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biography
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Arnold, Henry Harley
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popular name Hap Arnold
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1886–1950)
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| biography:
| US soldier and aviator, born in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, USA. The son of a physician, he trained at West Point (1907) and served in the infantry before transferring to the Signal Corps. Bored with garrison routine, he volunteered for flight training, receiving instruction from no less an authority than Orville Wright, and obtained a pilot's licence in 1911. An ally of air visionary William Mitchell, he became a leading advocate of air power during the 1920s and 1930s. As commander of the Army Air Corps (1938) and as chief of the Army Air Forces (from 1941), he built a mighty air fleet of 64 000 aircraft and 2·4 million men, and developed strategic and tactical air doctrine, including the massive long-range bombing of Germany and Japan. He retired in 1946, a year before the air force became an independent service. Given a fifth star as a general of the army (1944), his commission was changed to general of the air force (1949). He wrote several books, including This Flying Game (1936) and Global Mission (1949). |
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