In 1910, an English aviator set his plane down next to the White House
not only flew over Washington, but put his plane down next to the White House. After landing his spindly biplane on West Executive Avenue Northwest, Grahame-White had lunch with other aviation enthusiasts, then climbed back into his aircraft and took off.
The 31-year-old was born in Southhampton on England’s south coast and from a young age was into fast cars and fast boats. Early planes weren’t very fast — 60 mph was considered a good speed — but they were the next challenge. Grahame-White ordered a plane from France’s— who in 1909 became the first person to fly across the English Channel — and even worked in the factory to familiarize himself with it.
But Grahame-White was as much a proselytizer for aviation as Orville and Wilbur. In a speech to the National Press Club, he touted the military possibilities of the airplane, predicting it would become “closely interwoven” with the army and the navy and render the greatest of the modern battleships “useless.”