Eugene Luther "Gene" Vidal (/vɪˈdɑːl/;[1] April 13, 1895 – February 20, 1969) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, New Deal official, inventor, and athlete.

For eight years, from 1929 to 1937, he worked closely with Amelia Earhart in a number of aviation-related enterprises, and was President Franklin Roosevelt's top civil aviation director from 1933 to 1937.

[2] He later taught aviation and coached football at the academy, resigned his commission in 1926 to become assistant general manager of Transcontinental Air Transport (later TWA).

Vidal received an engineering degree from USD and subsequently accepted an appointment from Congressman Royal C. Johnson to the United States Military Academy in July 1916.

He also starred in track and field and was Army's leading scorer on its 1917–18 basketball team at 8.3 points a game, for which he was named an All-American by the Helms Foundation.

[12] Vidal's national renown and prowess as an athlete resulted in many instances during his military career, with the war ended, where he was granted leaves or assignments outside his normal duties to perform in sports from intramurals to the Olympic Games and professional football.

During the summer of 1919 he was a member of the United States team at the Inter-Allied Games at Paris, touring World War I battlefields afterwards.

On January 16, 1922, he was assigned for advanced flight training at the Air Service Observation School at Henry Post Field, Oklahoma, remaining until June 15, 1922.

[12][n 3] Vidal returned to West Point on July 5, 1922, for a four-year tour of duty as an assistant instructor in the Department of Tactics, the first member of the Air Service to be assigned to the academy staff.

[14][15] While stationed at Carlstrom, Vidal also played briefly for the American Professional Football Association's Washington Senators in 1921, appearing in one game.

In its first year, using seven 10-passenger Stinson SM-6000B tri-motors on an hourly daytime schedule between Washington, D.C., and New York, Ludington became the first purely passenger air carrier to show a profit.

[19][20] Vidal joined the United States Department of Commerce in June 1933, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as assistant director for Air Regulation in its Aeronautics Branch.

Over 40 candidates were being sponsored for the directorship by various political supporters of the president, including Vidal, but Roosevelt delayed making the appointment.

Soon after his appointment he appeared on the December 18, 1933, cover of Time magazine and was recognized by the United States Chamber of Commerce as one of the "12 Outstanding Young Men of America."

On July 1, 1934, with Vidal continuing as its director, the Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce (BAC) to emphasize its status as a regulatory agency.

Of the BAC's seven functional divisions, however, only Administration and Aeronautic Information were responsible to Vidal and disorganization resulted from a lack of clear lines of authority.

[25][n 9] After TWA Flight 6, a Douglas DC-2 carrying 13 persons, crashed at Atlanta, Missouri, on May 6, 1935, killing five including United States Senator Bronson M. Cutting, Vidal and the BAC came under severe criticism.

[28][n 10] In the face of criticism of his aviation policy by Congress and the airline industry, Roosevelt moved to reorganize the BAC, dismiss Vidal and his two assistant directors, and appoint a lawyer to replace him.

[29][30] After Copeland announced a new round of investigations in November, disorganization in the Bureau and continuing hostility from the aviation industry contributed to his resignation on February 28, 1937.

[28][n 11] After the 1936 elections, Earhart began final planning for her proposed equatorial circumnavigation of the world, with fuel and routing across the Pacific Ocean major considerations.

[32] Between November 1935 and July 1936, Vidal directed the establishment of the first air traffic control centers in the United States, initially negotiating an interline air traffic agreement with the airlines to build and operate several until funding could be appropriated for a Federal takeover of the system, which was obtained in March, 1936 for the next fiscal year.

It was constructed with a seamless one-piece fuselage using "Duply," a steam-cooked laminate made from birch veneer strips impregnated with cellulose acetate.

The experiments with the durable waterproof plywood material, said to have a greater tensile strength than a comparable thickness of aluminum, evolved initially into a small business producing only trays and dinghies.

[9] Vidal wanted to re-enter military service in the Army Air Forces during the war but, in July 1942, suffered a massive heart attack, spending eight months as a convalescent, which prevented him from serving again.