Frederick Libby

Who was Frederick Libby?

Captain Frederick Libby became the first American flying ace, while serving as an observer in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I.

Libby transferred to the United States Army Air Service on 15 September 1917. He returned to the United States and helped raise war funding through Liberty Loans. He was then invalided out of military service with spondylitis.

Despite his disability, and the predictions that he would die early as a result of his condition, Libby prospered as an oil prospector and businessman. He was a founder of Western Air Lines. In his latter years, he wrote his memoirs, Horses Don't Fly, which was published after his death on 9 January 1970.