Theodore G. Ellyson

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Theodore Gordon "Spuds" Ellyson, USN (27 February 1885 – 27 February 1928), was the first

In December 1910, Ellyson was ordered by Captain

LT Ellyson became first aviator in history to qualify as a pilot according to Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) standards in a flight over water. In the presence of a committee of the Aero Club of America, he was required to fly five figure eights around two flags buoyed 1500 feet apart and land within 150 feet of an established mark. This course had to be completed twice. When Ellyson qualified, he landed directly alongside his mark, a white flag buoyed by a bottle. His second landing was within ten feet of his first. The test also required the prospective aviator to climb to a minimum altitude of 150 ft (officially 50 meters). Ellyson made this twice on his test. On September 7, 1911, LT Ellyson, in the Navy model A-1 Triad, slid down 150 ft on a wire cable at Hammondsport, New York from a platform 25 ft high, and was safely launched out over Keuka Lake.^[2]

From the time Ellyson began instruction in aviation until 29 April 1913, he devoted all of his time to active flying and experimental work in aviation. This included the establishment of Naval Aviation Camps at

On 20 July 1925, he assumed command of Torpedo Squadron 1 and from March to June 1926 was executive officer of USS Wright, a seaplane tender. On 23 June 1926, he was ordered to duty in connection with the fitting out of USS Lexington, the Navy's second aircraft carrier, and was on board when she was placed in commission.

Commander Ellyson was killed on 27 February 1928, his 43rd birthday, in the crash of a Loening OL-7 ^[3] aircraft in the lower Chesapeake Bay while on a night flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to Annapolis, Maryland. His body washed ashore and was recovered in April 1928.^[4] He was buried in the Naval Academy Cemetery, in Annapolis.

Legacy

In 1941, the

• John Alcock - British commander of the first non-stop transatlantic flight (1919)
• Eugene Burton Ely - First aviator to successfully takeoff and land from a ship
• William A. Moffett - First commander of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics & father of U.S. Naval aviation
• Albert Cushing Read - U.S. commander of the first transatlantic flight (1919)
• John Rodgers - U.S. Naval Aviator No. 2, commander of first flight to Hawaii (1925)
• John Henry Towers - U.S. Naval Aviator No. 3

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

• Grossnick, Roy et al. "PART 1. A Few Pioneers 1898-1916." Chapter in United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995. 4th edition. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1997.
• Stephen K. Stein, From Torpedoes to Aviation: Washington Irving Chambers & Technological Innovation in the New Navy 1876 to 1913 (2007)
• William Trimble, Hero of the Air: Glenn Curtiss and the Birth of Naval Aviation (2010)

External links

• Collections of Ellyson's papers
  • Register of Ellyson's papers at the Library of Congress
  • Papers of Theodore G. Ellyson, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.
• Californians and the Military: Theodore Gordon Ellyson, Commander, U.S.N.: "Submariner" and "Naval Aviator Number One" - from the California Military Museum
• USS Ellyson (DD-454) - Dictionary of American Fighting Ships entry, from the Naval Historical Center
• Ellyson biography from the First Flight Society