Horace Meek Hickam (August 14, 1885 – November 5, 1934) was a pioneer airpower advocate and an officer in the United States Army Air Corps.

Hickam graduated 46th in his West Point class on 14 February 1908 and was commissioned second lieutenant, 11th Cavalry, serving in Vermont 1908–09, Georgia 1909–11, and Texas 1911–13.

In May 1918 he reported to Rockwell Field, California, for pilot training and received a Junior Military Aviator rating on 16 June 1918, as a member of the U.S. Air Service.

In November 1925, while a student at the Air Service Tactical School at Langley Field, Virginia, he testified on behalf of airpower and a separate Air Force before the Morrow Board, appointed by President Coolidge and chaired by Dwight Morrow to offset adverse political effects of the court martial of Billy Mitchell.

Hickam was promoted to lieutenant colonel on March 1, 1932, and given command of the 3rd Attack Group, based at Fort Crockett, Galveston, Texas.

This resulted in Hickam's initiation into the famed "Caterpillar Club," a fraternal order with membership based on surviving an emergency parachute jump.

Flying a Curtiss A-12 Shrike, 33-250, of the 60th Service Squadron,[2] he was practicing night landings on an unlighted strip when his aircraft struck an embankment and flipped over.