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Field of Firsts
- 1909: First woman passenger to fly in the United States
On October 27, Mrs. Ralph Van Deman (her first name is lost to history), wife of Capt. Van Deman, became the first woman in the U.S. to go aloft in an airplane when she flew at College Park as the passenger of Wilbur Wright. Mrs. Van Deman was a close friend of Katherine Wright (sister to Wilbur and Orville).
- 1909: First officer to fly a military aeroplane
Lt. Frederic Humphreys was the first military pilot to solo in a military aeroplane. He, Lt. Frank Lahm, and Lt. Benjamin Foulois received their flight instruction at College Park from Wilbur Wright.
- 1909: First U.S. Naval officer to fly in a heavier-than-air machine
During a nine-minute flight on November 3, Lt. George C. Sweet, USN flew as passenger of Lt. Frank Lahm, USA.
- 1911: First Army Aviation School
The U.S. Army leased some 200 acres, extending north along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad property to a series of goldfish ponds and east to the Paint Branch of the Anacostia River, with a maximum cleared runway of 2,376 feet in an east-west direction. Four temporary wooden hangars 45 feet square, built on plans furnished by the Wright Company, were erected along the railroad track, with a small headquarters building next to them. One of the hangars was used to quarter the detachment of enlisted men; a tent served as an emergency hospital.
- 1911: First testing of a bomb aiming device from an aero
Inert bombs were dropped into the goldfish ponds at the end of the airfield using a bombsight developed by Riley E. Scott.
- 1912: First testing of a machine gun from an aeroplane
On June 7, a Lewis Machine Gun was fired by Captain Chandler from a Wright B, with Lieutenant Milling as pilot.
- 1912: First mile-high flight by a military aviator
Lt. Henry "Hap" Arnold made the first army altitude records at College Park.
- 1918-21: First U.S. Postal Air Mail Service
The regular U.S. Postal Air Mail flights were inaugurated on August 12, 1918, from College Park to Philadelphia to New York.
- 1924: First controlled helicopter flight
Emile and Henry Berliner based their flight experiments at College Park from 1920 to 1924. After their success at College Park, they moved to the Naval Air Station in Anacostia, where they worked with the Navy on continued experiments.
- 1927-35: First radio navigational aids developed and tested by the Bureau of Standards
These first radio navigational aids were the forerunner of the modern Instrument Landing System used today.
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College Park Aviation Museum, 1985 Corporal Frank Scott Drive, College Park, MD 20740 |
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