Harry Combs, former head of Learjet and founder of AMR Combs, died in Wickenburg, Ariz., on December 23 at the age of 90. Long fascinated by the achievements and legacy of the Wright Brothers, Combs had participated in the December 17 centennial-of-flight activities at Kitty Hawk, N.C., less than a week before his death. There, Combs saw the Wright Flyer replica whose construction he had sponsored take part in the commemoration of aviation’s hundredth before he formally gave the airplane to the National Park Service as part of a new permanent exhibit at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Born in Denver, Colo., on Jan. 27, 1913, Combs was the son of a World War I pilot, Albert Combs, who had trained with the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto, Canada, and, perhaps as a result of being shot down twice, advised his son to avoid airplanes. The young Harry disregarded his father’s warnings and, at the age of 13, paid $2.50 for a ride in a mailplane, which hooked him on flying. While attending the Taft prep school in Connecticut at the age of 15, he read an ad for flying lessons and persuaded a friend to drive him to St. Louis, where he paid $99 for lessons and soloed in his third hour. At age 17, during a summer vacation, Combs built and test flew a biplane he called the Vamp Bat.
