Gallaudet Aircraft Corp Archives » Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame

Allen P. Bourdon

RIAHOF — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 21:34:00 +0000

Allen P Bourdon (1888-1972) was an aviation pioneer and WWI instructor pilot; he also flew with Amelia Earhart. He moved to RI in 1917 to learn to fly at Gallaudet Aviation in East Greenwich. He became a designer and test pilot for Gallaudet and later set up his own manufacturing plant at Hillsgrove. Bourdon Aircraft […]

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Edson Fessenden Gallaudet

RIAHOF — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 22:27:13 +0000

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet (1871-1945), Aviation Pioneer/Aircraft Manufacturer In 1898, four years before the Wright Brothers, he constructed and flew a glider, now in the Smithsonian, which embodied the principle of the warping wing. In 1911 he learned to fly at the Wright school, earning US pilot’s license #32 and a similarly low number in France. […]

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Gerald T. Hanley, Sr.

Matt Cayer — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:26:33 +0000

Gerald T. Hanley, Sr. (1884-1950) is considered the founder of the Rhode Island Air National Guard. Then-1st Lt. Hanley of Battery A, Coast Artillery, in the RI state militia used his own Curtiss hydro-aeroplane to provide basic aeronautics instruction to members of his battery well before the US entry into World War I. Early flier […]

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John F. “Jack” McGee

RIAHOF — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 22:30:38 +0000

John F. “Jack” McGee (1885 -1918), an aviation pioneer, was born in 1885 in Central Falls, but spent most of his life in Pawtucket. He made his first solo flight in August 1912, and by the end of the year had made a name for himself as an exhibition stunt pilot. Crowds as large as 50,000 […]

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