Standards varied in different countries. America was particularly lax until well after the First World War with regard to the need for pilot licences which resulted in many American pilots never gaining an official licence. When the first five were allocated in 1911, the Aero Club adopted the approach of l'Aéro Club de France by issuing the first five licence numbers in alphabetical sequence.
The number of licences awarded up until the beginning of the First World War in August 1914 were:
The first 100 aviators awarded licences in America are as follows. Only a few of the first 12 licences (in 1910) were dated. Aviators emboldened are covered in Pigs Might Fly.
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Glenn Curtiss |
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Frank Lahm |
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Louis Paulhan |
|
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Orville Wright |
|
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Wilbur Wright |
|
|
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Clifford Harmon |
7 |
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Thomas Baldwin |
8 |
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Armstrong Drexel |
9 |
17 September 1910 |
|
Todd Shriver |
10 |
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Charles Willard |
11 |
26 August 1910 |
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'Bud' Mars |
12 |
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Charles Hamilton |
13 |
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John Moisant |
14 |
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Charles Weymann |
15 |
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Arthur Stone |
16 |
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Harry Harkness |
17 |
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Eugene Ely |
18 |
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John McCurdy (see AEA) |
19 |
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Walter Brookins |
20 |
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Ralph Johnstone |
21 |
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Arch Hoxsey |
22 |
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J C Turpin |
23 |
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A L Welsh |
24 |
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J J Frisbee |
25 |
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Phil Parmalee |
26 |
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Frank Coffyn |
27 |
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Lincoln Beachey |
28 |
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'Spuds' Ellyson |
29 |
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'Hap' Arnold |
30 |
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T de Witt Milling |
31 |
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Howard Gill |
32 |
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Edson Gallaudet |
33 |
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Harry Atwood |
34 |
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Lee Hammond |
35 |
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Redmond Cross |
36 |
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William Badger |
37 |
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Harriet Quimby |
38 |
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Ferdinand de F Murias |
39 |
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Paul Beck |
40 |
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William Beers |
41 |
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George Beatty |
42 |
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Hugh Robinson |
43 |
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Cromwell Dixon |
44 |
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Mathilde Moisant |
45 |
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Carrington Kirtland |
46 |
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Oscar Brindley |
47 |
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Leonard Bonney |
48 |
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John Rodgers |
49 |
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Cal Rodgers |
50 |
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Andrew Drew |
51 |
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Louie Mitchell |
52 |
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James Ward |
53 |
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Charles Witmer |
54 |
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Shakir Jerwan |
55 |
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Norman Prince |
56 |
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Glenn Martin |
57 |
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Paul Peck |
58 |
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Harold Brown |
59 |
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Chas Chandler |
60 |
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John Cooper |
61 |
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A B Lambert |
62 |
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J H Toers |
63 |
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L E Holt |
64 |
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Jesse Seligman |
65 |
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Harold Kantner |
66 |
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Mortimer Bates |
67 |
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George McKay |
68 |
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Phllips Ward Page |
69 |
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Clifford Webster |
70 |
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Claude Couturier |
71 |
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Beryl Williams |
72 |
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Fred Dekor |
73 |
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Max Lillie |
74 |
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Henry Walden |
75 |
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Albert Elton |
76 |
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John Worden |
77 |
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Clarence de Giers |
78 |
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Francisco Alvarez |
79 |
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Alfred Bolognesi |
80 |
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Tony Jannus |
81 |
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Josef Richter |
82 |
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Henry Reichert |
83 |
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H F Kearney |
84 |
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Arch Freeman |
85 |
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F T Fish |
86 |
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Frank Champion |
87 |
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Earl Dougherty |
88 |
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Frank Sties |
89 |
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Hillery Beachey |
90 |
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J W McClaskey |
91 |
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William Hoff |
92 |
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S C Lewis |
93 |
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|
Charles Shoemaker |
94 |
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|
J B McCalley |
95 |
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Weldon Cooke |
96 |
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|
Rutherford Page |
97 |
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|
Frank Kennedy |
98 |
|
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W B Atater |
99 |
|
|
Albert Mayo |
100 |
|
|
Frederick Hoover |
Other early aviators covered in Pigs Might Fly:
127 |
|
|
Beckwith Havens |
136 |
|
|
Starling Burgess |
148 |
|
|
Katherine Stinson |
188 |
|
|
Ruth Law |
303 |
|
|
Marjorie Stinson |
For further detail, see 'For the Greatest Achievement' by Bill Robie (Smithsonian, 1993)
