Harry Benjamin Combs (27 January 1913 – 23 December 2003), America aviation pioneer, airplane manufacturer, and author.
[6] Combs' father was shot down twice while in aviation combat in World War I, and was said to have warned his son never to set foot in an airplane.
[6] While at school, he read Diary of an Unknown Aviator, World War I chronicle by Elliot White Springs.
[6] When Combs saw a magazine advertisement for $99 flying lessons taught by Lindbergh's old company, he made his way to St. Louis for three hours of flight instruction.
[4][1][6] In 1929, after thirty hours of flying, the sixteen–year–old Combs designed and built a sport biplane named Vamp Bat.
I should have known that when you don't have brakes you have to stay on the grass.”[6] Starting in 1931, he attended Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School, graduating in 1935 with a degree in applied economics.
[6][7] He then attended reserve officer’s training, where he was commissioned as a ROTC second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
[6] In 1935, Combs worked as a ticket agent for Pan American Airways but quit after two years because he wanted to fly.
[4][6] Wanting to return to airplanes, he was enlisted as a second lieutenant pilot officer in the Colorado National Guard 120th Observation Squadron, logging enough flying time to earn an instructor's rating.
[6] In 1938, he co-founded Mountain States Aviation in Denver, a flying school and airplane sales company.
[1][2][7] In 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and flew C-54 transport planes across the North Atlantic, Africa, and India.
[4] President John F. Kennedy appointed Combs to Project Beacon which was tasked with modernizing air traffic control systems in the United States.
[4] He was also a consultant to NASA during the early days of the manned space program and helped create an air-training base in Arizona for CIA Covert Operations.
[9] In October 1970, he moved to Wichita, Kansas to oversee Gates Learjet, which manufactured corporate airplanes.
I said, ‘No, it's the way we’re running things!’”[9] Under Combs’ leadership, Gates Learjet made a remarkable financial turnaround, with some $15 million in the bank and no debt by June 1972.
[7] Combs liked skiing, fishing, and big game hunting, going on safaris in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia.
[6] The replica was displayed at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.