Captain Washington Irving Chambers | |
|---|---|
 Captain Washington Irving Chambers | |
| Nickname(s) | "the Father of Naval Aviation" |
| Born | April 4, 1856 Kingston, New York, US |
| Died | September 23, 1934 (aged 78) Chillicothe, Ohio, US |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service |  United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1876–1919 |
| Rank |  Captain |
| Commands | |
| Battles / wars | Spanish–American War Philippines – Moro Rebellion Cuban Pacification World War I |
| Relations | CAPT Irving Reynolds Chambers, USN (1893-1979), (son) |
Captain Washington Irving Chambers, USN (April 4, 1856 – September 23, 1934) was a 43-year, career United States Navy officer, who near the end of his service played a major role in the early development of U.S.Naval aviation, serving as the first officer to have oversight of the Navy's incipient aviation program through the Bureau of Navigation. In that capacity from 1910 to 1913, he consulted and worked with early civil aviation pioneers Orville Wright and Glenn Curtiss; organized the first airplane landing (1911) and takeoff (1910) from a ship in collaboration with pioneer aviator Eugene Ely; recruited the first naval aviators; established aviator training; oversaw the first budget appropriation of $25,000 from which he purchased the first aircraft for the Navy; designed a catapult to launch aircraft from warships and led a Board that recommended establishment of the first naval air station at Pensacola, Florida and advocated for the establishment of a "national aerodynamic laboratory". Chambers has been called "the Father of Naval Aviation".
Early in his career as an ensign, Chambers distinguished himself as one of six officers attached to USS Thetis under Captain Winfield Scott Schley, who led the four-ship Greely Relief Expedition in 1884 that located and rescued U.S. Army First Lieutenant Adolphus Greely and the six other survivors of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition five miles off Cape Sabine in Smith Sound, an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere on June 22, 1884. Over the next twenty-five years, in shore duty that alternated with his sea duty, to include teaching at the Naval War College, the Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, and Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance (1907-09), Chambers contributed to the design of torpedoes and the Navy's first all-big-gun battleships, cementing his reputation as one of the Navy's leading intellects and technology innovators, as well as a savvy navigator of the Navy's labyrinthine bureaucracy, which put him in good stead to advocate for naval air against early skepticism and resistance. On January 8, 1914, he was detached from Bureau of Navigation, and to the Division of Operations, Navy Department, for special duty. During this period of service, recommendations to the Navy Department caused the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to be set up (1915) and Captain Chambers continued to serve under the first Chief, William S. Benson, throughout the World War, and until relieved of active duty on November 8, 1919.