West Milton native Charles Furnas worked as a machinist in Dayton in 1908, doing odd jobs for Orville and Wilbur Wright as they adapted their airplane to meet a U.S. Army requirement that it carry both a pilot and a passenger. On May 14, 1908, he flew first with Wilbur and then with Orville, becoming the world's first airplane passenger. After the test flights that year, the Wright Brothers hired him full time, making him the first person employed to build airplanes and the first employee in what became the aerospace industry. He worked with them on Signal Corps No. I, America's first military aircraft and the beginning of the U.S. Air Force, then later left to start a garage in West Milton while remaining their friend; Orville attended his funeral in 1941.