Benjamin Scoville Kelsey
MilitaryRoger Freeman Photo
New York Times Obituary
GEN. BENJAMIN S. KELSEY, 74, DIES
AIR FORCE TEST PILOT AND ENGINEER
By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: March 5, 1981
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Scovill Kelsey, U.S.A.F., retired, a test pilot and aeronautical engineer, died of cancer Tuesday at his home in Stevensburg, Va. He was 74 years old.
General Kelsey was a leading military test pilot and an expert on pursuit and interceptor aircraft in the 1930's, setting Army Air Corps speed records for the P-38. At the start of World War II he helped to develop combat tactics for American fighters.
Along with Gen. James H. Doolittle, General Kelsey participated in the first test of an instrument-guided takeoff and landing, on Sept. 24, 1929, at Mitchel Field on Long Island. The achievement is considered more significant than General Doolittle's famous bombing raid on Tokyo in 1942.
As a colonel in World War II, General Kelsey was chief of the operations section of the United States Eighth Air Force in England, and flew on 21 missions over Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.
Started Flying at 14
General Kelsey was born in Waterbury, Conn., on March 6, 1906. He began taking flying lessons when he was 14 years old at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. As a bonus for signing up for the course, he received a World War I vintage Curtiss JN-4D training biplane, known as a Jenny, from the flying school.
He barnstormed with the aircraft across Connecticut for several summers before attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1928 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
After graduation he joined the Army Air Corps. He was once the backup pilot aboard a biplane that General Doolittle flew from a rear cockpit sealed to keep out all light over a 15-mile course that included several sharp turns.
In 1939, while attempting to break the time record for a transcontinental flight and piloting an experimental version of the P-38, then a secret Army aircraft, he struck a tree while landing at Mitchel Field. He was not seriously injured.
Helped Modernize U.S. Air Tactics
General Kelsey was sent to England in 1940 as an air attache for four months. After observing tactics in the Battle of Britain, he helped to modernize American fighters strategy upon his return. He returned to England in 1943 as deputy chief of staff for the Ninth Fighter Command, and was transferred to the Eighth Air Force a year later.
He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1952 and was appointed deputy director of research and development for the Air Force. He retired in 1955 and became a consultant to the Grumman Aircraft Corporation and other aviation companies while operating a farm in Virginia.
For the past two years he held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and conducted research on a book on military aviation that is scheduled for publication this year.
He is survived by his wife, Caryl, and three sons.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: P-51 Mustang
- Nicknames: Penny
- Unit: 353rd Fighter Group 359th Fighter Group 496th Fighter Training Group 4th Fighter Group 336th Fighter Squadron 352nd Fighter Squadron 368th Fighter Squadron 554th Fighter Training Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Military site
- Known as: Camp Lynn; Daws Hill; Pinetree
- Site type: Airfield
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Waterbury, CT, USA | 9 March 1906 | |
Other 1st Intrument take-off and landing |
Mitchell Field, Garden City, NY 11530, USA | 24 September 1929 | Along with Gen. James H. Doolittle, General Kelsey participated in the first test of an instrument-guided takeoff and landing, on Sept. 24, 1929, at Mitchel Field on Long Island. The achievement is considered more significant than General Doolittle's famous bombing raid on Tokyo in 1942. |
Died |
Stevensburg, VA 22741, USA | 3 March 1981 | |
Based |
Middle Wallop | Deputy Chief of Staff IX Fighter Command | |
Based |
High Wycombe | Chief of Operations Engineering Section 8th Air Force HQ |