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Naval Institute Press

October 2023

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Eugene Ely:

Pioneer of Naval Aviation

by John H. Zobel

Autumn 1910: The first person ever to use a ship’s deck as a runway was Eugene Ely, a former racecar driver, piloting a rickety Curtiss aeroplane.

Within a year, he was dead.

Ely’s brief life quickly became the stuff of myth and legend, and he was often portrayed as a reckless daredevil. But he had lived in an era when newspaper reporters unabashedly fabricated details and even entire articles, and the many accounts of his life that have simply repeated those shameless exaggerations are essentially historical fiction.

Eugene Ely: Pioneer of Naval Aviation cuts through the sensationalism, relying instead on careful analysis of long-forgotten primary sources and photographic records. The result is an honest portrait of the quiet, unassuming Iowan whose cool-headed demonstrations of aviation’s military potential brought about the modern aircraft carrier.

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Naval Institute Press

Publisher

October 15, 2023

First Edition

392 pages

Hardcover

1682478378

ISBN-10

978-1682478370

ISBN-13

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Reviews

“Naval aviation owes a lasting debt to Eugene Ely and his employer, Glenn Curtiss. And history owes a debt to John H. Zobel for his tremendous biography of the first airman to take off from and land aboard a ship. The product of meticulous research, it unravels more than a century of myths and mysteries and provides the definitive biography of Eugene Ely amid his era.”
Barrett Tillman
Author, On Wave and Wing: The 100-Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier
“One of naval aviation’s earliest pioneers, Eugene B. Ely is best known for making the first shipboard aircraft takeoff and landing. Recognizing that Ely’s contribution could only be appreciated in the context of aviation’s growing pains prior to World War I, Zobel developed a two-part story: Ely’s all-too-short but hugely impactful aviation career, and an in-depth study of his contemporary flying pioneers. Exhaustively researched, well written, and historically accurate.”
Robert O. Harder, PhD
Author, The Three Musketeers of the Army Air Forces: From Hitler’s Fortress Europa to Hiroshima and Nagasaki
“Through meticulous research and enthralling prose, Zobel captures the earliest moments of naval aviation and the competition to master flight on the eve of world war. Must-read for aviation enthusiasts and anyone looking for an authentic immersion into Eugene Ely’s all-too-brief life and the ‘heavier-than-air’ machines that transformed aviation, the U.S. Navy, and America — forever.”
Lt. Paul M. Donofrio
USN (Ret.), Vice Chair, Bank of America
“This is an outstanding and pathbreaking biography, and a notable contribution to the historiography of early flight and the birth of naval aviation. Eugene Ely, one of the most significant of early aviators and the first aviator to fly from a ship, and then land upon one, has not previously had his life and accomplishments placed in a well-sourced and proper context. The result is a fitting tribute both to Ely and the late Mr. Zobel.”
Richard P. Hallion, PhD
Aerospace historian
“One of the most skilled and experienced fliers in Glenn Curtiss’s exhibition squad, Eugene Ely was the first to take off from and land on two U.S. Navy warships in 1910 and 1911. John Zobel chronicles those remarkable achievements, among many during Ely’s brief flying career, in this outstanding biography, which will stand the test of time as the definitive treatment of the man who has earned everlasting fame as a pioneer of naval aviation.”
William F. Trimble, PhD
Aerospace historian
“Ely’s successful takeoff from USS Birmingham required extraordinary courage and planning. Just two months later, he finished the job with his amazing landing on USS Pennsylvania. This book, which describes these feats so well, proves that split-second decision-making and determination were the keys to his success—although if he hadn’t also shown remarkable insightfulness and concern for safety of flight, he might never have made history!”
Capt. Julie E. Clark (Ret.)
Professional international air show flier, pioneering woman airline pilot, ISA+21 charter member, and civilian naval flight instructor
“Many, if they know Eugene Ely’s name at all, only associate him with his flights from and then to Navy ships. Zobel’s biography fleshes out this man, putting his life in context with his time (and the technology of his time), his colleagues and competitors, and his various employers. Zobel shows us the turbulent beginnings of the U.S. aircraft industry through Ely’s experiences with it.”
Laurence M. Burke II, PhD
Aviation curator, National Museum of the Marine Corps, and author, At the Dawn of Airpower: The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps' Approach to the Airplane, 1907-1917
“From Father Thomas Smyth, the car-racing priest, to Buffalo Bill Cody, a superb set of stories within the story, soaring to one of the greatest flights in history. We celebrate Eugene’s incredible feat and John H. Zobel’s storytelling. A definite read!”
Anna Jane Durr
Great-granddaughter of Eugene Ely’s sister Maidie

About the Author

John Hiller Zobel (B.A., Harvard, 1981; J.D., Stanford, 1985) was an author, recovering attorney, and accomplished athlete. He practiced law for twenty years in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer and parent in 2007. His first book, A Slight Change of Plans (1998), was a P.G. Wodehouse-style romantic comedy. He died unexpectedly on the summit of Aconcagua in Argentina in January 2017.

info (at) EugeneElyBio.com