Woodford County Kentucky native Bee R. Osborne obtained his first military experience in a Lexington unit of the Kentucky National Guard in 1915. Lieutenant Osborne saw five years’ service as an aviator and served in this capacity throughout America’s participation in World War 1. He served as chief test pilot for American planes arriving in France and piloted the first Liberty plane to reach that country. He saw duty in many sections and made numerous flights to the front line. He later was made commanding officer of Airdrome at Villacoublay, France, where he was chief test and acceptance pilot for the American government While at Villacoublay, now Capt. Osborne was sent to Romorantin, about 200 miles east of Paris, to test the first American plane to arrive in France. This, the Liberty plane, was flown on May 18, 1918, and the Paris papers had interesting accounts of the flight. To his surprise there was a big celebration planned in connection with the flight. He was the recipient of bouquets of flowers and a French commendation and subjected to extensive oratory before he embarrassingly climbed into the ship.
The day of the flight was “sultry,” it was reported, but the “elements seemed to hold their forces in check to allow a perfect test.” A host of high-ranking American, British and French military men were there, as was a prominent American war-worker, Mrs. Florence H. Kendall. Mrs. Kendall christened the plane “Lady Florence,” gave Osborne a huge bouquet of roses, then posed with the pilot and the brass for numerous pictures in front of the plane. Osborne recalls he told Mrs. Kendall to “Hold those flowers until I come down. I might need em’ then.
He didn’t of course. Accompanied by an observer, a Capt. Miller, he took off, flew and landed with “800 spectators cheering lustily,” and, according to all accounts… “the official test proved to be a great success.”
