George William Goddard
1889 - 1987
General George W. Goddard was a US Air Force brigadier general and pioneer in aerial photography, mapping, and reconnaissance.
He started his military career in World War I in the US Army Signal Corps Air Service doing aerial photography. After the war, he continued his photography experiments in the infrared, long-range, night-time reconnaissance sectors and in using portable laboratory equipment. He was at the heart of the Photographic Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
During World War II, he worked on reconnaissance aircraft photography. In August 1945, he was appointed chief of the Photographic Laboratory at Wright Field. He remained there until 1952 when he was transferred to NATO's headquarters in France.