World War I United States Army Aviator. Born on June 5, 1895 at Brick House, Germantown, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Doctor Norton Downes and Phebe Warren McKean Downs, and was the great-great-great grandson of Declaration of Independence Signer Thomas McKean. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1917, and joined the United States Army Air Corps, serving as a aviator in the 92nd Aero Squadron in Italy. There he proved to be such a skillful pilot that he was awarded the Italian War Cross. At age 23 he was transferred from Italy to England, arriving in September 1918. His accomplishments were as such at he was assigned as Chief Night Flying and Bombing instructor at the aviation school at Fort Junction, Sussex.
On October 23, 1918, while making a flight in a new British bombing plane, he got lost in a heavy fog, and disappeared. He apparently drowned in the English Channel, and his remains washed up on shore on November 7. He was then interred in a military cemetery in Winchester, England.
He is honored in Philadelphia on the Aero Memorial, located at Aviator Park, east side of 20th Street between Race and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
On October 23, 1918, while making a flight in a new British bombing plane, he got lost in a heavy fog, and disappeared. He apparently drowned in the English Channel, and his remains washed up on shore on November 7. He was then interred in a military cemetery in Winchester, England.
He is honored in Philadelphia on the Aero Memorial, located at Aviator Park, east side of 20th Street between Race and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
World War I United States Army Aviator. Born on June 5, 1895 at Brick House, Germantown, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Doctor Norton Downes and Phebe Warren McKean Downs, and was the great-great-great grandson of Declaration of Independence Signer Thomas McKean. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1917, and joined the United States Army Air Corps, serving as a aviator in the 92nd Aero Squadron in Italy. There he proved to be such a skillful pilot that he was awarded the Italian War Cross. At age 23 he was transferred from Italy to England, arriving in September 1918. His accomplishments were as such at he was assigned as Chief Night Flying and Bombing instructor at the aviation school at Fort Junction, Sussex.
On October 23, 1918, while making a flight in a new British bombing plane, he got lost in a heavy fog, and disappeared. He apparently drowned in the English Channel, and his remains washed up on shore on November 7. He was then interred in a military cemetery in Winchester, England.
He is honored in Philadelphia on the Aero Memorial, located at Aviator Park, east side of 20th Street between Race and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
On October 23, 1918, while making a flight in a new British bombing plane, he got lost in a heavy fog, and disappeared. He apparently drowned in the English Channel, and his remains washed up on shore on November 7. He was then interred in a military cemetery in Winchester, England.
He is honored in Philadelphia on the Aero Memorial, located at Aviator Park, east side of 20th Street between Race and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
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