Fleet’s Aviation Adventures

1916–1940s
From early cross-country flights to inspection tours and demonstration trips, Fleet’s travels by air reflected both his love of flying and his belief in aviation’s future.

A Life Spent in the Air

For Reuben H. Fleet, aircraft were never just products. They were tools, instruments, and companions in a lifetime of travel. Throughout his career, he logged countless miles in the air—inspecting facilities, visiting military and government officials, demonstrating aircraft capabilities, and sometimes simply flying for the joy of flight.

These journeys reveal the personal side of an industrial and military leader who remained, at heart, an aviator.

Early Cross-Country Flights

In the years after World War I, long before scheduled airline travel became routine, Fleet made frequent cross-country flights in military and company aircraft. These trips carried him:

between Army bases and training fields
to factories and test sites
to meetings with officials in Washington, D.C.
across regions that had rarely seen an aircraft overhead

Accounts from the time recall him arriving at small fields where local residents gathered just to watch an airplane land. For many, it was their first close look at the future.

Flying as an Executive and Owner

As head of Consolidated Aircraft, Fleet continued to fly regularly. He often piloted company aircraft himself to visit plants, suppliers, and customers. Employees remembered that he preferred to experience his aircraft firsthand rather than only through reports.

These flights were not ceremonial; they were working trips in which he evaluated cockpit layouts, visibility, handling characteristics, and in-flight comfort. His feedback helped refine everything from instrument placement to vibration damping.

Personal Risk and Quiet Confidence

Some of Fleet’s aviation adventures involved substantial risk by today’s standards: flying over rugged terrain with limited weather information, operating into fields that were barely more than cleared strips, and navigating without the modern systems pilots now take for granted.

Yet those who flew with him describe a pilot who was calm, disciplined, and fully aware of both the capabilities and the limitations of his machines. His experience as a test pilot and trainer gave him a deep respect for preparation and prudence.

Travel with a Purpose

For Fleet, these flights were never just about getting from one place to another. Each journey served a larger purpose:

promoting new aircraft
building relationships with military and naval leaders
checking the condition of production lines
encouraging his employees by appearing in person
demonstrating that aviation could reliably compress distance and time

His presence in the cockpit sent a quiet message: if the head of the company was willing to fly the aircraft himself, he meant what he said about their quality.

The Adventures Behind the Accomplishments

While the headlines focused on new designs, contracts, and factories, Fleet’s aviation adventures filled the spaces between those milestones. They kept him close to the realities of flight and to the people whose lives depended on the aircraft he built.

Taken together, these journeys form an invisible map behind his public achievements—a map of routes flown, fields visited, and skies crossed by a man who never lost his connection to the act of flying.