Ahmet Ali Celikten, was the first Black pilot in aviation history. Born in 1883 in Izmar, of the Ottoman Empire, he wanted to become a naval sailor, and in 1904 joined the Naval Technical School. After graduating as a First Lieutenant in 1908, he took aviation courses in the Naval Flight School. He "earned his wings" as a member of the Ottoman Air Force from 1914-15.
Ali, who is of African Turkish origin, along with Eujene Jacques Bullard, became the first Black pilots to fly a plane in combat, when they both saw flight action in World War I.
Eugene Jacques Bullard, was born in, Columbus, Georgia, in 1895, and as a teenager, in an effort to escape racial discrimination in America, he stowed away on a ship bound for Scotland.
Bullard eventually found his way to Paris, and at the outbreak of World War I, enlisted in the First Regiment of Foreign Legion, a French colonial troop. Bullard saw ground combat as a machine gunner.
In 1916 , Bullard volunteered to join the French Air Service as an air gunner where he trained for flight combat.
In November of 1916, as a member of the French Air Service, he joined 269 American aviators at the Lafayette Flying Corps, where American volunteers flew in training missions with French pilots. Bullard took part in pursuit and bomber/ reconnaissance missions.
In May of 1917, Bullard received his pilot's license. In June, he was promoted to the rank of corporal and assigned to the Escadrille N93 Aero Squadron. As a member of this squadron, Bullard flew over twenty combat missions.
When America entered the war, the Army Air Services recruited pilots from the Lafayette Flying Corps to be in this unit. Bullard was not called because only White pilots were allowed to serve.
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Ahmet Ali Celikten died in 1969
To read their comprehensive bio Google -search their names
***SPECIAL NOTE: These Black men flew combat missions approximately 25 years before the Tuskegee Airmen.
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