Coffey, Cornelius Robinson
1903-1994 · Contribution: 1929-1969
Became the first African American certified aircraft mechanic in the United States in 1932 and designed a patented carburetor heating system that prevented icing, allowing aircraft to fly safely in cold and wet weather, a design principle still used in aviation today
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
After he and fellow aviator John C. Robinson, also profiled elsewhere in this collection, were rejected from Chicago's Curtiss-Wright School of Aeronautics because of their race, the two men built and taught themselves to fly a homemade single-seat airplane before successfully suing for admission; Coffey graduated first in his class in 1931 and became the first Black certified aircraft mechanic the following year, as well as the first Black person to simultaneously hold both pilot's and mechanic's licenses. In 1938 he founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Chicago's Harlem Airport, which trained more than 1,000 students between 1938 and 1945, including roughly 200 who went on to become Tuskegee Airmen, and which was one of only two non-collegiate institutions in the country selected to participate in the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program; his wife and co-instructor, Willa Brown, also profiled in this collection, served as the school's director. Coffey's carburetor heating system, designed to prevent the engine icing that grounded early aircraft in cold or humid conditions, remains conceptually reflected in aircraft carburetor heat systems used today, and in 1980 the Federal Aviation Administration named an aerial navigation waypoint near Chicago's Midway Airport the “Coffey Fix” in his honor — the first such honor for a Black American.
Life & background
Born September 6, 1903, in Newport, Arkansas, Coffey moved to Chicago in 1925 to study automobile mechanics and became fascinated with aviation after a boyhood airplane ride. He earned his mechanic's certification in 1932, ran the Coffey School of Aeronautics from 1938 to 1945, continued teaching aviation mechanics at Chicago vocational schools until 1969, and worked as an FAA aircraft inspector into his late eighties; he died in Chicago on March 2, 1994, at age 91, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2023.
Sources
- BlackPast.org; Encyclopedia of Arkansas; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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