Frederick Erastus Humphreys
| Frederick Erastus Humphreys | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 16, 1883 Summit, New Jersey |
| Died | January 20, 1941 (aged 57) Miami Beach, Florida |
| Occupation | Aviator |
| Parent(s) | Alvah Jay Sperry Humphreys Fannie Brush |
Frederick Erastus Humphreys (September 16, 1883 – January 20, 1941) was one of the original three military pilots trained by the Wright brothers and the first to fly solo.
Frederick was born on September 16, 1883 in Summit, New Jersey, the only son of Jay Humphreys and Fannie Brush. He attended the Pennsylvania Military College, and won an appointment from New York to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He was made Cadet Captain, he lettered in fencing, and was the top eighth student of seventy-eight in the West Point Class of 1906. After graduation and commissioning, he was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers and sent to Fort Riley, Kansas where he worked in bridge construction. 2nd Lt. Humphreys deployed to Cuba during the Pacification Expedition, and a year later, returned to attend the Engineer Officer Basic Course.
Humphreys volunteered for assignment to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps and was chosen to replace Benjamin Foulois in pilot training by the Wright brothers. On October 26, 1909, after three hours of instruction by Wilbur Wright, he became the first Army aviator to solo in a heavier-than-air craft, and thus the first pilot of the first progenitor of the United States Air Force. The Army's sole military airplane crashed on November 5, 1909, after which Humphreys returned to the Corps of Engineers.
In 1910, Humphreys resigned his commission to attend to his father's business, the Humphreys Homeopathic Medicine Company, founded by his grandfather in 1853. Thereafter he served as an officer of the company, the last twelve years of his life as its president.
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