Right you are, Stradee and Merry Andrew. Selfridge Field is located in Michigan and became Selfridge Air Force Base when the US Army Air Corps became the US Air Force in 1947. First Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge of the United States Army was a pioneer in the development of air travel and the first air crash fatality. A graduate of the West Point military academy, Selfridge was appointed by President Teddy Roosevelt to observe the flight experiments of Alexander Graham Bell. In 1907 and 1908 Selfridge worked with Bell's team on aeronautics designs and piloted Bell's "June Bug" and "White Wing" aircrafts, the first U.S. soldier to fly an airplane. On 17 September 1908 Lt. Selfridge took a ride with aviation pioneer Orville Wright over Fort Meyer, Virginia. After about five minutes in the air, the plane crashed, falling from a height of at least 60 feet. Wright broke a leg and 2 or 3 ribs, but Selfridge suffered a skull fracture and died three hours later. The plane crashed a few hundred feet from Arlington National Cemetery, where Selfridge was buried with full honors.
Selfridge graduated from West Point in 1903, the same year as Douglas MacArthur.
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Bessie Coleman, Aviator
Born: 26 January 1892
Birthplace: Atlanta, Texas
Died: 30 April 1926 (fall from airplane)
Best Known As: The world's first licensed African-American pilot
Coleman was both African-American and female, and she is remembered as an aviation pioneer for both groups. Coleman grew up in Texas, moved to Chicago, and got interested in flying after her brothers returned from World War I. Failing to find anyone in Chicago who would teach flying to a black woman, Coleman determined to go abroad to get training -- a daring move for that era. She moved to Paris, was accepted to aviation school, and on 15 June 1921 she received her pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. The certificate made her the world's first licensed black aviator. Coleman returned to the United States and began a barnstorming career, appearing at airshows across the country. She died in 1926 while flight-testing an open-cockpit plane; her co-pilot lost control of the aircraft and in the ensuing dive Coleman was tossed from the plane and plunged to her death.
I've been very busy last four days.
