By : Tye Richmond
Every May 26th it is national paper airplane day, yes people national airplane day is a day. National Paper Airplane Day honors the simple aeronautical toy that has been around for thousands of years.
According to nationaldaycalender.com is says, “Many believe the use of paper airplanes originated 2,000 years ago in China. The earliest known date of the creation of modern paper planes was said to have been 1909. The largest paper aircraft had a wingspan of 59.74 ft. Students and employees from Germany created it on 28th September 2013. Joe Ayoob recorded the longest distance flown by a paper airplane in February 2012. His plane flew 226 feet, 10 inches. The longest-lasting paper airplane flight flew 29.2 seconds.”
Also, Top Gun: Maverick was just recently released in movie theaters so it had me thinking of honoring some famous African American pioneers of aviation because they don’t get that much love. We know about The Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Chuck Yeager. But let’s recognize some African American aviators.
First-person I want to recognize is Bessie Coleman, she was the first African American woman to hold a pilot license. Also, the first Native American woman to hold a pilot’s license.
According to a headlines.flydayton.com article it says, “When Bessie Coleman tried to enroll in flight school, no school would accept her as a black woman. After discovering that she might have better luck overseas, Coleman began taking French lessons after work in the evenings, enabling her to complete French flight school applications. Once accepted, she trained in France and earned her pilot license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. Upon returning to the U.S., Coleman was a sensation, drawing large crowds to watch her aerobatic stunt flying. She used her popularity to fight discrimination by refusing to perform at events where crowds would be segregated. She also advocated for more African Americans and women to learn to fly, influencing many who would follow in her footsteps.”
The next person to recognize is Cornelius Coffey, he is the First African American to hold a pilot and aircraft mechanic license. Plus, the founder of the first African American-owned and certified flight school.
According to the same headlines.flydayton.com article it says, “Cornelius Coffey was already a skilled auto mechanic when he dreamed of becoming a pilot. Facing difficulty in applying to flight schools, he built his own plane and taught himself to fly it. In 1931, he organized a group of black flight enthusiasts and filed a lawsuit to be enrolled at Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical School, which had refused to admit him for being black. He also helped to start the Challengers Air Pilots’ Association in Chicago, including setting up an airfield in Robbins, Illinois. Coffey wanted to start a flight school open to anyone who wanted to learn to fly. He founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics and with the help of his wife, Willa Brown, his school facilitated the initial training for many of the Tuskegee Airmen.”
Next is the group of men that we should or already know about the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps (later U.S. Air Force).
Headlines.flydayton.com article stated, “With a shortage of trained white male pilots, the U.S. government lifted their ban on black pilots and began training African American men at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. 14,000 black men were trained as pilots, bombardiers, control tower operators, instructors, aircraft mechanics, and support staff. After completing 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa in World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen’s military units were among the most successful in the war, earning 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses and encouraging the integration of the armed forces in the process. Many of the Tuskegee Airmen would go on to careers in aviation and in the military, in what would eventually become the U.S. Air Force.”
This is just a small list of some of the amazing African American pioneers in aviation. I just want to show love to the ones that paved the way for the African American aviators in today’s society, and the future.
