Cornelius Coffey

Cornelius Coffey (born in Newport, Arkansas, on September 6, 1903, and died in 1994) was an African American aviator. He was the first African American to create a non-university-affiliated aeronautical school in the United States. He was the first African American to hold both a pilot's and a mechanic's license.

Coffey helped integrate African American pilots into the American aviation industry. He worked with his good friend John C. Robinson. Together, they formed the Challenger Air Pilots Association.

He opened the Coffey School of Aeronautics in Robbins, IL with Willa Brown that helped train many African American pilots, including some of the Tuskegee Airmen. The school moved to the former Harlem Airport, which was located at 87th Street and Harlem Avenue in the late 1930s.

After World War II, he taught aeronautics at the Lewis Holy Name School of Aeronautics in Romeoville, IL and at Dunbar Vocational High School in Chicago, IL.

He received the Dwight H. Green Trophy in 1941. He was honored with a day by the City of Chicago on July 22, 1980. He was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in 1984.

The Cornelius R. Coffey Aviation Education Foundation was established at the American Airlines Maintenance Academy in Chicago in his honor to train young pilots.

Pilots flying to Midway Airport make a course correction over Lake Calumet which is known as the Coffey Fix.

Coffey's Piper Tri-Pacer 135 aircraft is scheduled to be on exhibit at the Chanute Air Museum as part of the forthcoming exhibit, Barnstormers, Wing-walkers, and Entrepreneurs: 150 Years of Aviation in Illinois.

He was married to Ann.