Jacob Earl "Jake" Fickel (January 31, 1883[2] – August 7, 1956) was a general officer and an instructor of aviation in the United States Army.

He served as a private, corporal and sergeant, prior to being commissioned an officer and rising to the rank of major general.

In August of that year, the regiment went to the Philippine Islands, where Fickel served at Fort William McKinley with Second Lieutenant Henry H. Arnold.

In 1909, he returned to the United States and was stationed at Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York Harbor.

He was then assigned to duty as an instructor at the Officers Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, where he remained until November of that year.

Fickel was then ordered back to Washington, where he served in the Office of the Chief of Air Service until March 1921.

He then returned to Washington for a two-year tour of duty as Chief of the Supply Division of the Air Service.

From February 1935 to June 1936, Fickel was Commandant of the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field.

Isaac Newton Lewis, working for the company, later improved the technology on this airplane machine gun system.