Allegiance United States Rank Colonel | Awards Mackay Trophy (1922–1923) Name Oakley Kelly | |
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Born December 3, 1891
Pennsylvania ( 1891-12-03 ) Commands held 321st Observation Squadron
(1924 – 1929) Died June 5, 1966, San Diego, California, United States | ||
Service/branch United States Air Force | ||
Oakley George Kelly (December 3, 1891 – June 5, 1966) was a record setting pilot for the United States Army Air Service.
Biography
He was born on December 3, 1891 in Pennsylvania and grew up in Grove City.
In May 1922, Lieutenant Oakley G. Kelly and Lieutenant John Arthur Macready were awarded the 1922 Mackay Trophy for the beating the world's air endurance record and staying aloft for 36 hours, 4 minutes, and 32 seconds.
On May 2, 1923, Lieutenants Kelly and Macready flew their single-engined, high wing Army Fokker T-2 over 2,625 miles (4,225 km) from Mitchel Field, New York to Rockwell Field, originally called the Signal Corps Aviation School, North Island, San Diego, California in an official time of 26 hours, 50 minutes and 38 3⁄5 seconds, setting the record for transcontinental flight by a heavier than air craft winning the 1923 Mackay Trophy.
In October 1924, Kelly piloted Ezra Meeker along portions of the Oregon Trail to generate support for marking and preserving the historic route using the same airplane in which Kelley had set the record: a single-engine, high-wing Army Fokker T-2. Traveling by air at 100 mph, Meeker traveled the same distance in an hour that had taken him a week to travel by ox at 2 mph.
Between 1924 and 1929, Kelly was the squadron commander for the 321st Observation Squadron at Pearson Field, Vancouver, Washington. Kelly retired from military service as a Colonel on March 31, 1948. He died at age 74 in San Diego, California in 1966.