FROM THE WRIGHT BROTHERS TO THE ASTRONAUTS

Just take plenty of spare parts--and teach yourself to fly."" With these orders Lieutenant Foulois set off for Texas to become the first military aviator to fly a military airplane. He succeeded in making his first take-off, first solo, first landing and first crash in the same day. An Army regular who had already served in the Spanish American War and in the Philippines, Foulois flew as army observer with Orville Wright on his first cross-country flight. He tells of the days when every flight was a first, service under Pershing in Mexico against Villa, planning to fight the first air war. When describing the Army take-over of the air mail service in 1934 and his own treatment at the hands of the Rogers Subcommittee which found him guilty in negotiating contracts for securing planes (conflict-of-interest), the order of the day seems to be honest indignation. General Foulois sees the '60's as a re-run of the '30's, a comparable decline. His story of service and aviation is told without side and with some animation (even in some cases animus).