George E. M. Kelly

George Edward Maurice Kelly (11 December 1878 – 10 May 1911) was the 12th pilot of the U.S. Army's Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps and the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. He was the second U.S. Army aviation fatality, preceded by Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, who was killed while flying as an observer in a Wright Flyer piloted by Orville Wright on 17 September 1908.

Biography

Kelly was born on 11 December 1878 in London, England, and educated at Bedford Modern School. He emigrated, gained U.S. citizenship, and joined the U.S. Army in 1904. He was a 2nd Lieutenant.

On January 16, 1911, Kelly was a troop officer in the 30th Infantry when he participated in an exhibition reconnaissance flight with Wright Company pilot Walter Brookins. Kelly volunteered for flying training and was detailed to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps and sent to the Curtiss aviation school in San Diego, California. Before his training was completed, two other pilots (1st Lieutenant Paul W. Beck and 2nd Lieutenant John C. Walker, Jr.) and he were sent to Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas, where the Maneuver Division had been activated in March. First Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois, then the Army's sole aviator, was also stationed at "Fort Sam" with its sole operational aircraft, a leased Wright Model B. There, the Army accepted delivery of two new aircraft, a Curtiss Model D, serial number S.C. No. 2, and a Wright Model B, S.C. No.