George E. M. Kelly: Difference between revisions
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==Legacy== |
==Legacy== |
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The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston was renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then [[Kelly Field]] on 30 July 1917, and finally [[Kelly Air Force Base]] on 29 January 1948.<ref name="Mueller">Mueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 267.</ref> |
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[[Kelly Air Force Base]] was named in his honor.<ref name=va/> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 12:35, 3 April 2011
George E. M. Kelly (December 11, 1878 - May 10, 1911) was the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting and the second U.S. Army aviation fatality after Thomas Selfridge.[1]
Biography
Kelly was born on 11 December 1878 in England. He emigrated and joined the U.S. Army in 1904.[2] On 10 May 1911, Kelly was one of four Army aviators on duty with a division of Army regulars mobilized at San Antonio, Texas. He crashed when he banked his Curtiss Type IV (or Curtiss Model D), Army Signal Corps serial number 2, sharply to avoid plowing into an infantry encampment near the present site of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. [3] He died from a skull fracture at Fort Sam Houston Hospital an hour after the accident.[2] He was buried in San Antonio National Cemetery.[1]
Due to this crash, the commanding officer of Fort Sam Houston banned further training flights at the base, the flying facilities being moved to College Park Airport, College Park, Maryland in June–July 1911.[4]
Legacy
The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston was renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then Kelly Field on 30 July 1917, and finally Kelly Air Force Base on 29 January 1948.[5]
See also
- List of fatalities from aviation accidents
- Thomas Etholen Selfridge, first person in United States to die in powered aircrash; he was a passenger and Orville Wright was piloting
References
- ^ a b "San Antonio National Cemetery". Veterans Administration. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
Second Lieutenant George E. M. Kelly (Section A, Grave 117-A), for whom Kelly Air Force Base was named. Lt. Kelly was killed in 1911 at Fort Sam Houston, the second U.S. Army aviator to lose his life in a military airplane accident.
- ^ a b "Lieut. Kelly Killed. His Airship Wrecked. Army Airman Suffers Fractured Skull in Fall at San Antonio and Dies an Hour Later". New York Times. May 11, 1911. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
Second Lieut. George E.M. Kelly of the United States Signal Corps, one of the four army aviators on duty with the division of regulars mobilized here, was killed this morning when a Curtiss aeroplane he was flying got beyond control, after which it ran through the air for over a hundred yards, and crashed to the ground, burying Lieut. Kelly in its wreckage.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Mueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 267.
- ^ Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 49.
- ^ Mueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 267.