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. 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, the1st Aero Squadron,
in 1913. The Aeronautical Division trained 51 officers and 2 enlisted
men as pilots, and incurred 13 fatalities in air crashes.
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.
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
The aerial warfare service of the
United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of
the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the
Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, and conducted the activities of
Army aviation until its statutory responsibilities were suspended by
President Woodrow Wilson in 1918. The Aviation Section organized the
first squadrons of the aviation arm and conducted the first military
operations by United States aviation on foreign soil.
U.S. Air Service - U. S. Army Air Service
Known as the Air Service or U. S. Air Service prior to its legislative
establishment in 1920, the U.S. Army Air Service
was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army
between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air
Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of
the U.S. War Department during World War I by two executive orders of
President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation
Section, Signal Corps as the nation's air force; and March 19, 1919,
establishing a military Director of Air Service to control all
aviation activities.
United States Army Air
Corps
The
United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service
component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. The Air
Corps was renamed by the United States Congress largely as a
compromise between the advocates of a separate air arm and those of
the traditionalist Army high command who viewed the aviation arm as
an auxiliary branch to support the ground forces. Although its
members worked to promote the concept of air power and an autonomous
air force in the years between the world wars, its primary purpose by
Army policy remained support of ground forces rather than independent
operations.
