suiteRemember that at the time the airmen had the same reputation as the astronauts today. The all-new Air Force had only 80 aircraft and there was enough French pilots. However, the officer kept his word and Thaw was the first American to join a flying school. At the end of his training he was assigned to a bomber squadron.
It is another American attributed the authorship of the Lafayette Escadrille: Norman Prince, 27, graduated from Harvard. His father, a rich financier, had granted to the French war loans of a considerable amount. He owned large estates in France, where Norman had spent part of his childhood, including at Pau, where his father organized fox hunts that brought together the elite of society. As a result, Norman Prince had important relationships at the highest level. In 1911 he obtained his pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale with the number 55. In January 1915, he left the United States, led the project to create a squadron composed entirely of Americans. After passing by like the others in the Foreign Legion, but very briefly, he was assigned to a bomber unit as a private. Sixteen other Americans were already flying under the French roundels.
The story of the Escadrille La Fayette is one of the most misunderstood and most glorious adventures of the First World War. In August 1914, at the time of general mobilization, few young Americans staying in France. They were, mostly, the son of wealthy families, sports, living a golden life, participating in offshore racing yachts with their own air or competitions with their own aircraft. A manifesto signed by Blaise Cendrars, Swiss-born writer, appeared in all the press calling for foreigners living in France to engage in the French army. All these young Americans, freedom-loving, inhabited by the spirit of adventure, were ready to fight by engaging with France. But to answer this call was not so simple; the United States were not at war against the German Empire, and every American citizen by serving a foreign power had lost its rights and nationality. The U.S. ambassador in Paris they blew out the solution: they should be involved as combatants in a Foreign Legion, or as non-combatants in voluntary ambulance services, which they did all without hesitation. This meant for the former, after a quick military training, they were sent to the front as infantrymen. Among them, William Thaw, the son of a billionaire Pittsburg, brothers Kiffin, Paul Rockwell, or Raoul Lufbery. William Thaw was in France to participate in the Schneider Trophy, a race with his own airplane, a Curtiss. After months, leaving the muddy trenches of the front, her unit was sent to rest. He learned of an airfield. He went there, met a French officer to whom he expressed his desire to serve in aviation. The officer promised to intervene.
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