Harry B. Combs

Harry Benjamin Combs (27 January 1913 – 23 December 2003), America aviation pioneer, airplane manufacturer, and author. He was founder of Combs Aviation and president of Gates Learjet Corporation. He was a pioneering soaring pilot who "lived and breathed the Golden and Jet Ages of aviation." He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996. Early life Combs was from Denver, Colorado. His father was Albert Henry Combs, a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in Canada. Combs saw his first airplane in 1917 at the age of four when he traveled with his grandmother from Denver to a Royal Flying Corps training field in Deseronto, Canada where his father was training. Combs' father was shot down twice while in aviation combat in World War I, and was said to have warned his son never to set foot in an airplane.