Rodman Wanamaker Endurance Trophy During the 1910-1911 period, the Signal Corps had so few airplanes that it adopted a policy of granting its pilots necessary leave from duty to fly manufacturers' airplanes at civilian flying meets. At one such meet sponsored by the Aero Club of America on Sept. 26, 1911, at the Nassau Boulevard Aerodrome on Long Island, Lt. Thomas DeWitt Milling set a world altitude endurance record of 1 hour, 54 minutes, 42.6 seconds with two passengers, for which he was awarded the trophy on display. Milling, together with Lt. H.H. Arnold, was taught to fly in May 1911 at the Wright Company's flying school at Huffman Prairie, now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Click here to return to the Early Years Gallery.