Career
On December 2, 1912, he reported for duty at the Aviation Camp, Annapolis, Doctor of Medicine and was assigned to the Navy-Wright B-2 for instruction. Billingsley, designated as Naval Aviator Number. 9, was the first naval aviator killed in an airplane crash.
On June 20, 1913, while piloting the B-2 at 1,600 feet over water near Annapolis, Maryland, he was thrown from the plane and fell to his death.
Admiral John Henry Towers, also unseated in the turbulence, was nearly killed in the same accident as he clung to the plane and fell with it into the water. The Clemson-class destroyer United States Ship Billingsley (Doctor of Divinity-293) was named in his honor.
