Lieutenant Donald Hudson (21 December 1895 – 11 June 1967) was an American

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with six aerial victories.The Aerodrome websit

Retrieved on 24 June 2010. Postwar, he pioneered aviation in Bolivia, including being the first aviator to fly across the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

Early life

Donald Hudson was born on 21 December 1895 in

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Un ...

, Kansas, but considered himself a native of

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

, Missouri.''Over The Front: The Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914-1918'', p. 45.

World War I service

Hudson served with the

27th Aero Squadron The 27th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I. The squadron was assigned as a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron as part of the 1st Pursuit Group, First United States Army. It ...

for the last year of the war, as he reported there as a

Nieuport 28 The Nieuport 28 C.1, a French biplane fighter aircraft flown during World War I, was built by Nieuport and designed by Gustave Delage. Owing its lineage to the successful line of sesquiplane fighters that included the Nieuport 17, the Nieu ...

pilot in November 1917. He did not score a victory until 2 July 1918, when he teamed with

John MacArthur John MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to: *J. Roderick MacArthur (1920–1984), American businessman *John MacArthur (American pastor) (born 1939), American evangelical minister, televangelist, and author * John Macarthur (priest), 20th-century pro ...

and four other pilots to destroy a pair of

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII qu ...

s. Hudson then changed to a

Spad XIII The SPAD S.XIII is a French biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War, developed by ''Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés'' (SPAD) from the earlier and highly successful SPAD S.VII. During early 1917, the French designer Louis Béc ...

as the squadron re-equipped. On 1 August, he became an ace, scoring three victories during a protection patrol with the help of Jerry Vasconcells and a couple of other pilots. The action won him a

DSC DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

. His final victory was chalked up on 6 October 1918.

South American aviation pioneer

Postwar, Hudson became an instructor with the

Bolivian Air Force The Bolivian Air Force ( es, Fuerza Aérea Boliviana or 'FAB') is the air force of Bolivia and branch of the Bolivian Armed Forces. History By 1938 the Bolivian air force consisted of about 60 aircraft (Curtiss Hawk fighters, Curtiss T-32 Co ...

. During his stay in South America, he was credited as being the first to overfly the

. The President of Bolivia,

José Gutiérrez Guerra José Manuel Gutiérrez Guerra, known as "the last Oligarch," (5 September 1869, in Sucre, Bolivia – 3 February 1929, in Antofagasta, Chile) was a Bolivian economist and statesman who served as the 28th president of Bolivia from 1917 to 1 ...

, instructed Dr. Julio Zamora, Secretary of the Interior, to contract for a specially built Curtiss 18T Wasp triplane; they may have been introduced to Hudson during this transaction. At any rate, Hudson, his bride, and two mechanics accompanied the disassembled Wasp when it arrived in

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

via railroad from Chile on 20 December 1919. Hudson was ranked as a lieutenant colonel and hired as chief pilot of the newly established ''Escuela de Aviación''. Hudson began a series of record-setting flights; for instance, his use of the Wasp made him the only triplane pilot in South American history. On 17 April 1920, he took off from

El Alto El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estim ...

near La Paz and flew across the Andes for the mountain chain's first aerial crossing. Another flight took him to

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

and set a South American altitude record of 8,294 meters (27, 211 feet) above sea level. Another high level flight like that, on 19 May, resulted in Hudson landing the Wasp with a mechanic passenger rendered unconscious by cold and the altitude. On a flight between

Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by pop ...

and La Paz, Hudson crashed the Wasp near Sica Sica. The destruction of the plane seems to have ended his influence, as he was then investigated by Bolivian authorities.

Later life

On 11 June 1967, at

Fort Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the N ...

, Maryland, Donald Hudson succumbed to the aftereffects of a stroke. He was buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

, Arlington, Virginia.

Legacy

A monument to Hudson's pioneering flight across the Andes was erected in

, Bolivia.

Military honors and awards

Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Donald Hudson, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Fere-en-Tardenois, France, August 1, 1918. A protection patrol of which Lieutenant Hudson was a member was attacked by a large formation of enemy planes. First Lieutenant Hudson was separated from the formation and forced to a low altitude by four enemy planes (Fokker type). He shot down one, drove off the other three, and started to our lines with a damaged machine, but was attacked by two planes. He shot down both of these planes and, by great perseverance and determination, succeeded in reaching our lines.

References

Bibliography

* ''American Aces of World War I.''

Norman Franks Norman Leslie Robert Franks (born 1940) is an English militaria writer who specialises in aviation topics. He focuses on the pilots and squadrons of World Wars I and II. Biography He published his first book in 1976. He was an Organisation a ...

, Harry Dempsey. Osprey Publishing, 2001. , . * ''Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America.'' Dan Hagedorn. University Press of Florida, 2008. , . * ''Over The Front: The Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914-1918 ''. Norman Franks, Frank Bailey. Grub Street Publishing, 2008. American World War I flying aces Aviators from Kansas People from Topeka, Kansas Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) 1895 births 1967 deaths American aviation record holders {{wwi-air