Cornelius Coffey
Cornelius Coffey | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 6, 1903 |
| Died | 1994 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | aviator |
| Spouse | Ann |
Cornelius Coffey (born in Newport, Arkansas, on September 6, 1903, and died in 1994) was an African American aviator. He was the first African American to create a non-university-affiliated aeronautical school in the United States. He was the first African American to hold both a pilot's and a mechanic's license.[1]
Career
Coffey helped integrate African American pilots into the American aviation industry.[2][1] He worked with his good friend John C. Robinson. Together, they formed the Challenger Air Pilots Association.[3]
He opened the Coffey School of Aeronautics in Robbins, IL with Willa Brown that helped train many African American pilots, including some of the Tuskegee Airmen.[1][4] The school moved to the former Harlem Airport, which was located at 87th Street and Harlem Avenue in the late 1930s.[1]
After World War II, he taught aeronautics at the Lewis Holy Name School of Aeronautics in Romeoville, IL and at Dunbar Vocational High School in Chicago, IL.[1]
Awards and honors
He received the Dwight H. Green Trophy in 1941. He was honored with a day by the City of Chicago on July 22, 1980. He was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in 1984.[5]
Legacy
The Cornelius R. Coffey Aviation Education Foundation was established at the American Airlines Maintenance Academy in Chicago in his honor to train young pilots.[1][6]
Pilots flying to Midway Airport make a course correction over Lake Calumet which is known as the Coffey Fix.[7]
Coffey's Piper Tri-Pacer 135 aircraft is scheduled to be on exhibit at the Chanute Air Museum as part of the forthcoming exhibit, Barnstormers, Wing-walkers, and Entrepreneurs: 150 Years of Aviation in Illinois.[6]
Personal life
He was married to Ann.[1]
See also
National Airmen’s Association of America
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Cornelius Coffey, Early Black Aviator". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Davis, Edmond. "Cornelius Coffey". blackpast.org. blackpast.org. Retrieved 2015-02-03.
- ^ "The early days of blacks in US aviation". Air Force Magazine. 66. US Army Air Corps: 69. 1983.
- ^ Holway, John B. "Early pioneers". Cobblestone, ISSN 0199-5197, Feb. 1997, Vol. 18, Issue 2.
- ^ Gubert, Betty Kaplan, Miriam Sawyer, and Caroline M. Fannin. Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. Westport, Conn: Oryx Press, 2001, page 73, ISBN 1573562467.
- ^ a b "Cornelius Robinson Coffey". aeromuseum.org.
- ^ "Cornelius Coffey, Early Black Aviator". tribunedigital-chicagotribune.
Further reading
- 'Early black aviator Cornelius Coffey dies' 1994, Jet, 85, 20, p. 14.
- Garrett, Jim. "Coffey, Cornelius Robinson" in African American National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Lambertson, Giles. 'The Other Harlem', Air & Space Smithsonian, 2010, vol. 24, no.7, pp. 54-59.
- Hart, Philip S. Flying Free: America's First Black Aviators. Minneapolis, Minn: Lerner Publications Co, 1992. ISBN 0585321221
- Hunt, Rufus A. The Cofey Intersection. Chicago: J.R.D.B. Enterprises, 1982.
External links
- Cornelius Coffey
- Interview with three Tuskegee Airmen: Robert Martin, Dr. Quentin P. Smith, and Shelby Westbrook at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library on October 2008