American Pilots of World War One

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John F Ross, They Fought for the Skies; Compared with infantry slowly rotting away in the trenches, World War I pilots appeared as knights-errant. Wall Street Journal, Oct 18, 2014
online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-unsubstantial-air-by-samuel-hynes-1413573771
(book review on Samuel Hynes, The Unsubstantial Air; American pilots in the first world war. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014)

Note:
(a)
(i) knight-errant (n): “a knight traveling in search of adventures in which to exhibit military skill, prowess, and generosity”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knight-errant
(ii) knight-errant
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight-errant
(a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature)

(b) “The American pilots of the early air corps did not sound the death knell of an old world like Owen but instead shone with the promise of a new nation rising, asserting America’s arrival as a great power. It is these voices, sometimes jejune, sometimes wise beyond their years, that Samuel Hynes evocatively documents in ‘The Unsubstantial Air.’”
(i) Wilfred Owen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen
(1893-1918 (age 25); of mixed English and Welsh ancestry; in 1912 attended the present-day University of Reading but did not complete; in 1915 enlisted in army)

(c) “Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of Teddy Roosevelt, and his Harvard chum Ham Coolidge
(i) Quentin Roosevelt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Roosevelt
(1897-1918; Harvard College 1915-1917, "posthumously awarded an AB (War Degree) by Harvard, Class of 1919"/ section 7 Roosevelt's last combat flight and death over France)
(ii) Hamilton Coolidge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Coolidge
(1895-1918;  great-great-great grandson of US President Thomas Jefferson; Coolidge dropped out of Harvard College during his senior year to join the US Army Air Service)

(d) “The Americans flew in strange French- and British-built craft without parachutes or radios * * * nor did they have access to supplemental oxygen, which could ward off the disorientation caused by hypoxia. Their steeds of wood and canvas could catch fire in seconds—and often did. * * * Inaccurate fuel gauges—or none at all—forced pilots to estimate their flying time, virtually guaranteeing all of them at least one experience of a forced landing in a field somewhere, preferably, but not always, on friendly soil. * * * The pilots of World War I were up against truly breathtaking conditions. They struggled with their “machines” as much as they did against the enemy, fighting jammed guns and engines that quit at ruinous times. * * * Mr. Hynes notes that pilots didn’t wear parachutes but does not add that workable parachutes did exist: Headquarters simply forbade their use. Top-level commanders without flying experience believed that wearing a parachute would encourage a pilot to bail out at the first intimation of danger. This chair-borne perspective betrayed men who, should their plane catch fire, faced the horror of deciding between jumping or burning to death. Nor does Mr. Hynes tell us that German pursuit pilots were given parachutes during the last six weeks of the war. (German ace Ernst Udet survived because of his.)”
(i) steed (n): “(archaic (or literary) [sic; one parenthesis missing]  a horse, esp one that is spirited or swift”
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/steed
(ii) Ernst Udet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Udet
(1896 – 1941)

(e) “Mr Hynes describes the training regimen in Europe, many pilots starting out on the ground in Blériot aircraft with their wings cropped * * * so they couldn’t fly.”

Blériot Aéronautique
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blériot_Aéronautique
(a French aircraft manufacturer founded by Louis Blériot; section 4 1914-18; section 5 After World War One: “The Allied victory in 1918 resulted in difficult times for the aircraft industry [because military airplanes were no longer needed in a large number] * * * In October 1936 the French government nationalized all manufacturers engaged in the production of military aircraft, including Blériot Aéronautique")

French Wikipedia under this name says the company lasted 1909-1937.