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Frenchman flies first plane in Texas
On this day in 1910, a Frenchman, Louis Paulhan, made the first recorded
airplane flight in Texas. The first people in the state to fly, in the
1860s, were air-show balloonists and their passengers, although several
inventors were also busy with plans for winged flying machines. The
alleged flight of Jacob F. Brodbeck in 1865 has become a Texas legend.
After the Wright brothers' controlled airplane flights in 1903,
aeronautical progress generally was slow until 1909-10, when European
aviation made rapid strides and the United States government acquired
its first aircraft. Aerial demonstrations proliferated at sites across
America, including Houston, where Paulhan made his flight. Military
aviation developed at the same time. Lt. Benjamin Foulois, a colorful
pioneer pilot, arrived at Fort Sam Houston in February 1910, assembled
the army's recently purchased Wright biplane, and took to the air on
March 2, 1910. Almost a hundred years later, Texas continues to be a
leader in civil and military aviation.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- AVIATION
- BRODBECK, JACOB FRIEDRICH
- FORT SAM HOUSTON
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Heroic Texas woman graduates from flight-nurse school (1943)
- Secessionist fire-eater dies (1874)
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