Background

Harry Benjamin Combs was born on January 27, 1913, in Denver, Colorado, United States. He was the son of Albert Henry and Mildred (Berger) Combs. Albert Combs, who had trained with the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto, Canada, and, perhaps as a result of being shot down twice, advised his son to avoid airplanes. The young Harry disregarded his father's warnings and, at the age of 13, paid $2.50 for a ride in a Mailplane, which hooked him on flying.

Education

While attending the Taft prep school in Connecticut at the age of 15, Harry read an ad for flying lessons and persuaded a friend to drive him to St. Louis, where he paid $99 for lessons and soloed in his third hour. At age 17, during summer vacation, Combs built and test flew a biplane he called the Vamp Bat. He graduated from Yale University in 1935, earning a Bachelor of Arts.

Career

Harry Combs worked for Pan American Airways as a ticket agent for two years and also operated a Warner-Fleet biplane in partnership with Jimmy Pyle, who later became FAA administrator. Still searching for that breakthrough experience that would shape his future, young Harry returned to his native Denver, where he tried his hand at investment banking. He also joined the Colorado National Guard, flying the 0-19E and gaining valuable flying time; enough, in fact, to earn an instructor's rating.

Harry and a partner opened Mountain State Aviation, a fixed-base operation, and flight training facility. The company, which later was renamed Combs Aircraft. By the time the United States entered World War II, the flight school that had opened its doors with under $7,500 was worth roughly $300,000. In three years during the war, Combs's operation trained over 9,000 pilots.

Combs joined the United States Army Air Forces during the war and piloted troop transportation planes all over the world.

After the war, he returned to his business, and from 1966 until 1972 was an advisor and chair of the board of Gates Aviation & Combs Aircraft, Inc. From 1972 to 1982, Mr. Combs was president of Gates Learjet. He moved the company to Tucson from Wichita, Kansas, in 1975, saying it was overshadowed by Wichita's larger light plane manufacturers, Cessna Aircraft and Beech Aircraft. The brand is now owned by Bombardier Aerospace.

Combs turned his hand to writing, and in 1979 "Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers" was published. The book won the Aviation/Space Writers Association James Strebig Memorial Trophy the following year in the nonfiction category. In 1983 Combs completed "How Strong Is the Wind," a film based on the "Kill Devil Hill book" that he narrated himself. In 1985 Combs was awarded the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the United States.

Combs published other nonfiction titles, including "The Legend of the Painted Horse" (1996) and "Where Was Custer?: At the Battle of the Little Big Horn" (1999), as well as the novel "Brules" (1992).

Achievements

• Harry Benjamin Combs was one of the most prominent figures in the world of aviation, his name today is synonymous with excellence in aircraft service and operations. He played a significant force in civil aviation, developing modern air traffic control standards, saving Learjet from bankruptcy, and operating one of the nation’s most successful fixed base operation chains.
  
  Combs was often recognized for his service to the aviation industry: he earned a Wright Memorial Trophy Award in 1985 and was elected to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996, among many other honors. He received the United States Department of Transportation FAA's Distinguished Service Award for leadership in promoting flight safety, and The Wings Club's Distinguished Achievement Award for contributions to the development of the general aviation industry.
  
  He also won the Aviation/Space Writers Association award for the best nonfiction book in 1979 for his "Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers" (1979).
  
  Combs's final contribution to the world of aviation came in November 2003, when he donated a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
  
  The Combs Gates Award is named in Harry's honor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Legend of the Painted Horse

    (As America leaves behind the battles on the Western front...)

    1996
  • Brules: A Novel

    (Cat Brules, whose life embraces the short, turbulent hist...)

    1992
  • The Scout: A Novel

    (The Scout continues the magnificent story that began the ...)

    1996
  • Kill Devil Hill: The Epic of the Wright Brothers, 1900-1909 1979

Membership

In 1982, Harry became the president of the Wings Club, and in 1983, he was elected an honorary member of the Lafayette Flying Corps.

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  Wings Club , United States

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  Lafayette Flying Corps , United States

Interests

• Writers

  "Warbirds: The Diary of an Unknown Aviator" by Elliott White Springs

Connections

Harry married Virginia Prout on February 28, 1956. The couple had three children: Harry Benjamin, Anthony, and Clara.

Father:

Albert Henry Combs

Mother:

Mildred (Berger) Combs

Wife:

Virginia (Prout) Combs

Son:

Harry Benjamin Combs

Daughter:

Clara Combs

Son:

Anthony Combs