Born: 07/16/1889
Died: 05/16/1957
Inducted: 11/06/2004
Walter
Lees was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. His family moved to their
father’s homestead in the small farming community of Mazomanie
when Walter was six years old. Growing up on a farm he learned to
work with his hands at an early age. His mechanical aptitude would
prove beneficial throughout his life. He worked his way through
classes at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) first as a mechanic
at Emil Habenson's Buick garage in Madison and the next year, 1911,
as a chauffeur for the L. K. Baker family in Ashland, Wisconsin.
Lees' stay in Ashland would prove to be very beneficial. He met the
woman who would become his wife, first worked on Packard engines,
and saw his first airplane.
Succumbing
to the allure of flying but with only half of the tuition, Lees
headed off to St. Augustine, FL in January 1912. He traded mechanic
services on the flight school’s tired, Gnome-powered, Farman
biplane for promised flight lessons. Walter would be one of the
fortunate students, he actually received a few minutes of flight
instruction, before the Aero Exhibition Company packed up and left
town leaving students and bills behind.
Undaunted,
Walter and a fellow student headed for St. Louis and the Benoist
Company, an early aircraft manufacturer. Walter was soon in the shop
learning aircraft construction first hand. Finally, on Thursday,
November 14, 1912, after many promised training flights and days
spent watching others fly, Walter soloed. He took to the air alone,
from Creve Coeur Lake near St. Louis, in a Benoist hydro-aeroplane.
Walter
would bounce around from job to job as a pilot and mechanic, somehow
always making his way back to the Benoist Company, until the summer
of 1913. Walter was the second pilot to fly a newly designed
exhibition airplane built by Benoist. Warned of its poor performance
he crashed while making his first turn. Unhurt, but disgraced, he
left St. Louis for home. He tried several non-flying jobs in Chicago
but spent most of his time visiting the popular Cicero Field outside
of Chicago. Lees, after arriving in Mazomanie, ran into a
benefactor, Mr. David Harrop, who funded his next flight training at
the Curtiss Aviation School on North Island, San Diego, CA.
Lees
arrived at the Curtiss flying school in the spring of 1914 and would
stay there until May 1915. He completed his training in both land
and seaplanes and gained additional experience until an offer from a
pilot friend, Jack Vilas, came in the mail.
Vilas knew of a Chicago man that owned a Curtiss F-Boat who needed a
pilot, was Lees interested? Walter promptly took the train east to
Chicago.
Walter
would fly many passengers in the plane named, “Alice”, at Grant
Park in Chicago and at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin that summer. While in
Chicago, he married his Ashland sweetheart, Loa Lloyd, on June 17,
1915. Later that year, Ray Morris, manager of the Curtiss Aviation
School at North Island, paid Walter a visit and offered him a flight
instructor position with Curtiss in Buffalo, NY.
Shortly
after arriving in Buffalo, Walter obtained his pilot certificate, it
was pilot certificate #44 issued by the Aero Club of America. Two of
his first students were the Pitcairn brothers of Philadelphia.
Walter and Loa moved to Newport News, VA, mid-December 1915, where
he would continue as an instructor for Curtiss at the new Atlantic
Coast Aeronautical Station. Captain Tom Baldwin, a long time friend
of Curtiss and balloonist, managed the school. H.
Paul Culver, a friend of Lees from Wisconsin, was a student at
the school.
Another
Aeronautical Station instructor, Jimmy Johnson, principal instructor
for Major Billy
Mitchell was sick and Walter was assigned to fly with
him. According to Walter, “I just happened to catch him on one of
his good days.” Mitchell made his first solo flight under
Walter’s guidance. While he remained a civilian instructor during
the war Lees was assigned to Chanute Field, IL; Selfridge Field, MI;
Ellington Field, TX; Gerstner Field, LA and Brooks Field, TX. His
last wartime assignment was as a test pilot at McCook Field, OH.
Following
the war Walter was again bouncing from one pilot job to another. He
flew in New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington, eventually
landing back at Dayton, Ohio working as an aircraft mechanic for the
Army. Another opportunity put Walter to work for the Dayton Wright
Company in June 1922. While that job didn’t last long, Walter was
able to find another in Dayton, flying for the Johnson Aeroplane and
Supply Company.
Competing
in an air race in St. Louis on October 1, 1923, Walter won the
Flying Club of St. Louis Trophy Race. Beating out ten other entrants
for the $300 first place prize money, Walter averaged a speed of
89.31 miles per hour.
He
then entered another phase of his flying career – that of test
pilot. Testing a German built airplane - L.V.G. he became the first
civilian pilot to save his life by parachute. Walter returned to
Selfridge Field, MI where he flew as a test pilot for the Stout
Airplane Company.
During
April 1925, Walter joined the Packard Motor Car Company as a service
representative. He traveled extensively and worked closely with both
the Army and Navy. He flew the first test flight of a diesel-powered
airplane – a Stinson SM-1DX, Detroiter on September 19, 1928. As
engine improvements were made, Walter would make more flights and
set more records. He flew in the 1930 Ford Reliability Tour flying a
diesel-powered Waco.
After
two failed attempts at setting an endurance record on Monday, May
25, 1931, pilot Walter Lees and copilot Fred Brossy lifted off the
beach near Jacksonville, FL in a Bellanca Pacemaker powered by a
225HP Packard diesel radial engine. The two pilots would remain
aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes setting a world record for
non-refueled flight that would stand until 1986.
Walter
would leave Packard in 1935 going to work for the Scintilla Division
of the Bendix Aviation Corporation until 1940. He reported for
active duty with the Navy in 1940 serving as a naval aviator flying
transport aircraft in the Pacific Theatre. Walter Lees would retire
from the US Naval Reserve as a Commander in 1948.
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