On the evening of 17 September 1908, a young American officer named Thomas Selfridge climbed into a fragile wooden aircraft at Fort Myer, Virginia. Minutes later, he would become the first person in history to die in the crash of a powered airplane.
The machine was a Wright Flyer, designed and flown by Orville Wright, one half of the famous Wright brothers. The demonstration flights at Fort Myer were part of a U.S. Army evaluation. The military was considering purchasing an aircraft from the Wright Company, and Orville had already impressed observers with controlled turns and sustained flight.
Orville Wright and Thomas Selfridge in Wright flyer before the ill-fated flight. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Thomas Selfridge was born in 1882, in San Francisco, California. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1903, and received his commission in the Artillery Corps. In 1907, he was assigned to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps at Fort Myer, where he was later instructed in flying a dirigible. He was also associated with the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), the innovative group backed by Alexander Graham Bell.
Selfridge took his first flight on December 6, 1907, on a Bell's tetrahedral kite, rising to 168 feet (51 m) in the air above Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia, Canada. This was the first recorded passenger flight of any heavier-than-air craft in Canada.
Selfridge also designed the AEA's first powered aircraft, the Red Wing. On March 12, 1908, the Red Wing, piloted by Frederick W. Baldwin, raced over the frozen surface of Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, New York, on runners, and managed to fly 318 feet (97 m) before crashing.
On May 19, 1908, Selfridge became the first US military officer to pilot a modern aircraft, when he flew solo in AEA's newest craft, White Wing. By doing so he became the first U.S. military officer to fly any airplane unaccompanied.
Lieutenant Thomas Etholen Selfridge
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