Thurman Bane: Pioneering Air Force Acquisition Leader Retired 100 Years Ago

100 years ago today (15 December 1922) Col Thurman Harrison “T.H.” Bane—the head of the Army Air Service Engineering Division since the end of World War I—officially retired.

Bane was born in San Jose, CA, in 1884 and entered the US Military Academy in 1903.?He graduated in 1907 as?Battalion Captain, with future 4-Star Gen George S. Patton under his command. He placed 35th in his class of 111, ahead of his good friend and the eventual commander of the Army Air Forces in World War II, Gen Henry “Hap” Arnold.

Bane served in cavalry and ordnance, first in the Philippines and then along the Mexican border where US airplanes – and Bane – experienced their first combat action.?As he told it, seeing airplanes overhead as he sat atop his horse convinced him then and there to join the Air Service.?He earned his wings in 1917 and served as the head of experimental repairs and shops at the Air Service’s seminal North Island, CA, facility, which was the nascent technical center of Army aviation.?He taught himself aeronautics through independent reading and was immediately assigned to instruct classes in it.?His technical acumen earned him an assignment as the first Chief of the Technical Section of the Army Air Service’s Division of Military Aeronautics (DMA), at Dayton’s Wilbur Wright Field in 1918, which ensured through testing and experimentation that industry’s airplanes and equipment met the Army’s requirements for service in Europe. The DMA was the operational side of Army aviation and its Technical Section was the counterpart to the Airplane Engineering Division at McCook Field, then headed by Packard engineer and Army Reserve Col Jesse Vincent.

Vincent returned to civilian life when WWI ended and nominated Bane as his successor. While many (including Bane) were highly critical of the “automobile men” who had managed the controversial aircraft production program during the war, Col Bane was profuse in his thanks to Vincent and his cohort for teaching him much about business that he would not otherwise have learned in his “rough [life] as a soldier.”

On 26 Nov 1918, Bane became the first peacetime head of the Engineering Division that combined the former DMA Technical Section with the Airplane Engineering Division.?Bane was its Chief during the pivotal period for establishing a permanent military aircraft?research & development and procurement organization in the Air Service, positioning McCook Field as the most influential entity in American aviation during the Interwar years. As the “Master of McCook,” Bane was the de facto “most important man in the Air Service” because of the Field’s breadth of functions and its technical control over all Army aircraft.

Bane deliberately dispensed with military rigor in favor of a more commercial or academic environment and organization for the Engineering Division.?Its employees cited that as critical to McCook’s success, given its heavily civilian workforce and military leadership.?Over a century later, AFLCMC and the Air Force Research Lab still operate under these same premises.

Col Bane was ultimately responsible for selecting which airplane designs to buy and who should build them (below). As such, he played a critical role in shaping the future of the military aviation industry, making or breaking entire companies at a time when vast post-war retrenchment threatened their very existence.?His decisions enabled companies like Martin, Curtiss, and Boeing to rise to prominence, while others foundered.?

The list of Col Bane’s long-lasting decisions goes on: He single-handedly conceived of, secured authorization for, and first headed the “Air School of Application,” to provide a graduate-level technical education for aviation officers. That became the Air Force Institute of Technology, with graduates including Jimmy Doolittle, Buzz Aldrin, and AFLCMC Vice Commander Col John Kurian. After seeing two of his pilots needlessly perish in crashes, Bane was the first to mandate use of parachutes, which spread to the entire Air Service.?He also served for 4 years on the NASA-predecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, shaping national aeronautics policy.

While not known for his politicking, Bane repeatedly appeared before Congress to advocate for the Engineering Division—which he did with notable success—and to side with Gen Billy Mitchell (right) in lobbying for an independent air force. Without his steady hand and personal integrity, it was entirely likely that the Engineering Division would’ve been gutted, moved from Dayton, or disbanded entirely.

Throughout his Army career, Col Bane had recurring and perplexing health issues, spending considerable time at Walter Reed Hospital. In 1922, cuts in the Army officer corps and a change in Army policy made it advantageous for him to finally take medical retirement in December. The Dayton Chamber of Commerce and the employees at McCook hosted elaborate ceremonies for Bane’s departure; there was little doubt as to his contributions to the organization and the city.

While the now-civilian Bane had uncertain plans for retirement, other than returning home to San Francisco, he went out with a flourish. In 1919, he had invited the eccentric and ostensibly brilliant Russian scientist George de Bothezat to McCook to work on propeller theory, and then on his helicopter from 1921-1922. Bane assigned himself as its first test pilot. He took to the air on 18 December 1922, but the helicopter only rose a few feet. Bane flew it a few more times before moving on from Dayton that Spring.

Many McCook engineers had gone into private industry or formed companies, but that proved complicated for Thurman Bane. As McCook’s commander, he rankled many of the aviation contractors who envied its budget and resented its role, impeding any future career prospects he might have with them. In 1926, his brief hopes of becoming the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Air were likewise stymied, despite an unequivocal recommendation from his good friend Orville Wright. He held several consultant-type positions over the next few years, eventually working with the airline that became the foundation for the famous Pan Am. In 1932 he was the technical advisor for an aircraft holding company when he finally succumbed to the brain tumor that had unknowingly plagued him for years. A dozen years later, his daughter Suzanne became a member of the final (1944) class of Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). Army Air Forces chief Gen Hap Arnold attended her graduation so that he could personally pin the wings on his old friend’s only child.

Though Thurman Bane experienced neither the fame nor fortune of many of his contemporaries, all who worked with or for him lauded his influence decades later. While he was not the first to head the organization that became AFLCMC and AFRL, he was undoubtedly their (and AFIT’s) functional “Founding Father.” Bane has since been nominated to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.