JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
U.S. Army North (Fifth Army) will host a celebration of the Birthplace of Military Aviation, which occurred at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on March 2, 1910.
The 113th anniversary celebrating the birth of military flight takes place at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 2, 2023 at the Benjamin Foulois Historic Marker at the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Main Flagpole, located at 2595 Stanley Road, just a few hundred feet from where the man who helped usher in the dawn of military flight made his historic journey 113 years ago.
The event will pay tribute to the historic significance of the flight and honor the multiple branches that have been brought forth because of this event.
Lt. Gen. John R. Evans Jr., Commanding General, U.S. Army North (Fifth Army) and Senior Army Commander, Joint Base San Antonio, will host the celebration that will also feature static aviation displays including a variety of rotary wing aircraft provided by the Texas Air National Guard. Guest speaker for the event is retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Dave Petersen, interim president and CEO of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
The first Army aircraft made its first flight March 2, 1910, at Fort Sam Houston with Lt. Benjamin Foulois at the controls. Foulois piloted the Army's first aircraft, Signal Corps Aircraft No. 1, with his first flight lasting only 7 1/2 minutes. He made three more flights that day and on his fourth attempt, the young pilot ended up crashing the airplane.
The original Signal Corps Aircraft No. 1 was a Canard biplane with a four-cylinder Wright 30.6 horsepower engine driving two wooden propellers via a sprocket-and-chain transmission system. “Old Number One,” America’s first military airplane, was an earlier machine than the Model B the Wright brothers began building in their Dayton factory in 1910. Foulois taught himself to fly via correspondence with Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Foulois was able to fly the 30-horsepower, two-propeller biplane a total of seven and a half minutes, and attained a height of 200 feet, circling the field at a speed of 30 mph.
An extensive biography of Foulois is available online at http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/107091/major-general-benjamin-delahauf-foulois.aspx.