George William Goddard (June 15, 1889 – September 20, 1987) was a United States Air Force brigadier general and a pioneer in aerial photography.
Early life and education
George William Goddard was born in London, England, in 1889. He moved to Rochester, New York, in June 1904 to live with his aunt and uncle. He was naturalized on April 27, 1918.
Goddard graduated from Washing Irving Preparatory School in New York in 1910 and attended Keuka Institute, now Keuka College in Keuka Park, New York, for two years. While at Keuka College, he witnessed early flights by Glenn Curtiss.
Goddard then studied commercial art in Rochester for a year. He was a free-lance cartoonist in Rochester until January 1916, when he became a staff artist for Coke and Iron Monthly in Chicago, Illinois. While in Chicago, he saw an exhibition by aviator Ruth Law which inspired him to learn to fly.
Career
World War I
Originally Goddard intended to serve the war effort in the Corps of Engineers, but persuaded by a pilot he met en route to this job, he decided to join the Signal Corps Air Service to become a pilot instead. On December 14, 1917, Goddard enlisted in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps and entered the aerial photography course at the School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell University. Upon completion of the three-month course, he became an instructor in aerial photographic interpretation.
Goddard was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section Reserve on August 8, 1918, and assigned to Taliaferro Field, Fort Worth, Texas, to organize and take to France the 43rd, 44th and 45th Aerial Photographic sections.
Despite plenty of informal flying, Goddard did not become a rated pilot until two years after joining up. He had been assigned to photography because he had admitted to being an amateur photographer in civilian life.
Between the world wars
When the Armistice was declared, ending World War I, Goddard was transferred to Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida, where he finally graduated from flying school and was rated a pilot in May 1919. At the personal urging of General Billy Mitchell, who was impressed with Goddard's camera experimentation, he was assigned to McCook Field, Ohio, as officer in charge of aerial photographic research. In that capacity, he started developments in the infra-red and long-range photography, special aerial cameras, photographic aircraft and portable field laboratory equipment and formed the nucleus of the Photographic Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
On July 1, 1920, Goddard received his regular commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Service, and was promoted immediately to first lieutenant the same date. He then was appointed officer in charge of aerial photography in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps, Washington, D.C. While on that assignment, he received a presidential appointment as Air Corps representative on the Federal Board of Surveys and Maps. He organized the first Army aerial photographic mapping units that pioneered in mapping Muscle Shoals, Tennessee River Basin, Teapot Dome, Mississippi River and many other areas. As chief photographic officer, Goddard created the first aerial mapping units, directed photo coverage of General Billy Mitchell's 1921 warship bombings, and made mosaic maps of many cities and land area.
Returning to McCook Field, Goddard pioneered the development of nighttime reconnaissance photography in 1925. One night in 1925, he stunned Rochester, N.Y., by igniting an 80-pound flash powder bomb to light up the whole city. The result was the first aerial night photograph.
On a trip to the Philippines, Goddard mapped unexplored areas, and subsequently became Director of the photographic school at Chanute Field, Illinois.
Goddard personally developed and held the patents on the Air Force's system for taking night pictures. Developed in 1926, the system, with improvements, was still in use through the 1950s.
In 1934, Goddard directed aerial mapping in Alaska. As chief photographic officer at Wright Field, Ohio, he pioneered in stereoscopic, high altitude, and color photography and developed the film strip camera (see strip aerial photography).
Before and during World War II, Goddard went to England on several occasions to learn British methods of reconnaissance and exchange technical information. During these trips, he met with his counterpart in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Group Commander Frederick Laws, who had pioneered British aerial reconnaissance as early as 1913.