Arthur L. "Al" Welsh (August 14, 1881 – June 11, 1912) was a Russian-born American pioneer aviator who became the first flight instructor for the Wright Brothers.

There he taught students including Hap Arnold, who would become a five-star general leading the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.

[5] Welsh died in a crash on June 11, 1912, while flying with Leighton Wilson Hazelhurst, Jr. at the United States Army Aviation School in College Park, Maryland, on a Wright Model C that had recently been purchased by the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps.

[7] A board of inquiry was formed by the United States Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson, which concluded that Welsh was at fault in the crash, having risen to 150 feet, with the plan to dive at a 45-degree angle in order to gain momentum for a climb, but had made the dive too soon, with the board's results reported in the June 29, 1912, issue of Scientific American.

[3] Former student George William Beatty, who had set up his own flying instruction school on Long Island, replaced Welsh as the government's test pilot at the College Park facility.

The funeral was attended by Orville Wright and his sister Katharine, who had traveled from Dayton, Ohio, and who were still in mourning for their brother Wilbur, who had died less than two weeks earlier.

In a 2003 interview she recalled the warmth and kindness of members of what she called the "Wright Circle", and how she had crawled through the legs of Hap Arnold as a toddler when he visited the family home.