Richard C. Saufley
Richard Caswell Saufley (1 September 1884 – 9 June 1916), was a pioneer of naval aviation in the United States Navy.
Saufley was born on 1 September 1884 at Stanford, Ky., he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in June 1908 and was commissioned as an Ensign in June 1910. Service in Kansas (BB-21), Biddle (TB-26), and Terry (DD-25) preceded his return to the Naval Academy for training in aviation in 1913. On 6 June of that year, he was promoted to Lieutenant (j.g.) and designated Naval Aviator No. 14. During the Mexican campaign of 1914, he was attached to Mississippi (BB-23) and North Carolina (ACR-12). In 1915 and 1916, his assignments were concerned with the technological development of naval aviation. Concentrating on hydro-airplane development, he set altitude and endurance records and was attempting to better his own record when he died in a plane crash over Santa Rosa Island on a flight out of NAS Pensacola, Florida on 9 June 1916. His Curtiss Model E hydroplane, AH-8, went down at the 8 hr., 51 min. mark of the flight.[1]
NAS Pensacola's Saufley Field, and the destroyer USS Saufley (DD-465) were named in his honor.
[edit] References
- ^ Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 84.
