Early Birds of Aviation, Inc.

THE EARLY BIRDS
OF AVIATION, Inc.
An organization of pioneers who flew solo before December 17, 1916

"Justin Gruelle's mural contains not only portraits of many aviation pioneers but also their aircraft, and all are depicted with an eye toward detail and historical accuracy that would be difficult to exceed."
Reproduced from TRACES of Indiana and Midwestern History
Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society
For the complete story, click on Mural

598 ORIGINAL EARLY BIRDS

	ABB-BOL	BOL-CLA	CLA-ELL	ELL-HAD	HAL-JOH
	JOH-MaC	MaC-PAR	PAT-SHA	SHA-TIM	TON-ZIS

History Of
Early Birds

Chronology Of
Early Birds

1910, Banner Year In History

1912, Highlights In History

Early Bird
Events

National Aviation
Hall Of Fame

The Very Earliest
Early Birds

Early Birds of Aviation
CHIRP
Official Publication

Aviation Deaths
1910 - 1914
Requires
Adobe Reader

Aviation Deaths
Portraits
To 1912

Mystery Photos
We Need
Your Help

THE WRIGHT
FLYER
Original
Advertisement

Aeronautic
Society
New York
1908-1909

First Airplanes
Arrive in
Lewis County

RECENT ADDITIONS & UPDATES As a convenience for my regular visitors, I have added a page on which they can find all the new pioneer aviators which I have added to the website, as well as all updates which have been made recently. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

360 U. S. EARLY FLYERS These are pioneer flyers who were not members of the Early Bird organization. Even those who soloed before the cutoff date, December 17, 1916 and were otherwise eligible, were either overlooked as candidates or didn't bother to apply.

343 FOREIGN EARLY FLYERS
Argentinian (9), Australian (3), Austrian (2), Belgian (22), Brazilian (19), British (39), Canadian (5), Chilean (2), China (2), Cuba (3), Czech (1), Danish (2), Dutch (9), French (86), German (27), Greek (7), Guatemalan (1), Haitian (1), Hungarian (3), Indian (1), Italian (23), Japan (5), Latvia (1), Mexican (9), Paraguayan (1), Peruvian (2), Polish (1),Portuguese (2), Rhodesian (1), Romanian (18), Russian, (15), Scotch, (3), Slovenian, (3), Spanish (7), Swedish (2), Swiss (4), Thai, (3), Trinidad, (1), Turkish, (1), Venezuelan (1), Vietnamese (1)

PIONEER PILOT
WALTER E. LEES
1887 - 1957
(Click On Name For Brief Biographical Sketch)

From his collection of photos, news clippings and his journals

Many from the book
"Pioneer Pilot"
edited by his daughter
Jo Lees Cooper

PIONEER PILOT I invite you visit my companion site which features the career of my father-in-law, Walter E. Lees, 1887-1957. You may access it by clicking on the title above.

THE EARLY BIRDS OF AVIATION      I heartily recommend that you visit this other site which features the Early Birds. It was built by Carroll Gray and offers many unique and fascinating stories and photos of the Early Birds and their exploits. It even has two QuickTime film clips of EB Alys McKey Bryant and EB Harry P. Christofferson. You may access it by clicking on the title above.

     You should also plan to visit Carroll's comprehensive companion site which is devoted to Pioneer Aviator Lincoln Beachey. You may access it by clicking on:
Lincoln Beachey      Carroll has done a remarkable job on these two sites and I am sure you will enjoy your visit.

This really outstanding website has entries for some 97 pioneer aviators, both the famous and the lesser known of them. Most of them are complete with biographies and photographs. In addition, the site provides recommendations for Further Reading : "Project Gutenburg eTexts"and "Website Bibliographies." I am very impressed with the number of entries and the quality of the illustrated biographies. I can recommend it to your attention without any reservations. To access the site, just click on: Hargrave.

Aviation Pioneers Links

119 PIONEER FLYERS WHO WERE TRAINED
AT WRIGHT BROTHERS FIELD

JO COOPER
1929-2007
AKA Josephine Cooper

In Loving Memory of My Wife
Jo Cooper
March 7, 1929 - August 26, 2007
For a detailed Biography, click on her name.