author
E. N. (Elisha Noel) Fales
1887–1970
A pioneering aviator and engineer, he wrote one of the early practical guides to military flight at a moment when aviation was still new and fast-changing. His work grew out of hands-on experience in the air and in the engineering world that helped shape early American aviation.
1 Audiobook
Learning to fly in the U.S. Army : a manual of aviation practice
by E. N. (Elisha Noel) Fales
About the author
Born in 1887 in Lake Forest, Illinois, Elisha Noel Fales became involved with aviation at a remarkably early stage. A biographical page from the Early Birds of Aviation records that he earned a B.S. from MIT in 1911 and had already flown solo on April 2, 1910, placing him among the very early generation of American pilots.
Fales combined flying with technical and teaching work. The same source says he served as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois from 1916 to 1918, then worked with the Army Air Service and later the Civil Aviation Administration. Archival records from the University of Alabama in Huntsville also identify him as an engineering author for Air Service research reports, showing how closely his writing was tied to the development of aircraft and flight practice.
He is best known as the author of Learning to Fly in the U.S. Army (1917), a manual of aviation practice published during World War I. The book reflects the practical, instructional side of his career: clear, technically grounded, and aimed at helping new aviators master a demanding new field. Fales died in 1970.