Billy Draper yearned to fly. That’s all he wanted to do. When airplanes swooped over his Cuyahoga Falls neighborhood, he dreamed of soaring into the clouds.
That little boy grew up to be one of the most trusted aviators in U.S. history, serving as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s personal pilot, transporting dignitaries from around the world and coining the phrase “Air Force One.”
Born in 1920, William Grafton Draper was the son of James and Olive Draper. His father was a contractor who built dozens of homes in Cuyahoga Falls. The family, which included sisters Ruth and Priscilla, moved from house to house, living at 519 Front St., then 446 Third St. and finally 2676 Third St.
Billy was a pupil at Crawford School who loved to build models. When his father opened a Studebaker dealership on Front Street, Billy learned about car engines. He found a higher calling, though, through aeronautics.
He and his buddy Joe Plummer enjoyed walking to Stow Airport to watch airplanes take off and land. When mechanics worked on flying machines, Billy pestered them with questions.
“I don’t know how many times I was thrown out of the hangar,” Draper later said.
A friendly pilot gave Billy his first ride on a biplane when he was 7 years old. The boy was enthralled, enjoying the world from a different perspective, but slightly baffled that it “didn’t seem as fast as I thought,” Draper said.
The family moved to Silver Spring, Md., where James Draper sold real estate and Billy continued his studies, attending the University of Maryland. He took flying lessons and earned his pilot’s license in 1940, giving his dad a ride in a rented airplane.
“It was my first responsibility in an airplane and I really felt it,” Draper said.
In 1941, Draper became a pilot for Pan American Airlines. When the United States entered World War II, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and assigned to Air Transport Command, where he piloted B-17 bombers to England and North Africa, and flew supplies from Miami to India.
After the war, Draper became a pilot for the Special Air Mission Squadron at National Airport in Washington.
“In 1950, after he had won the rank of captain, he was summoned to the office of Gen. Lauris D. Norstad in the Pentagon,” the New York Times reported. “General Norstad questioned him closely, including asking what he would do if he found himself in a variety of difficult flying situations, especially if under pressure from individuals of higher rank.”
U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, needed a new pilot. An expert flier himself, Eisenhower sought a trustworthy, no-nonsense aviator to serve as his sky ambassador.
Draper, a straight arrow who didn’t drink or smoke and was fastidious about being on time, won the job.
After the general was elected president in 1952, he asked Draper, a lieutenant colonel, to serve as his personal pilot and Air Force aide. Draper’s crew was on call 24 hours to whisk the president anywhere in the world. His Maryland home had a direct line to the White House.
The presidential plane was a Lockheed C-121 Constellation dubbed Columbine II after the official flower of Colorado, first lady Mamie Eisenhower’s home state. Draper made sure that the propeller-powered airplane was in tiptop shape for flights.
“Any time you take the president of the United States into the air, you feel a tremendous responsibility,” Draper said. “You learn to live with the strain, but you never forget you’ve got the life of the president in your hands.”
Over the next eight years, Draper logged 300,000 miles, flying Eisenhower anywhere he wanted — from golfing trips to foreign missions to family vacations. Besides the president and first lady, Draper flew Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and other members of the Cabinet.
His passenger list included British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, Saudi Arabia’s King Saud, Greece’s King Paul and Queen Frederika, Denmark’s King Frederick IX, Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito, Indonesia’s President Sukarno and Thailand’s King Bhumibol.
“The president sometimes comes up front to sit in the co-pilot’s seat when we’re flying,” Draper said. “It’s quiet up there, ahead of the propeller noise, except for the wind whistling around the nose.”
There were rare mishaps and malfunctions, but Draper kept his cool aboard Columbine II and its successor, Columbine III. In a thick fog in Georgia, the pilot was forced to land the plane 50 miles earlier than planned. On a return flight from Buenos Aires, the plane developed engine trouble and landed in Surinam.
The best-known incident was in 1953 as Draper flew Eisenhower to Florida. Air traffic controllers briefly confused the Columbine II, designated as Air Force 610, with Eastern Airlines Flight 610.
Draper suggested a new designation, Air Force One, to avoid future problems. The name stuck and is still in use.
The pilot appeared May 22, 1955, on the CBS-TV game show What’s My Line? hosted by John Daly. A celebrity panel of Arlene Francis, Fred Allen, Bennett Cerf and Mary Healy tried to guess his occupation. He dressed in civilian clothes and gave his hometown as Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
“What city is that near?” Cerf asked.
“Near Akron,” Draper said.
Draper won $35 as the celebrities made a few incorrect guesses, but Cerf finally homed in on it: “Would you possibly be the pilot of a very important person in the United States government?”
Before bidding farewell, Draper said: “I will just say he’s a wonderful passenger.”
At Eisenhower’s request in 1957, Draper ushered in the helicopter age, selecting a Bell Ranger for presidential use. Draper also welcomed the jet age for Air Force One, piloting a Boeing 707 in 1959.
After flying around the world, Draper enjoyed coming home to his wife, Ruth, and three children, Mary Ann, James and Billy, in suburban Maryland. As a hobby, he restored antique cars.
In a 1960 cover story for the U.S. magazine Listen, reporter Eloise Engle profiled Draper in the feature “The World’s Most Exciting Job — And the Man Who Fills It.”
“The forty-year-old flier is tall, tanned, and has what could be described as almost a Hollywood kind of good looks,” Engle wrote. “He has an easygoing personality, with a ready grin or laugh.”
When Eisenhower left office in early 1961, Draper, now a colonel, needed a new assignment. He served as deputy commander of Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, but retired in 1963 after suffering a heart attack.
Draper yearned to fly. That’s all he wanted to do. His wife said he became despondent when he lost his career. She found him dead in their basement Nov. 25, 1964. He was only 44 years old.
“Eisenhower Pilot Found Hanged in Home in a Washington Suburb,” the New York Times headline read.
Col. William G. Draper was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His legacy, Air Force One, soars into the clouds just as that Cuyahoga Falls boy dreamed.
A video of the colonel on the 1955 What’s My Line? is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6BmMzhsv4. Copy editor Mark J. Price is author of The Rest Is History: True Tales From Akron’s Vibrant Past, a book from the University of Akron Press. Reach him at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.