Dave Driskill

Dave Driskill in front of the NPS Fairchild FC-2W2.

Dare County Regional Airport Museum

Quick Facts

Significance:

National Park Service Pilot

Date of Birth:

September 12, 1897

Date of Death:

October 3, 1949

Place of Burial:

Hampton, Virginia

Cemetery Name:

Oakland Cemetery

In the late 1930's and early 1940's, National Park Service (NPS) pilot Dave Driskill (1897-1949) ferried food and supplies, mail, pay, and emergency evacuations from the Outer Banks and the mainland in a Fairchild FC-2W2 airplane, the first owned by the NPS. His work supported the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in developing Cape Hatteras National Seashore as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal—a turning point in the Outer Banks’ transition from the isolated barrier islands known to the Wright brothers to a bustling tourist destination.

In North Carolina, Driskill demonstrated the utility of aircraft in conservation projects. As a result, in 1941, the Park Service called upon him to test autogiros for the agency, the first centralized aviation program in NPS history. In this capacity, Driskill’s demonstration flights were successful, resulting in aerial photography at Colonial National Historical Park and other sites on the east coast. However, a lack of funding, the limitations of autogiro technology, and America’s entrance into World War II shut down the program.

Aerial photographs from the NPS autogiro, 1941.
_{NPS Photo/Cape Hatteras National Seashore}

In 1942, the Kellett Autogiro Corporation in Philadelphia hired Driskill as a test pilot. For the remainder of his life, he tested autogiro and helicopter prototypes for the company. On October 3, 1949, Driskill died testing a Kellett XR-10 helicopter after a mechanical failure, but in one last act of bravery, he ordered his copilot Charles Dougherty to jump first; Dougherty parachuted to safety.

In 1952, friends, family, and colleagues dedicated a memorial tablet in Driskill’s honor at the Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo, North Carolina. Its inscription captures his important contributions to aviation history: “PIONEER PILOT OF THE N.C. COASTLAND WHO AFTER A LIFETIME OF SAFE FLYING AND MANY MISSIONS OF MERCY, GAVE HIS LIFE TO MAKE AIRCRAFT SAFE FOR OTHERS.”

To learn more about Dave Driskill, read Casey Huegel’s article “Dave Driskill, the National Park Service, and Aviation on the Outer Banks,” courtesy of the North Carolina Historical Review, Copyright, 2018, North Carolina Office of Archives and History.

Photographs of Dave Driskill, historian Floyd Taylor, and the NPS autogiro in Virginia, 1941.
_{NPS Photo/Cape Hatteras National Seashore}