 100 years ago," said Army Maj. Gen. Russell J. Czerw, the Fort Sam Houston commander. "Since then, we all know it's been amazing what we have done in military aviation and today we value so very much the air transport and air superiority. It's essential to obtaining our military objectives."

During the celebration, one of the Wright "B" Flyers, called the "Yellow Bird," taxied in front of the spectators as the other similar "Brown Bird" made several passes 1,000 feet over the crowd.

[...]

Weather definitely factored in for the pilots of the original Wright "B" Flyer, which weighed slightly more than 1200 pounds and was powered by a 35 to 40 horsepower engine and had cruise speed of 40 MPH. The replica "Brown Bird" that flew over the ceremony was updated with a 225 horsepower engine and has a cruise speed of 55 MPH.

Hard to believe, innit?  Military aviation is now 100 years old, as of this past Tuesday.  It's such a huge leap from the Wright Flyer to the F-22, the Space Shuttle, and all those silvery commercial jets we see everyday.  Don't doubt for a minute that commercial aviation has its roots in what began 100 years ago at Fort Sam Houston with General Foulois in his Wright Flyer.  We've come a long way, Baby.

There are five more hi-res photos and the full article at the link.