Ahmet Ali Çelikten
Ahmet Ali Çelikten (born Ä°zmirli AlioÄŸlu Ahmed) also known as
Arap Ahmet Ali or Ä°zmirli Ahmet Ali, was an Ottoman aviator who is
believed to have been the first black pilot in aviation history and was
one of the few black pilots in World War I, like Eugene Jacques Bullard.
His grandmother came from Bornu (now in Nigeria) to the Ottoman Empire
as a slave.
Ahmet was born in 1883 in Ä°zmir, in the Aidin Vilayet of the
Ottoman Empire to his mother Zenciye Emine Hanım and father Ali Bey, of
African Turkish descent. He aimed to become a sailor and entered the
Naval Technical School named Haddehâne Mektebi (literally "School of the
Blooming Mill") in 1904.
In 1908, he graduated from this school as a First Lieutenant
(Mülâzım-ı evvel). And then he went to aviation courses in the Naval
Flight School (Deniz Tayyare Mektebi) that was formed on 25 June 1914 at
YeÅŸilköy. He was then a member of the Ottoman Air Force.
During World War I, he married Hatice Hanım (1897–1991) who was an
immigrant from Preveza. He became the first black military pilot in
aviation history when he started serving in November 1916. On 18
December 1917, Captain (Yüzbaşı) Ahmed Ali was sent to Berlin to
complete aviation courses.
He died in 1969.
Legacy
To quote David Nicolle's book, The Ottoman Army 1914–1918, "Most
Ottoman aircrew were recruited from the Turkish heartland ... others
came from the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire as far south as
Yemen, or even from neutral Iran. Captain Ahmet was of Arab-African
origin and may have been the first 'black' Air Force pilot in aviation
history, having received his 'wings' in 1914-15."
Source: Wikipedia
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