Frank Purdy Lahm was the first ballon pilot in the U.S., the first airship pilot, and the first airplane pilot in the U.S. Army. Like his father, Frank Samuel Lahm, his early interest was in ballooning, and in 1906 he won the James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. In 1909 Lahm and Lt Frederick Humphreys were trained by Orville and Wilbur Wright to fly the first plane the Army purchased from the Wrights. In 1912 Lahm was made commanding officer of the U.S. Army Flying School in the Philippines, and during WW1 was commander of the Second Army Air Service.

Following the war Lahm founded the Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field. In 1931 he was reassigned as Air Attache and later Military Attache to France and Belgium. He retired from the military in 1941, a major general as recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor.

Enshrined in National Aviation Hall of Fame 1963.