Before the launch of the Air Force in 1947, the US Army was flying different airplanes for 40 years. Below are some of the most notable airplanes that the US Army used.
Eddie Rickenbacker
Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, the top US ace of World War I, had 26 victories. He is famously known for flying Spad S XIII.
He was the top aviator when the US Air Force was born after President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947.
The act established the Air Force as a separate entity back in September 1947, according to CNET.
Around the same time, the first US military service had dedicated to flying aircraft in the national defense and called the section as the Aeronautical Division of the US Signal Corps. It was introduced in August 1907.
Baldwin Dirigible
Ten years before Rickenbacker's peak, military aviation had a lot to figure out as they wanted something better than a balloon to fly in.
That was when the dirigible was introduced. It was lighter than air, but its flight could be controlled. In 1908, the Aeronautical Division acquired a nonrigid dirigible designed by Thomas Scott Baldwin as its first-ever powered aircraft. However, it would be discontinued in 1912.
The precursors to the US Air Force went by several names, all under the command of the US Army. First was the Aeronautical Division, which operated from 1907 to 1914, and the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps which operated from 1914 to 1918.
The Army Air Service operated from 1918 to 1926, the Army Air Corps operated from 1926 to 1941, and the Army Air Forces operated from 1941 to 1947.
1909 Wright Flyer
The 1900 Wright Flyer is the first aircraft bought by the Aeronautical Division and is considered "heavier than air." It came from the Wright brothers, but even the pioneers had to prove their machine could meet the demands and requirements of the War Department.
The Wright Flyer had to be able to stay in the air for more than an hour, carry a passenger for 125 miles at a speed of 40 miles per hour, but be steerable in all directions at all times, and should be able to land without any damage.
Curtiss Flying Boat
At the North Island in San Diego Bay, the pilots learned how to perform landings and takeoffs on the water as well as on land.
The flying boats, just like the Curtiss-built one, were all the rage back in the day when it came to powered aviation, according to World News Times.
The First Shot
In the earliest years of powered flight, the pilots did not sit inside the plane so much as they sat on it in the open. Everything was an experiment at the time.
In August 1910, an Army officer showed how he fired his first gunshot from an airplane, directing a rifle at a 3-by-5 foot target from an altitude of 100 feet, according to the National Museum of the US Air Force.
The pilot was from the Curtiss Aircraft company, suggesting that the airplane that was used for the demonstration was a Curtiss aircraft.
Burgess Dunne
There was also the Burgess Dune aircraft in 1914. It was a tailless, swept-wing biplane with a pusher propeller in the rear.
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Written by Sophie Webster
