1. Thomas Etholen Selfridge was an American first lieutenant in the US Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash.
17 Facts About Thomas Selfridge
1. 2.
Thomas Selfridge was the first active-duty member of the US military to die in a crash while on duty.
3.
Thomas Selfridge was killed while seated as a passenger in a Wright Flyer, on a demonstration flight piloted by Orville Wright.
4.
Thomas Selfridge was the nephew of Rear Admiral Thomas Oliver Selfridge Jr.
5.
Thomas Selfridge graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1903, and received his commission in the Artillery Corps.
6.
Thomas Selfridge was 31st in a class of 96; Douglas MacArthur was first.
7.
In 1907, when the Artillery Corps was separated into the Field Artillery and Coast Artillery Corps, Thomas Selfridge was assigned to the 5th Field Artillery Regiment and the following year to the 1st Field Artillery Regiment.
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Thomas Selfridge was stationed at the Presidio during the great San Francisco earthquake of April 18,1906.
9.
Thomas Selfridge's unit participated in search and rescue, as well as cleanup operations.
10.
Thomas Selfridge was the United States government representative to the Aerial Experiment Association, which was chaired by Alexander Graham Bell, and he became its first secretary.
11.
Thomas Selfridge took his first flight on December 6,1907, on Bell's tetrahedral kite, the Cygnet, made of 3,393 winged cells.
12.
Thomas Selfridge flew a craft built by a Canadian engineer, Frederick W Baldwin, which flew 3 feet off the ground for a distance of about 100 feet.
13.
On May 19,1908, Thomas Selfridge became the first US military officer to pilot a modern aircraft, when he flew solo in AEA's newest craft, White Wing, traveling 100 feet on his first attempt and 200 feet on his second.
14.
Thomas Selfridge underwent neurosurgery, but died three hours later without regaining consciousness.
15.
Two photographs taken of the Flyer just prior to the flight show that Thomas Selfridge was not wearing any headgear, while Wright was only wearing a cap.
16.
Thomas Selfridge was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3 Gravesite 2158, adjacent to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
17.
In 1965, Thomas Selfridge was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.