“This Week in History” is a weekly recounting of historical events which shaped today’s U.S. Air Force. On Aug.18, 1910 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Cpl. Glen Madole and Oliver G. Simmons, the Army's first civilian aircraft mechanic, assembled wheels on Signal Corps Airplane No. 1. The work done by Simmons and Madole delivered a tricycle landing gear which eliminated the need for launching rails and catapults.