Meet the First Black Man to Open an Aeronautical School in the U.S.

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series honoring aviation pioneers during Black History Month.

Cornelius Robinson Coffey broke many barriers in his career, most notably becoming the first Black man to establish an aeronautical school in the United States. His pioneering efforts led to integrating Black pilots into both the American civilian and military aviation industry.

Coffey was born in Arkansas in 1903. In 1916, Coffey had a chance encounter with a barnstormer that convinced him that aviation was his calling.

In 1925, Coffey headed to Chicago to enroll in an auto mechanics school. He got a job at a Chevrolet dealership along with John C. Robinson, who would go on to form the Challenger Air Pilots Association, Chicago’s first Black flying club.

The two men attempted to enroll in aviation programs but were denied admission due to segregation. So, the mechanics built their own one-seat airplane powered by a motorcycle engine and taught themselves to fly.

In 1929, Coffey and Robinson were accepted into an aviation mechanics program at the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation in Chicago. The school tried to revoke their admittance once it learned they were Black. The white owner of the dealership where Coffey and Robinson worked threatened to sue the school, which then agreed to allow the pair to attend the program.

Two years later, Coffey became the first Black man to be certified as an Aircraft Master Mechanic, finishing top in his class. Robinson was second. Coffey was also the first Black man to hold both a pilot’s and mechanic’s license simultaneously.

Cornelius Coffey was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2023 for his efforts of integrating Black pilots into the American civilian and military aviation industry. (Courtesy of National Aviation Hall of Fame)

During the next 63 years of his life, Coffey was devoted to expanding the opportunities for Black people in aviation. The efforts included creating the first Black-owned and operated airport and the Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first Black-owned and operated aviation school. His also was the only aviation program not affiliated with a university or college that became part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program.

The single-hangar airport was constructed with volunteer labor in 1931 in Robbins, Illinois, a predominantly Black community. In 1933, a windstorm destroyed the airport, which was never rebuilt. A historical marker today marks the spot.

In 1938, the Coffey School of Aeronautics opened at Harlem Airport in Oaklawn, Illinois. The school featured well-known pilots such as Willa Brown, who married Coffey in 1939, and Clyde Hampton. who eventually left the school to assist in the Tuskegee Institute military training. Some famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen began their flight careers at the Coffey School although Coffey was opposed to the Tuskegee program since it continued the practice of segregation.

Coffey was a recipient of the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and, in 1980, was the first Black man to have an aerial navigation intersection named after him by the FAA. The “Cofey Fix” — only five letters are allowed — is a waypoint located on the VICTOR 7 airway over Lake Calumet that provides electronic course guidance to Chicago Midway Airport Runway 31 Left.

Coffey, who became the first president of the National Airmen’s Association of America, flew until he was 89 years old. He died two years later on March 2, 1994, in Chicago.