Charles Foster Willard (October 13, 1883 – February 1, 1977) was an American aviator and engineer, who became known as the first barnstormer with his trick flights.

Willard has the unfortunate record of being the first person to have his airplane shot out of the sky by a bullet — that of an annoyed farmer who hit his propeller with a squirrel gun.

[2][3][4][5] At the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet of 1910 Charles Willard took Miss Eleanor Ladd of Boston on a flight.

[citation needed] During the Airshow Willard also took along Army Lieutenant Jacob E. Finkel, a rifle sharpshooter up in his Curtiss biplane.

[6] With aviation pioneer Stanley Yale Beach, they've built the Beach-Willard Monoplane, from which they received patents, having invented the connection of planes or wings to a triangular body, enforceable in France, England and the United States.