Cornelious Robinson Coffey - Black Pioneer Aviator
Cornelious R. Coffey was born in 1903 the year of the Wright Brothers' initial flight.
In 1931, Coffey completed a Master Mechanic Course for Airframe and Engine (A&E) at the Curtiss Wright School of Aeronautics and became the first black man in the U.S. to hold the A&E certificate. In the late 1930s, he established the Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first flight school owned and operated by blacks, at the Harlem Airport in Chicago.
In 1939, Coffey was awarded a contract to train aviators for the Civilian Pilot Training Program and in 1940 was asked to train black pilots by the U.S. War Department. More than 1,500 students graduated from the school, some of whom were part of the nucleus of Tuskegee Pilot Training Program and flew combat missions over Europe during WWII.
In 1941, he commanded the first African American Civil Air Patrol Squadron 613-6 situated in the Chicago Metropolitan area. After World War II, Coffey was an instructor at the Lewis School of Aeronautics. Afterwards, he was an instructor at Dunbar Vocational School training some of the first blacks hired as mechanics by commercial airlines in later years.
In 1980, the Federal Aviation Administration honored Mr. Coffey with the establishment of the COFEY Intersection (the second "F" dropped because regulations limit radio checkpoints to five letters) for airplanes on the way to the Chicago Midway Airport making a final course correction. Mr. Coffey also was a recipient of the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award.