The Millionaires’ Unit: Yale and New Haven’s Aviation Pioneers Historical Presentation by Historian Marc Wortman at New Haven Museum

New Haven, Conn. (September 16, 2026) – A pioneering aviation squadron formed by Yale University students in 1916, the First Yale Unit, was known as The Millionaires’ Unit. The aviators came from the zenith of privilege but were driven by the belief that their membership in the American elite required personal sacrifice. Historian Marc Wortman will share this rarely heard history and its relevance today during “The Millionaires’ Unit: Yale and New Haven’s Aviation Pioneers” at the New Haven Museum on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 6 p.m. The event will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. Free with regular museum admission, register here.

Drawing on his book, “The Millionaires’ Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power,” and using historical and rare images, Wortman will demonstrate how the Millionaires’ Unit on their own initiative became the first Navy air-reserve squadron and the nucleus of the 40,000-member U.S. Navy Air Service in World War One.

Among the Millionaires’ Unit ranks were a Rockefeller, a Taft, the sons of the heads of J.P. Morgan and the Union Pacific. “They had everything to live for yet were determined to be the first into the conflict during the First World War,” says Wortman. Among their numbers were America’s only naval Air Ace, the first uniformed American killed in aerial combat, the architect of America’s first strategic-bomber force, and others who led America into military aviation.

After the war, those who survived went onto leadership in many fields including military and civilian aviation. Wortman adds that many leaders of America’s air forces in World War Two and the Cold War emerged from the Millionaires’ Unit.

Wortman learned of the Millionaires’ Unit from members of the modern Yale Flying Club at Tweed Airport while he was an editor of the “Yale Alumni Magazine.” “I  knew much about Yale history and culture, as well as military history,” he says. “I became fascinated by the romance of their early flying adventures, the glamorous world at Yale and the mansions of Long Island’s North Shore, and their wartime heroics, loves and fears.” 

When Wortman learned of the Millionaire’s Unit, no book had been published about them in 75 years. “They had largely disappeared from public and even military awareness; I felt it was time they received modern recognition,” he says. More than a century later, Wortman asserts that the story remains relevant. “We live in a world in which flight is a regular part of our lives, and aviation forms a core of military strategy and tactics. That comes directly from these young men’s achievements and heroism, just a few years after the Wright brothers flew.” 

Wortman says that today’s Yale students often come from the same elite realms as these earlier aviators, adding, “With great privilege comes responsibility. Do we see that ethical belief in the students at Yale and elsewhere today?”