Frank Lahm, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)
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Frank Lahm holds the distinction among Register pilots of holding pilot certificate number 2. He was
taught to fly by the Wright brothers. He was born on November 17, 1877 and died July 7, 1963 of a stroke at age 85. A PDF (13MB) download available from the Air Force Historical Research Agency provides an excellent biography, as well as his diary from WWI.
Photographs on this page shared with us by site contributor Andy Heins.
Frank Lahm, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)
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Frank Lahm, an original Early Bird, landed at the Davis-Monthan
Airfield as pilot in command on January 25, 1928, already a Brigadier General. He carried Captain A.B. McDaniel (also a Register pilot) as his single passenger in a Curtiss O-1B, 25-330. Based at Duncan Field, San Antonio, TX, they were westbound from El Paso, TX to March Field, Riverside, CA.
What he was doing in Tucson can be deduced from a passage from the biography link above (page xv). "From July 1926 to July 1930, Lahm was Assistant to the Chief of the Air Corps, with rank of Brigadier General. It was during this period that he organized and commanded the Air Corps Training Center, uniting on one field at San Antonio what had previously been four headquarters and three separate schools. Lahm can justly be called the Father of Randolph Field, popularly known as the 'West Point of the Air.'"
Frank Lahm, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)
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Lahm was also a passenger in several other landings at Tucson. He landed twice with Jack C. Hodgson, three times with A.B. McDaniel, and once each with Robert Knopp and R.W. Douglass. The nature of these flights, and the aircraft used, are reveiwed at his pilots' links.
Below, shared with us by site visitor Jeff Staines, is a U.S. postal cachet. Mr. Staines says about his cachet, "This cachet dedicates the New York Aviation Show of 1930, sponsored by Aviator's Post No. 743 of the American Legion out of New York. It is signed by "Early Bird" Frank P. Lahm, who was a member in good standing at the Post."
U.S. Postal Cachet, February 10, 1930 (Source: Staines)
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Lahm was President of the Early Bird organization, 1949-50. A
great biographical link for him is at the Early Bird Web site. Lahm enjoys good Web presence, so I leave you to explore the information available there. The biographies linked above is a good start. Below, from Mr. Heins, Lahm poses with his aircraft.
Frank Lahm, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: June, 2005 REVISED: 04/05/11, 09/07/11, 01/07/12
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