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Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Ellyson, Theodore Gordon (1st Navy Pilot), CDR.
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Contact Info
Home Town Richmond, Virginia
Last Address Richmond, Virginia
Date of Passing Feb 27, 1928
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
Commander Ellyson was killed on 27 February1928, his 43rd birthday, in the crash of an aircraft in the lower Chesapeake Bay while on a night flight from Norfolk, Virginia to Annapolis, Maryland.
Other Comments:
Theodore Gordon Ellyson, Commander, U.S.N.
"Submariner" and "Naval Aviator Number One"
1885 - 1928
First United States Naval Aviator, 1911
Inducted in 1984
Theodore "Spuds" Ellyson began training in 1910 at the Glen Curtiss flight training school in San Diego and was Curtiss' first seaplane pupil. As the United States Navy's first pilot, Lieutenant Ellyson accompanied Curtiss on test flights of the first practical seaplane on January 26, 1911.
Flying a Curtiss seaplane, Ellyson and Navy Lieutenant J. H. Towers made the longest over-water flight yet attempted in October 1911. They flew from Annapolis, Maryland, to within two miles of Fort Monroe, Virginia, traveling over the Chesapeake Bay nearly the entire flight.
Ellyson was at the controls for the first successful catapult launch of the Curtis A-1 "Flying Boat" from an anchored barge at the Washington Navy Yard in November 1912. This was an important early step toward flying airplanes from ships and led to the development of aircraft carriers.
Commander Ellyson was a leader in naval aviation until he was killed in a crash off Hampton Roads, Virginia, in February 1928. Ironically, his plane came ashore at the same site his predecessor, Eugene Ely, landed his aircraft in November 1910 after the first successful takeoff from a naval vessel.
Originally the unnamed "hull no. 680", the ship was laid down at Hog Island, Pennsylvania by the American International Shipbuilding Corporation under a United States Shipping Board contract. Named Wright on 20 April 1920, the ship was launched on 28 April. A little over two months later, the Navy signed a contract with the Tietjen and Lang Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey to convert the ship to a unique type of auxiliary vessel, a "lighter-than-air aircraft tender." On 17 July 1920, the ship received that classification and was designated AZ-1. Wright was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 16 December 1921. Her first commanding officer was Captain (later Admiral) Alfred W. Johnson, who also discharged the collateral duties of Commander, Air Squadrons, Atlantic Fleet. Johnson was the first of a long line of commanding officers for the ship, some of whom later distinguished themselves; men such as John Rodgers, Ernest J. King, Aubrey W. Fitch, Patrick N. L. Bellinger, and Marc A. Mitscher.
