Everything about Aeronautical Division U S Signal Corps totally explained
The
Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps (1907-1914) was the first
progenitor of the
United States Air Force, and as such is the first military air organization. A component of the
U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division didn't contain any subordinate units during its existence.
Lineage of the United States Air Force
Birth of the air arm
The
U.S. Army Signal Corps became associated with
aeronautics during the
American Civil War, when
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe was named chief of the
Union Army Balloon Corps. In 1898-99 the
War Department accepted the report of an aeronautically-minded investigating committee that included
Alexander Graham Bell and invested $50,000
for the rights to a heavier-than-air flying machine being developed by
Samuel Pierpont Langley, Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution. Although Langley's Aerodrome failed embarrassingly, the Signal Corps later resumed its interest in aviation as a result of the success of the
Wright Brothers.
All balloon school activities of the U.S. Army Signal Corps were transferred to
Fort Omaha, Nebraska in 1905. In 1906, the commandant of the Signal School in
Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, Major
George O. Squier, studied aeronautical theory and lectured on the Wright flying machine. One of his instructors, Captain
William L. Mitchell, was also a student of aviation and taught the use of
reconnaissance balloons. Squire became executive officer to the Chief Signal Officer, Brig. Gen James Allen, in July of 1907, and immediately convinced Allen to create an aviation entity within the Signal Corps.
The Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps, consisting of one officer and two enlisted men, began operation on
August 1,
1907, with the responsibility for "all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred subjects," and became the progenitor of the U.S. Air Force. Captain
Charles DeForest Chandler was named the chief of the new division, with
Cpl. Edward Ward and
Pfc. Joseph E. Barrett as his assistants. On
December 23,
1907, the Signal Corps issued Specification No. 486 and requested bids. A copy of the specification was sent to the
Wright Brothers on
January 3,
1908.
Acquisition of aircraft
In 1908 the Aeronautical Division, at the intercession of
President Theodore Roosevelt in the acquisition process, purchased a nonrigid
dirigible from
Thomas Scott Baldwin for $6,750
Foulois and Beck
The dirigible service proved short-lived, as the corrosive effects of weather and the
hydrogen gas used to lift the ship caused the gasbag to leak with increasing severity. The dirigible was condemned and sold at
auction. Foulois had been a vocal critic of the dirigible, recommending that they be abandoned, and although one of the two candidates selected to be trained as an airplane pilot, he was banished from the program in October 1909 and sent to France as a delegate to the International Congress of Aeronautics.
He returned in November 1909 as the only officer detailed to the Aeronautical Division. At that time he'd only 54 minutes of training in the Flyer and hadn't soloed. Foulois was assigned to move the flying program to
Fort Sam Houston, an Army post near
San Antonio, Texas, because of inclement winter weather at College Park. Foulois and eight enlisted men disassembled S.C. No. 1, shipped it to Texas in 17 crates, and reassembled it after building a shelter on the cavalry drill field at "Fort Sam." On March 2,
1910, after training himself, Foulois made his first solo and crashed the S.C. No. 1 on its second landing. He flew the repaired craft five times on March 12, and received written instruction by mail from the Wright Brothers. Until
1911 Foulois remained as the Army's sole aviator and innovator. He installed a leather seat belt strap on the S.C. No. 1, then bolted wheels from a piece of farm machinery on the landing skids to provide the first landing gear.
In
March 1911 near
Fort McIntosh at
Laredo, Texas, Foulois and Wright instructor
Philip O. Parmelee demonstrated the use of airplanes in support of ground maneuvers for the first time. The United States in early 1911 gathered virtually the entire Regular Army as a show of force to Mexican revolutionaries, forming "the maneuver division". The S.C. No. 1 wasn't sufficiently airworthy for the reconnaissance and messaging missions it performed, and for a nominal fee of one
dollar, Foulois rented the Wright B Flyer privately owned by
Robert J. Collier, owner of
Collier's Weekly. Foulois and Parmalee crashed the rented airplane in the
Rio Grande River on their second mission.
Two additional airplanes were received at Fort Sam, a
Curtiss 1911 Model D designated Signal Corps No. 2, and a new Wright Flyer that became S.C. No. 3, both with wheels rather than skids. Foulois then undertook training of a small group of pilot candidates on the Curtiss machine in April 1911, three of whom were trained by
Glen Curtiss at
North Island,
San Diego, California, in January. Pilot candidates were divided into separate sections because the flight controls on the two types were markedly different.
Foulois' most proficient pilot was
Paul W. Beck, a captain of Infantry, who was named as commander of the provisional aero company over Foulois. On May 10 another of Curtiss' students,
2nd Lt. George E.M. Kelly
, was killed when S.C. No. 2 crashed while landing. Foulois, who was a
mustang officer and a combat veteran of the
Spanish-American War, was quick-tempered and abrasive in personality. He blamed the crash on improper maintenance of the Curtiss D, and indirectly, on Beck. The board appointed to investigate the crash disagreed, and Foulois was again banished from the program. Beck took over from Foulois as instructor, and moved the school back to College Park, where S.C. No. 1 was retired from service and sent to the
Smithsonian Institution.
Beck's tenure as head of the flying program lasted only a year. On
1 May 1912 he was returned to the Infantry by Article IV, Paragraph 40, AR 1910 (the "
Manchu Law"), an Army regulation that limited an officer's temporary assignment out of his branch (including all aviation officers except those in the Signal Corps) to a maximum of four years in any six-year period. Beck was possibly the first advocate of an air service separate from the Army ground forces, and as such was often at odds with the Chief Signal Officer (head of the Signal Corps), whose office included the Aeronautical Division.
Appropriations and growth
In
1911 the Aeronautical Division received its first direct
appropriation for aviation ($125,000 for
Fiscal Year 1912, half of what was proposed), formed its first flight training school on
3 July, and flew its first two operational
sorties, using an airplane rented for one dollar (which crashed at the end of the second flight) to
surveil the border with
Mexico. Three airplanes were added to the inventory: a Wright B Flyer (S.C. No. 4), a
Burgess-Wright Flyer (S.C. No. 5) and a Curtiss D (S.C. No. 6), and a seventh, a Wright B Flyer designated S.C. No. 7, was assembled at
Fort McKinley in the
Philippines and used by Lt. Lahm to make the first flight of an American miliatry airplane outside the continental United States on
21 March 1911.
Rules of the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) were adopted, including standards for the certification of pilots, and Lts.
Henry H. Arnold and
Thomas D. Milling became the first two Army pilots to be FAI certified. In March 1912 the U.S. Army established its own
military aviator rating and issued the first five (of 25) to Lt. Milling, Capt. Chandler, Lt. Arnold, Capt. Beck, and Lt. Foulois. The Aeronautical Division also dispatched Captain Chandler, Lt. Milling, and a detachment of
Curtiss JN-3 airplanes to
Texas City, Texas to train in anticipation of possible war with
Mexico. The provisional unit organized on
5 March, the
1st Aero Squadron, became the first official unit of the air force on
8 December 1913.
In 1912 the division purchased a
Wright Model C airplane, to be used as a "speed scout." The first one crashed at College Park soon after delivery, killing 2nd Lt., who had been among the first class of student pilots, and
Allen L. Welch, the Wright Company instructor who had taught Arnold to fly on June 11, 1912. Arnold himself was nearly killed in the Model C in November, when the plane stalled. Although unhurt, Arnold was aware that he was almost the fourth pilot death in the Signal Corps that year, and he quit flying (as did four other pilots).
Flight pay and accelerated promotion for pilots were approved by the
United States Congress in
1913, when the Aeronautical Division grew from 14 to 18 pilots. Legislation was proposed by
Representative James Hay (Dem-Virginia, and chairman of the
House Military Affairs Committee) to make aviation independent from the Signal Corps and a separate branch within the Army, but the bill didn't reach the floor of the House. Appropriations for aviation fell to $100,000, in part because the Signal Corps had spent only $40,000 of the Fiscal Year 1912 funding.
The
Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (World War II) (Table 3, "AAF Military personnel--number and percent of US Army strength") listed the strength of the division at 51 officers and men on
November 1,
1912, and 114 on
September 30,
1913. In the following year Congress increased the size and prestige of Signal Corps aviation by enacting a law established an
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps to replace the Aeronautical Division on
July 18,
1914.
Chiefs of the Aeronautical Division
Captain Charles DeForest Chandler (August 1, 1907-June 30, 1910)
Captain Arthur S. Cowan (July 1, 1910-June 19, 1911)
Captain Charles DeForest Chandler (June 20, 1911-September 9, 1913)
Major Samuel Reber (September 10, 1913-July 17, 1914)
Military aviation pioneers
2nd Lt. Frederick Erastus Humphreys, first to solo, 26 October 1909
1st Lt. Thomas Etholen Selfridge, first death (passenger), 17 September 1908
Orville Wright, first flight instructor injured, 17 September 1908
1st Lt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois, third solo pilot, first Army instructor pilot
1st Lt. Frank Purdy Lahm, second solo pilot, and first Army aviator overseas
Capt. Paul Ward Beck, first advocate of a separate air service
1st Lt. Henry Harley Arnold, first FAI certified, second Military Aviator Rating
1st Lt. Thomas DeWitt Milling, second FAI certified, first Military Aviator Rating
2nd Lt. George E. M. Kelly, first pilot fatality, 1 May 1911
Cpl. Vernon L. Burge, first FAI certified enlisted pilot, 14 June 1912
2nd Lt Leighton W. Hazelhurst, second pilot fatality, 11 June 1912
Allan L. Welch, first flight instructor fatality, 11 June 1912
Eugene Burton Ely first to fly off shipboard, 14 November 1910 and first to land on shipboard 18 January 1911
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