ALABAMA AVIATION HALL OF FAME
CHARLES ANDERSON
Charles Alfred Anderson was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on February 7th in the year 1907.He became obsessed with the idea of flying at about the age of eight, but found that there were to be many obstacles to overcome before finally realizing his dream of flying an airplane. a major part of these obstacles came about because he happened to be a black man in what was perceived at that time to be purely a white man's world, the world of aviation.
After a second mishap while teaching himself to fly, he finally came upon a teacher, Ernest Buehl, who polished up his technique and arranged for his commercial flight test with a government inspector. For many years, Chief Anderson was the only black pilot to hold a commercial license.
In 1933 Anderson and his partner, Dr. Albert Forsythe, made a well publicized flight from Atlantic City to Los Angeles and return in a 95 horsepower Fairchild. In 1934 these two made a "goodwill flight" around the Caribbean, first to Nassau where they landed at night by car lights. This was the first time an airplane had ever landed at Nassau. This trip went on to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Trinidad. Leaving Trinidad, the aircraft was unable to clear a stand of bamboo and crashed. The main purpose of these flights was to bolster black racial pride and to inspire more black people to get into aviation.
Chief Anderson was working as a flight instructor in Virginia, when the folks at Tuskegee Institute engaged him in 1940 to come there and start an aviation training program.It was in 1941 that Eleanor Roosevelt came to Tuskegee on some other business and asked to have a look at the aviation program. She was obviously impressed with what she saw. Chief Anderson invited her to go for a ride in his Piper Cub and she climbed in. This was probably one of the most famous passenger rides of all time. It was given a great amount of coverage by the press and without doubt greatly expedited and hastened the beginning of the training of blacks as military pilots.
These men who started training under Chief Anderson formed the All-Black 99th pursuit squadron. When they were finally released at Anzio to fight against German aircraft, they shot down eight German airplanes in one day and a total of 17 during the campaign.General Chuck Yeager has been quoted as saying, "Chief Anderson is a very important figure in aviation, a darn good pilot and a fabulous old man"
A true pioneer, he has spent his life promoting aviation and inspiring black people to get into it. He has been honored .many times with awards and decorations for his many contributions to aviation. Most recently, he was presented the "Brewer Trophy" at a ceremony in Washington. The presentation was made by General Chuck Yeager.
It is most fitting that he should be enshrined as a distinguished member of the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame.
After a second mishap while teaching himself to fly, he finally came upon a teacher, Ernest Buehl, who polished up his technique and arranged for his commercial flight test with a government inspector. For many years, Chief Anderson was the only black pilot to hold a commercial license.
In 1933 Anderson and his partner, Dr. Albert Forsythe, made a well publicized flight from Atlantic City to Los Angeles and return in a 95 horsepower Fairchild. In 1934 these two made a "goodwill flight" around the Caribbean, first to Nassau where they landed at night by car lights. This was the first time an airplane had ever landed at Nassau. This trip went on to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Trinidad. Leaving Trinidad, the aircraft was unable to clear a stand of bamboo and crashed. The main purpose of these flights was to bolster black racial pride and to inspire more black people to get into aviation.
Chief Anderson was working as a flight instructor in Virginia, when the folks at Tuskegee Institute engaged him in 1940 to come there and start an aviation training program.It was in 1941 that Eleanor Roosevelt came to Tuskegee on some other business and asked to have a look at the aviation program. She was obviously impressed with what she saw. Chief Anderson invited her to go for a ride in his Piper Cub and she climbed in. This was probably one of the most famous passenger rides of all time. It was given a great amount of coverage by the press and without doubt greatly expedited and hastened the beginning of the training of blacks as military pilots.
These men who started training under Chief Anderson formed the All-Black 99th pursuit squadron. When they were finally released at Anzio to fight against German aircraft, they shot down eight German airplanes in one day and a total of 17 during the campaign.General Chuck Yeager has been quoted as saying, "Chief Anderson is a very important figure in aviation, a darn good pilot and a fabulous old man"
A true pioneer, he has spent his life promoting aviation and inspiring black people to get into it. He has been honored .many times with awards and decorations for his many contributions to aviation. Most recently, he was presented the "Brewer Trophy" at a ceremony in Washington. The presentation was made by General Chuck Yeager.
It is most fitting that he should be enshrined as a distinguished member of the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame.
He did overcome these obstacles, both those of learning to fly in those early days and those caused by the hostile environment he ran into at every turn. His first flight was in 1928 in a Velie Monocoupe. he had managed to borrow twenty five hundred dollars to buy the airplane and when he attempted to teach himself to fly it, he soon wound up colliding with a tree. he and the airplane were both badly damaged, but Chief Anderson recovered and immediately started working toward a commercial pilot license.
