The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, Appendix 2 (1907–1914) was the first heavier-than-air military aviation organization in history and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division procured the first powered military aircraft in 1909, created schools to train its aviators, and initiated a rating system for pilot qualifications. It organized and deployed the first permanent American aviation unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, in 1913. The Aeronautical Division trained 51 officers and 2 enlisted men as pilots, and incurred 13 fatalities in air crashes., Appendix 14 During this period, the Aeronautical Division had 29 factory-built aircraft in its inventory, built a 30th from spare parts, and leased a civilian airplane for a short period in 1911.S.C. No. 30, a Curtiss J, was to have been the 31st aircraft, but although ordered at the same time as S.C. No. 29, was not delivered until September.
Following statutory authorization of an Aviation Section in the Signal Corps by the United States Congress in 1914, the Aeronautical Division continued as the primary organizational component of the section until April 1918, when its inefficiency in mobilizing for World War I caused the War Department to replace it with an organization independent of the Signal Corps that eventually became the foundation of the Army's Air Service.
Birth of an air arm
The United States 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 1892, Major General Adolphus Greely, Chief Signal officer of the Army, formulated plans for a War Balloon detachment for the Signal Corps and authorized the purchase of a balloon from France, dubbed the General Myer,The General Myer and Fort Myer, Virginia, were named for Colonel Albert J. Myer, Signal Officer of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Ironically, Myer snagged John Wise's balloon in trees trying to deliver it to the Bull Run battlefield, then in August 1863 rejected the balloon unit outright as costing more than it was worth. () based at Fort Riley in 1893 and Fort Logan in 1894. When the General Myer deteriorated, a second balloon, the Santiago, was manufactured by members of the Signal Corps in 1897 using the General Myer as a model, and served in combat in Cuba in 1898.The Santiago, after observing Spanish movements near El Caney on June 30, 1898, was placed within 650 yards of the Spanish trenches on San Juan Hill on July 1, where it was struck repeatedly by small arms fire and shrapnel. Badly damaged, it was not used again. (Greely, "Balloons in War", pp. 48–49)
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 Army later resumed its interest in aviation as a result of the success of the Wright Brothers and entered into protracted negotiations for an airplane.
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 Billy Mitchell—was also a student of aviation and taught the use of reconnaissance balloons. Squier became executive officer to the Chief Signal Officer, Brigadier General James Allen, in July 1907, and immediately convinced Allen to create an aviation entity within the Signal Corps.
The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, consisting at its inception of one officer and two enlisted men, began operation on August 1, 1907. Captain Charles deForest Chandler was named to head the new division, with Corporal Edward Ward and Private First Class Joseph E. Barrett as his assistants. 1st Lt. Frank P. Lahm, a cavalry officer, was also detailed to the division and joined it September 17, 1907. Both Chandler and Lahm were balloonists. Lahm had earned renown the year before when he won the inaugural Gordon Bennett Cup, an international balloon event, while Chandler was already a member of the Aero Club of America. He remained head of the division until 1908, then again from 1911 to 1913. During the interim, he was relieved by Lahm and from May 1910 to June 1911 (while Chandler attended the Signal School Course at Fort Leavenworth) by Capt. Arthur S. Cowan, a former infantry officer and non-aviator assigned to the Signal School.
On December 23, 1907, the Signal Corps issued Specification No. 486 for a heavier-than-air flying machine and requested bids. A copy of the specification was sent to the Wrights on January 3, 1908., Appendix 6 The following April 30 Lahm and 1st Lt. Thomas E. SelfridgeSelfridge was a Field Artillery officer interested in aeronautics who had been working with Canadian inventor Alexander Graham Bell since the summer of 1907 after being turned down by the Wright Brothers reported to New York City along with civilian balloonist Leo Stevens to familiarize 25 members of the First Company, Signal Corps, a unit of the 71st New York Infantry, in the use of hydrogen-filled kite balloons. The company was organized to provide the New York National Guard with an "aeronautical corps" for balloon observation, commanded by Major Oscar Erlandean.Long Island Unit Gave Birth to “Citizen Airmen”, Eric Durr, 2008, Division of Military and naval Affairs, ny.gov, retrieved 12-13-2014
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 , and an airplane from the Wright Brothers for . Specification No. 486 required both types of aircraft be able to carry two persons. The dirigible had to be able to carry a load of and reach a speed of ; the airplane's requirements were a load of , a speed of , and a flying distance of at least .
The dirigible was delivered first, in July 1908, after Baldwin submitted an extremely low bid to ensure receiving the contract. Baldwin and Glenn Curtiss flew the test trials over Fort Myer and met all specifications except speed, which was just under the requirement. It was designated Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1. During August, Baldwin trained three officer candidates to fly the dirigible: Lahm, Selfridge, and 1st Lt. Benjamin Foulois, Infantry. Foulois was trained as the first dirigible pilot and prepared to move the ship from Fort Omaha to St. Joseph, Missouri, for a state fair exhibition. However, the first solo ascent in the dirigible, and the first flight solely by army pilots, did not occur until May 26, 1909.
The Wright Brothers, who had been asking for their airplane, then agreed to sell a Wright Model A satisfying the requirements for $25,000 (they also received a bonus for exceeding the speed requirement). The airplane was delivered to Fort Myer, Virginia, on September 1, 1908, for trials. The first acceptance flight of the airplane was made on September 3 at Fort Myer, with Orville at the controls. Selfridge and Lahm were named official observers of the trials of the Wright aeroplane for September 1908. Both Lahm and Squier made acceptance flights as observers, and on September 13, Wright kept the airplane aloft for an hour and ten minutes.
On the afternoon of September 17, 1908, two officers of the United States Navy, Lieut. George C. Sweet and Naval Constructor (Lieut.) William McEntee, and another from the Marine Corps, 2nd Lt. Richard B. Creecy, were present at Fort Myer as official observers, accompanied by Secretary of the Navy Victor H. Metcalf. Under orders to travel to St. Joseph for the dirigible exhibition, Selfridge asked to take Sweet's place on a scheduled test flight, conducted in front of 2,500 onlookers.31-year-old George Cook Sweet was not a prospective aviator but an expert in the new field of wireless telegraphy. The Washington Post, reporting Creecy's suicide in 1930, stated that he lost his place on the flight in a coin toss with the Selfridge. This assertion, possibly a family anecdote, is unsubstantiated by any other source. During the flight, flying at , a propeller split and shattered on the fourth lap, severing a guy wire to the rudder, and caused the airplane to crash.Because Sweet was his heaviest passenger to date (his weight variously given as ), Wright had installed new, slightly longer propellers for the flight. Lahm was of the opinion that the propeller failure occurred when vibration caused its extended length to nick the guy wire repeatedly until the propeller broke, pulling the wire from its socket at the same time. Octave Chanute testified to the investigating board that the spruce wood of the propeller was brittle. The crash convinced Secretary Metcalf not to pursue naval aviation and may have led to his resignation two months later for reasons of health. Sweet, however, was encouraged by Rear Adm. William S. Cowles, brother-in‑law of President Roosevelt and Chief of the Bureau of Equipment, to continue lobbying the Navy to acquire and test an airplane. The 29-year-old McEntee, an aviation enthusiast, was assigned three years later to the staff of Capt. David W. Taylor at the Experimental Model Basin at the Washington Navy Yard, helping develop the Navy's first seaplanes. During World War I, at the end of his naval career, Sweet built a powerful radio transmitter in France and was awarded the Navy Cross. . Wright was hospitalized, and Selfridge—the Army's only officer experienced in heavier-than-air flight—was killed in the first fatal crash of an airplane.Selfridge had nearly been killed the previous December 6 in the crash of one of Bell's kites, AEA Cygnet, at the end of a test flight.
Orville Wright, along with Wilbur this time, returned to Fort Myer in June 1909 with a new though smaller and faster airplane, powered by the engine from the wrecked 1908 Flyer. The brothers spent the better part of July fine tuning the airplane and warming up for the final tests while bad flying weather hampered much of the month. For 1909's acceptance trials both Lahm and Foulois were named as official observers.
Lahm flew with Wright on July 27, and on July 30, with President William H. Taft as a spectator, Foulois and Wright in the final acceptance trial made a cross country flight of around Shuter's (or Shooters) Hill between Fort Myer and Alexandria, Virginia. This flight broke all of the existing records for speed, duration with a passenger, and altitude with a passenger. Pleased with the performance of this airplane the Army purchased it awarding the Wrights plus an added bonus of ($1,000 for each mile achieved over ). The plane's best speed had been , bringing the total sale price to .
Airplane operations First solo flights