Marking 100 years of US naval aviation

The photo of a US Navy P-3 Orion featured prominently on the back-page on The Times of January 18, couldn’t have been more timely for on this precise date the US Navy kicked off its 100 Years of Naval Aviation celebrations all across the country.

A young 29-year-old, Eugene Ely, a civilian barnstorming pilot, was only the 17th pilot in the whole of the US to receive an official pilot’s licence and hoped to get commissioned to join the US Navy, but the Navy couldn’t afford a pilot’s salary at the time and was not so convinced that the navy and aviation could have a future together.

Eugene flew his Curtiss “pusher” off the deck of the USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910 but the flight was cut short as on take-off young Eugene’s propeller hit the water and with a damaged aircraft and his goggles sprayed with seawater he quickly and wisely decided to land on a nearby sandy beach. However, in January 1911 Eugene flew again, this time off the USS Pennsylvania and landed on this same ship, thus making him the first-ever successful navy pilot, better known as naval aviator.

The US Navy and Malta have a proud shared history of naval aviation with many carriers moored outside the Grand Harbour in the 1960s and two carriers having actually entered Grand Harbour in the 1990s, namely USS John F. Kennedy and USS America, now both decommissioned. Besides such well-known aircraft carriers Malta witnessed many US Navy ships carrying Marines aviation assets on board, including USS Kearsarge and the USS Wasp, carrying the same namesake as the famous USS Wasp that ferried RAF Spitfires to Malta from Port Glasgow in Scotland in the dark months of 1942 when Malta was on the brink of collapsing to the Nazis’ aerial onslaught on the island.

To mark a century of naval aviation, the Malta Aviation Society is holding a public presentation in the David Bruce Hall at the Mediterranean Conference Centre on Friday at 7 p.m. The lecture will be delivered by Lt CDR Phil Webb, a Defence Attaché at the US Embassy and a naval aviator himself.

The public is invited to attend and the entrance is free.