JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, texas –
U.S. Army North hosted the First Flight Military Aviation ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on Feb. 28, 2025.
This ceremony was held to commemorate the impact of military aviation and the enduring legacy of 1st Lt. Benjamin Foulois’ first military flight at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston on March 2, 1910.
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.