Eugene Ely takes off from the USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads on November 14, 1910
A commemorative stone recalls the event, but few of the people who walk by it every day could actually tell you what it says, or even care. As is true with so much of history, the man and deed are little remembered.
Such would not have been the case on November 14, 1910. On that particular day if you had been walking on the beach in what is now the Monitor-Merrimac Overlook Park in Newport News, Virginia, you would have seen an unusual site.
Just offshore, the light cruiser USS Birmingham was at anchor, with its bow covered by a large, slanted, wooden ramp. If you had been standing there at 3:16 PM that afternoon, you would have seen a fragile, wood and cloth, Curtis biplane rolling down the ramp and being launched into the open air. It was the very first time anyone had ever done it… the first “aircraft carrier” takeoff.
Eugene B. ElyThe pilot wasn’t in the Navy. He was a civilian race car driver and exhibition pilot from Iowa, named Eugene B. Ely, and he had been flying less than a year. In fact, he had gotten his Federal pilot’s license (license #17) only forty days before. But it just so happened that, at that particular time, the US Navy was thinking about the possible uses of those brand new airplanes…. and Eugene must have done some fast talking for he managed to get the Navy to allow him to try his experiment.
Not having a lot of real aircraft carriers lying around at that time, the Navy selected the USS Birmingham and had it fitted with an 83 foot-long wooden platform at the Norfolk Naval Yard. By the morning of November 14 everything was ready. Ely had a ship, a wooden “flight deck,” and a Curtis “pusher” biplane, complete with a newly installed engine. His plan was to take off from the Birmingham and fly to the nearby Norfolk Naval Base.
Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating. Squalls were causing choppy sailing and the Birmingham anchored off Newport News to wait. By early afternoon the weather had cleared a bit and an anxious Eugene Ely powered up his plane even as the ship began to get underway again. Without even waiting for the anchor to be completely raised, he started his plane down the platform and rolled off the bow of the ship. Ely’s little plane actually hit the water, before the engine lifted him back up. He was aloft, but had a damaged propeller and his goggles were covered with sea spray. Having accomplished his goal, he landed at Willoughby Spit, about two miles away. The total flight, from takeoff to landing, lasted less than five minutes but Eugene B. Ely had made aviation history.
Less than two months later, Eugene was in San Francisco. There, on January 18, 1911, he duplicated his Hampton Roads feat and went on to make the first “carrier” landing on the cruiser USS Pennsylvania.
Although successful in his aviation demonstrations, Ely had no luck trying to obtain a position as a naval aviator, as the Navy had no real flight program in 1911. He occupied his time in flying exhibitions. Tragically he was killed in a plane crash in Georgia, later the same year.
Consequently, his actual flying career was quite short, but the next time you see, hear, or read about Navy planes and carriers protecting us in distant waters, take a moment to thank Eugene B. Ely.
Story reprinted by permission from the Tidewater History Examiner.