Serving with the British Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force in the First World War, LeBoutillier scored 10 aerial victories, witnessed the death of Manfred von Richthofen and was a vigorous proponent of Captain Roy Brown as the victor over Richthofen.

[1][2] Post war, he became a stunt pilot for movies, a skywriter, and an aviation instructor whose most famous student was Amelia Earhart.

He then crossed into Canada and joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 21 August 1916 undertaking training at Redcar.

[5] During a squadron dogfight on 21 April 1918 in the Somme River valley, LeBoutillier, Robert Foster, and Merrill Samuel Taylor shot down an Albatros two-seater[3] and sparked a running dogfight during which Captain Roy Brown shot down Manfred von Richthofen.

LeBoutillier said he witnessed Brown's tracer bullets penetrating Richthofen's cockpit, “to my dying day I’ll say Brownie shot him down...