Eugene Luther Vidal (;"Index." TIME, v. 22, p. 46. April 13, 1895 – February 20, 1969) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, New Deal official, inventor, and athlete. For eight years, from 1929 to 1937, he worked closely with Amelia Earhart in a number of aviation-related enterprises, and was President Franklin Roosevelt's top civil aviation director from 1933 to 1937.
In his obituary, Time noted: "Eugene Vidal, 73, pioneer promoter of civil aviation and father of author Gore Vidal; in Los Angeles, California. Vidal starred in football at West Point and competed in the decathlon in the Antwerp Olympic Games of 1920. He later taught aviation and coached football at the academy, resigning his commission in 1926 to become assistant general manager of Transcontinental Air Transport (later TWA)."
From September 1933 to March 1937 he was Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce (a predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) in Washington, where he organized and expanded the government's civil aeronautics program, including creation of the first air traffic control system. Later he served as a director and part owner of Northeast Airlines, and as aviation adviser to the Army Chief of Staff."
Vidal became one of the pioneers in the commercial aviation industry and was an executive for three airlines during the 1920s and 1930s which developed into TWA, Eastern Airlines, and Northeast Airlines. He was the father of author Gore Vidal.
Early life Vidal was born in 1895 in Madison, South Dakota, the son of Margaret Ann (née Rewalt) and Felix Luther Vidal.Longyard "Vidal, Eugene." 1974, p. 443.Jim McClure, York Daily Record, "York County Civil War hero grandmom of Gore Vidal". Retrieved 2016-01-16 He was the second eldest of five children.Kaplan (1999), p. 16The Vidal children were: Lurene Vidal (born 1893), Gene Vidal, Amy Vidal (born 1903), Margaret Vidal (born 1910), and Felix L. Vidal, Jr. (born 1912). Felix graduated from West Point in 1933 and became a career officer in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of brigadier general. His paternal grandfather, Eugen Fidel Vidal, was born in Feldkirch, Austria, of Romansh descent, and his paternal grandmother, Emma Hartmann, was Swiss.Parini, Jay (2015). Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal. New York: Penguin Random House. . Retrieved 2015-12-23
Vidal was a versatile athlete in both high school and college. At the University of South Dakota from 1913 to 1916, he was a letterman in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Vidal was captain of the university's 1915 football and 1916 basketball teams, leading the basketball team in scoring in both years, thereby assisting the university in winning an Intercollegiate Conference Title during his participation. Vidal received an engineering degree from USD and subsequently accepted an appointment from Congressman Royal C. Johnson to the United States Military Academy in July 1916.Kaplan (1999), p. 18
As a football player for Army, he was described as a "ball carrier, punter, drop kicker, pass receiver and backup defenseman." In 1916 Vidal scored three touchdowns and drop-kicked a 45-yard field goal in a 30–10 victory over Notre Dame. He also scored the deciding touchdown in a 15–7 win against Navy on a forward pass thrown by Army quarterback Charlie Gerhardt. Army went 9–0 that season and outscored its opponents 235–36. The New York Times reported that he sat out the 1917 season because of a "hazing episode" but was afterward named captain of the 1918 team. He also starred in track and field and was Army's leading scorer on its 1917–18 basketball team at 8.3 points a game, for which he was named an All-American by the Helms Foundation."Vidal New Army Captain." The New York Times, January 11, 1918.
At the age of 25, he was listed as in height and weighing by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Military service, Olympics and football Vidal's West Point class (originally Class of 1920) graduated on November 1, 1918, 19 months early because of World War I, with Vidal ranked 72nd in general merit. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers but the war ended on November 11, 1918, before he could be sent overseas. Vidal was assigned to Camp A. A. Humphreys in Virginia between December 2, 1918, and June 4, 1919, as a student officer to complete his branch officer training at the U.S. Army Engineer School.Cullum Vol. 7, p. 1374
Vidal's national renown and prowess as an athlete resulted in many instances during his military career, with the war ended, where he was granted leaves or assignments outside his normal duties to perform in sports from intramurals to the Olympic Games and professional football. During the summer of 1919 he was a member of the United States team at the Inter-Allied Games at Paris, touring World War I battlefields afterwards. He returned to Camp Humphreys in September to enter its Company Officers Course and was promoted to first lieutenant on September 28, 1919. In May 1920 he was assigned to the 13th Engineer RegimentThe 13th Engineers were the school unit for the Engineer School. When not detailed to athletics, Vidal spent his entire service in the Corps of Engineers at the school. but took another leave of absence over the summer to attend the Olympic tryouts at Travers Island, New York, and the Summer Games in Antwerp, touring Europe afterwards with the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team until November. On his return to Camp Humphreys he undertook the advanced technical course in civil engineering.
On July 2, 1921, Vidal was detailed to Carlstrom Field, Florida, for pilot training at the Air Service Pilot School, and transferred in grade to the Air Service on July 28. The course of instruction lasted four months and Vidal received his Airplane Pilot rating. On January 16, 1922, he was assigned for advanced flight training at the Air Service Observation School at Henry Post Field, Oklahoma, remaining until June 15, 1922.From 1920 to 1924, because of a lack of appropriations, the Air Service offered only primary flying training to pilot trainees, conducted at either Carlstrom or March Field, California. All advanced pilot training was provided only in one of the four combat specialties (Pursuit, Bombardment, Attack, or Observation), and only Observation then had a specialized school for it. (A formal school for phased advanced pilot training was finally instituted in 1924 at Kelly Field.) The Air Service had only two pilot ratings in 1921–1922, Airplane Pilot and Junior Airplane Pilot, with the latter normally awarded only to enlisted pilots who did not undertake advanced training and be commissioned. (Cameron, pp. 223–226)
Vidal returned to West Point on July 5, 1922, for a four-year tour of duty as an assistant instructor in the Department of Tactics, the first member of the Air Service to be assigned to the academy staff. Later he was also an assistant instructor in Military Gymnastics and Physical Culture, with collateral duties coaching the academy's gymnastics (1922–1923) and track and field (1923–1924) squads. In 1925 Army head football coach John "Cap" McEwan named him an assistant football coach.Vidal and McEwan played together on the 1916 Army team, McEwan as a defensive standout. At the end of the 1925 season he took a leave of absence from the academy on December 12.
Vidal resigned his commission on March 10, 1926, to go into Florida real estate, but he lost all his investments in the subsequent "bust." After coaching college football from 1926 to 1928, in March 1929 Vidal joined Transcontinental Air Transport (T.A.T.), where he rapidly rose to assistant general manager in its St. Louis, Missouri, office.Kaplan (1999), p. 27
Olympics Vidal participated as an athlete in the 1920 Olympic Games and as a coach in the 1924 Games. In 1920 he had one first-place finish in competing in the decathlon, in heat eight of the 100 meter dash, and placed seventh overall in the event. In 1924 in Paris, Vidal was an assistant track coach in charge of the modern pentathlon and decathlon squads. He was the first graduate of USD to be on an Olympic team."U Alumnus Derek Miles Earns Place on U.S. Olympic Team." University of South Dakota Press, July 13, 2004."Gene Vidal." South Dakota Hall of Fame.
Post-college football While stationed at Carlstrom, Vidal also played briefly for the American Professional Football Association's Washington Senators in 1921, appearing in one game.Eugene Luther Vidal, Pro-Football-reference.com. Retrieved 2016-10-16Vidal stated that he also played briefly for the New York Giants of the National Football League, apparently during its inaugural season while he was stationed at the academy. (Association of Graduates memorial page) When Cap McEwan left Army to become head football coach at Oregon, he hired Vidal as an assistant coach for the 1926, 1927, and 1928 seasons.
Commercial aviation professional
In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, T.A.T. suffered significant financial losses. Before the year ended the entire executive staff in St. Louis, including Vidal, were fired.Kaplan (1999), pp. 29–30 The following February he and veteran airmail pilot Paul Collins, who had also been let go by T.A.T., went to Philadelphia to organize the first commuter airline, the New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation, better known as the Ludington Line, financed and owned by brothers Nicholas and Charles Townsend Ludington. Vidal became a company vice president and general manager. Amelia Earhart made an investment of $30,000 and was also made a vice president, in charge of publicity. In its first year, using seven 10-passenger Stinson SM-6000B tri-motors on an hourly daytime schedule between Washington, D.C., and New York, Ludington became the first purely passenger air carrier to show a profit. However, Vidal, Collins and Earhart all left the airline in 1932 when its profitability declined because of a failure in 1931 to obtain an airmail contract and its subsidies.Van der Linden (2002), pp. 193–194This failure, in which the contract was awarded to Ludington's arch-rival Eastern Air Transport for a rate triple its own bid, subsequently led to the Air Mail scandal of 1934. In August 1933, all three invested $2,500 each in the Boston and Maine Corporation's passenger airline subsidiary, Boston & Maine Airways, and incorporated a holding company, National Airways, Inc., to procure aircraft for the endeavor. Collins and Earhart were president and vice president respectively in the B&MA while Vidal, by then in government service, was an unpaid director. He became a partner in Boston & Maine Airways in 1938, which merged with National Airways in November, 1940 and became Northeast Airlines.Butler (1997), p. 295Cullum Vol. 8, p. 402
Department of Commerce Vidal joined the United States Department of Commerce in June 1933, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as assistant director for Air Regulation in its Aeronautics Branch. Over 40 candidates were being sponsored for the directorship by various political supporters of the president, including Vidal, but Roosevelt delayed making the appointment. On September 19, 1933, with Earhart's recommendation to Eleanor Roosevelt, Vidal was named Director of Aeronautics. Soon after his appointment he appeared on the December 18, 1933, cover of Time magazine and was recognized by the United States Chamber of Commerce as one of the "12 Outstanding Young Men of America." On July 1, 1934, with Vidal continuing as its director, the Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce (BAC) to emphasize its status as a regulatory agency.Butler (1997), p. 289Vidal and the Bureau of Air Commerce, Federal Aviation Administration. retrieved 2016-01-17