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Cathryn Kachura

U.S. Military History II Spring 2012

[A NARRATIVE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY, 19031945]

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Throughout the history of American military strategy, aviation has grown to be a significant and vital aspect of tactical and logistical development. A vital forty-two years of progress had to made in the United States, however, before the real military implications of aircraft were seen in modern combat.

In 1808, Sir George Cayley flew a kite-like model of a glider as part of his investigations of the center of gravity.1 In June 1848, John Stringfellow was credited with the first power-driven, self-supported flight in world history with his flight of a steampowered, ten-foot model of a monoplane.2 In the summer of 1853, Cayleys glider carried a coachman in free flight in England; this flight is the earliest-known successful manned heavier-than-air flight.3 On October 9, 1890, Clement Ader of France took credit for claims of first flight in his aircraft, Eole; like other 19th-century heavier-thanair flying machines, however, he was unable to sustain flight.4 In 1896, Otto Lilienthal of Germany crashed a glider into the Rhinover Hills; his death became an international news story and spread information about his glider experiments.5 All of these events contributed to the pique of interest in aviation in the United States by late 1896, when

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Octave Chanute flew gliders piloted by A.M. Herring on the shore of Lake Michigan near Chicago, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Pratt truss for bracing the wings of biplanes and other multi-wing aircraft.6

After the interest in aviation experimentation reached the shores of the United States, it was not long before sustained flight became the new goal of technological development with aeronautical scientists. On December 8, 1903, Samuel Piermont Langley catapulted his Great Aerodome over the Potomac River; this full-scale, mancarrying, gasoline-powered aircraft failed the flight test when it broke apart and fell into the river; however, it led to claims that the Aerodome was the first heavier than air airplane capable of flight.7 On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made four flights on the sand dunes of North Carolina near Kitty Hawk.8 Their flier left the ground by its own power, moved forward far enough to demonstrate that the plane could sustain flight, landed safely on land as high in elevation as their takeoff point, and did so under the control of the pilot. This flight made Wilbur the first pilot of an airplane.9

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After their first flight, the Wright brothers spent the next two years progressing and demonstrating their capabilities in flight. On May 26, 1904, the Wright brothers made the first flights of their second plane, Flyer No. 2, near Dayton, Ohio, inaugurating flight at the first air field specifically designed for airplane use.10 On September 20, 1904, Wilbur Wright flew an airplane in a circle, the first circuit flight, demonstrating the extent of the control that the pilot had.11 On October 16, 1905, after demonstrating that Flyer No. 3 was fully controllable during the summer and fall season, the Wright brothers made their last flight for almost three years to protect the intellectual property of their airplane, which was not yet protected under United States patent laws.12 By the time they began flying again in May 1908, they had lost much of their technical lead in aviation.13

In the years before World War I, aviation development leaned toward increasing aircraft stability, speed, and capabilities in flight, including distance and maneuverability. In October 1904, Robert Esnault-Pelterie flew the first full-scale aircraft with ailerons installed on the wings, the purpose of which was to gain control of lateral stability. 14 On

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October 3, 1906, Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont flew his 14-bis biplane 60 meters and won the Archdeacon Prize for exceeding 25 meters.15 In July 1908, Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American trophy for flying nearly a mile. 16 By 1909, flight distance capability had significantly improved. On July 25, Louis Bleriot flew an airplane across the English Channel, a distance totaling 24 miles, in 37 minutes.17 On March 28, 1910, French pilot Henry Fabre accomplished the first known flight to take off from water and land on water in his Hydroavion floatplane.18 Nearly a year later, the same feat was accomplished in the United States by Glenn Curtiss at San Diego Harbor in January 1911.19 On November 14, 1910, Eugene Ely flew a Curtiss airplane called the Hudson

Flier off of a takeoff platform on the bow of the USS Birmingham.20 Less than two
months later, Ely landed a Curtiss pusher biplane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania, anchored in San Francisco Bay; this was the first time an airplane landed on the deck of a ship, and it demonstrated the potential of naval aviation.21 Furthermore, Ely later took off from the deck of the ship to return to Selfridge Field in California. 22 On September 13, 1913, French pilots M. Seguin and Henry Farman set a world distance record by

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flying an airplane 634 miles.23 Finally, in July 1914, with the use of an oxygen mask, German pilot H. Oelerich flew at an altitude of 26,700 feet, setting and new international altitude record.24

By this point in time, the United States government and scientists, as well as other organizations internationally, particularly in Europe, saw the military potential in airplanes. Aviation was not by any means new to military technology, as dirigibles and balloons had already seen action in the United States Civil War and the MexicanAmerican War.25 With World War I on the forefront of international concern, there was increased demand in further development of flight capabilities.

On August 3, 1914, a German Taube monoplane dropped three bombs on Luneville, France in the earliest known bombing of the war.26 The first victory of one airplane over another came when the crew of a French two-seat Voisin shot down a German two-seat Aviatik in air-to-air combat on October 5, 1914.27 Many more plane firsts came during World War I: in February 1915, the Russian bomber Ilya Mourometz flew its first bombing mission; in April of 1915, French pilot Roland Garros in a Morane

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Type L airplane equipped with a machine gun and deflector plates on the propeller blades shot down five German planes and became the first ace of the war; and in June 1916, the first airplane built by William Boeing of Seattle flew powered by a Hall-Scott engine.28

On May 5, 1917, Germany made its first airplane mass bombing raid on England; twenty-one Gotha bombers killed 95 people and injured 260.29 On February 21, 1919, The Thomas Morse MB-3 biplane made its first flight; this became the first Americandesigned fighter to enter large-scale production.30 Shortly after the war ended, a prototype Nieuport-Delage 29 fighter reached an altitude of 9,100 meters, and the French biplane consequently went into production.31

After World War I was over, the majority of countries that were heavily involved in developing aviation technology had an unspoken obligation to redirect their efforts toward predominantly peaceful means. On May 8-31, 1919, A.C. Read commanded a crew of five that completed the first transatlantic flight, from North America to England.32 Read made the flight by hopping from stop to stop and by following a line of ships

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across the ocean.33 In June 1919, British airmen John Alcock and Aurthur Brown flew a Vimy biplane powered by two Rolls Royce Engle engines across the Atlantic Ocean, from Newfoundland to Ireland, and thereby completing the first nonstop transatlantic flight.34 On July 2-5 and 9-13, the British R.34 became the first airship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic east to west, the first aircraft to make a round-trip flight over the Atlantic, and the first to attempt to use a directionfinding radio on a transoceanic flight.35

Many more cutting-edge distance claims to fame were made over the next decade leading into the Golden Age of Aviation, focusing on transatlantic flights. In 1919, an Army Martin Model G biplane, reconfigured as an observation plane, flew around the rim of the United States, and brothers Ross and Keith Smith and two mechanics flew from London to Australia in less than a month, securing a prize offered by the Australians for such a flight.36 In 1920, Pierre van Rynevald and C.J. Quintin Brand completed the first flight from England to South Africa via outposts such as Cairo, Egypt.37 In 1922, two Portuguese pilots flew the first flight across the South Atlantic

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Ocean from Lisbon to Brazil, despite having wrecked two planes enroute. 38 1923 saw the first nonstop transcontinental flight in the United States when two military pilots, Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready, flew from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, California in 26 hours and 50 minutes.39 In 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers attempted to fly around the world, from Seattle to Seattle; two completed the flight, Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold, and became the pilots of the first round-the-world flight in history.40

Other flight achievements of the interwar period include new speed records, Billy Mitchells demonstration, air-to-air refueling, flight to new territories, and political movements. On February 7, 1920, Sadi-Lecointe set the first post-war speed record at approximately 171 miles per hour at Villacoublay, France; at the time, for speed records, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale required four runs over a one kilometer course, including runs in both directions to cancel the effect of wind.41

In July 1921, Billy Mitchell commanded the bombing of the captured German battleship Ostfreisland, and thereby demonstrated the effectiveness of air power against

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naval ships.42 In 1923, using a light bomber modified into a tanker, the United States refueled another light bomber in the first air-to-air refueling incident.43 On May 9, 1926, Naval Lieutenant Commander Richard E. Byrd and army pilot Floyd Bennett made the first airplane flight over the North Pole; shortly thereafter, Roald Amundsen led the expedition of the first airship flight over the pole.44 Finally, in January 1927, British Imperial Airways opened its airline route linking the colonial cities of Basra, Iraq and Cairo, Egypt.45

Much of the progress that was made going into World War II was right along the lines of that coming out of World War I- distance, speed, and expeditionary trips. On May 20-21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his famous flight in the monoplane, Spirit of

St. Louis, nonstop and solo from New York to Paris.46 Also in 1927, Costes and le Brix
completed the first nonstop airplane flight across the South Atlantic Ocean from Senegal to Brazil.47 In 1928, German airmen Hermann Kohl and Baron von Hunefeld made the first nonstop flight east-to-west, against the prevailing winds, across the Atlantic Ocean.48 On August 8-29, 1929, a German airship flew around the world,

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beginning and ending in the United States, mostly due to the fact that it was, in large part, sponsored by American publisher William Randolph Hearst; the round-the-world flight logged seven days and 11 minutes in the air.49 In October 1931, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herdon, Jr. completed the first transpacific flight from Japan to Washington.50 Amelia Earhart make her famous debut in flight history in May 1932 when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean nonstop and solo; she flew from Newfoundland to Ireland and beat the record time set by Alcock and Brown in 1919. 51 In 1933, the first flight over Mount Everest was performed in a Westland Wallace military plane at an altitude of 29,030 feet.52

By 1935, the world was feeling the imminence of World War II and redirected all efforts back toward military developments for aircraft. This period of aviation development saw the final necessary developments to phase technology into modern aviation. On May 28, 1935, the first flight of the prototype of the state-of-the-art German fighter Messerschmitt Bf 109 was made with Hans-Dietrich Knoetzsch as the pilot.53 Exactly two months later in the United States, Leslie Tower piloted the first flight of the

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Boeing Model 299, later known at the B-17 Flying Fortress, a strategic bomber.54 In 1938, pilot Howard Hughes flew around the world in a twin-engine that averaged 206 miles per hour.55 Finally, on August 27, 1939 Erich Warsitz flew the Heinkel HE 178 airplane on its maiden flight, the worlds first jet-powered plane.56

From the very beginning of World War II, the entire globe realized the effects that air power had on modern warfare, particularly the United States. On December 7, 1941, 354 planes from six Japanese fleet carriers completely surprised Pearl Harbor in what was the first foreign attack on American soil since the American Revolution.57 Four days later, the United States entered World War II, addressing the European Theater first. 58 Allied aeronautical engineers aided U.S. manufacturers in modifying American aviation technology to suit European combat experiences.59

The most significant and crucial air operations that the United States engaged in were ____ in the European Theater and ___ in the Pacific Theater. Without U.S.

involvement, the objectives of these operations would not have come to fruition, and without these victories, World War II would not have ended in favor of the Allies.

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From the invention of the airplane to the invention of the jet plane, from tactical bombing to logistical bombing, and from offensive attacks to defensive air fighting, air power is increasingly found at the center of modern warfare. Without international and global cooperation in the development of such technology, however, the United States arguably could not have been a key component in the victory achieved by the Allies in World War II. 1903 to 1945 marked a period of technological revolution that changed war forever.

1 2

Ann Millbrooke, Aviation History. (Canada: Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc., 2000), 2-7. Ibid, 2-7. 3 Ibid, 2-7. 4 Ibid, 2-7. 5 Ibid, 2-7. 6 Roger E. Bilstein, Flight in America 1900-1983. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 3-7. 7 Ibid, 8-9. 8 Ibid, 9-15. 9 Ibid, 9-15. 10 Ibid, 9-15. 11 Ibid, 18-20. 12 Ibid, 20-23. 13 Ibid, 20-23. 14 Millbrooke, 30-32. 15 Ibid, 30-32. 16 Ibid, 30-32. 17 Ibid, 33-35. 18 Ibid, 33-35. 19 Bilstein, 24-27. 20 Ibid, 29-32. 21 Ibid, 35-36. 22 Ibid, 35-36. 23 Millbrooke, 48-49. 24 Ibid, 52-53.

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25 26

Jeremiah Milbank, The First Century of Flight in America. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943), 119-126. Millbrooke, 64-73. 27 Ibid, 64-73. 28 Ibid, 64-73. 29 Ibid, 64-73. 30 Bilstein, 154-157. 31 Millbrooke, 91-92. 32 Ibid, 117-129. 33 Ibid, 117-129. 34 Ibid, 117-129. 35 Ibid, 130-131. 36 Ibid, 130-131. 37 Ibid, 139-140. 38 Ibid, 142-143. 39 Ibid, 161-162. 40 Ibid, 161-162. 41 Ibid, 212-221. 42 Bilstein, 41-45. 43 Ibid, 44-54. 44 Ibid, 71-76. 45 Millbrooke, 212-221. 46 Ibid, 300-309. 47 Ibid, 300-309. 48 Ibid, 300-309. 49 Ibid, 300-309. 50 Ibid, 300-309. 51 Ibid, 315-317. 52 Ibid, 351-352. 53 Ibid, 400-404. 54 Ibid, 406-409. 55 Ibid, 400-404. 56 Ibid, 415-419. 57 Bilstein, 133-134. 58 Ibid, 133-134. 59 Ibid, 134-135.

Astor, Gerald. Semper Fi in the Sky: the Marine Air Battles of World War II. New York: Presidio Press, 2005. Bilstein, Roger E. Flight in America 1900-1983. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. Bonds, Ray, Bernard Fitzsimons, Philip de Ste Croix, and Tony Hall, ed. The Great Book of Modern Warplanes. New York: Salamander Books Ltd., 1987. Chisholm, DeShana E., Naomi L. Mitchell, and Patricia Q. Roberson, ed. Aerospace Science: Frontiers of Aviation History, 2nd ed. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air Force Officer Accessions and Training Schools, 2002.

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Collison, Thomas. Flying Fortress: the Story of the Boeing Bomber. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1943. Frankland, Noble. Bomber Offensive: the Devastation of Europe. New York: Ballantine Books, 1970. Goldberg, Alfred. A History of the United States Air Force 1907-1957. New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1957. Green, William. Famous Bombers of the Second World War. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1959. Gurney, Gene. The War in the Air: a Periodical History of World War II Air Forces in Combat. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1962. Johnstone, Sandy. Enemy in the Sky. California: Presidio Press, 1979. Milbank, Jeremiah. The First Century of Flight in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943. Millbrooke, Ann. Aviation History. Canada: Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc., 2000. Millett, Allan R. and Williamson Murray, ed. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Munson, Kenneth and John W. R. Taylor. History of Aviation. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1976. Price, Alfred. The Bomber in World War II. Great Britain: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1979. Rolfe, Douglas. Airplanes of the World. New York: Conde Nast Publications, Inc., 1978. Wagner, Ray. American Combat Planes. New York: Raymond Wagner, 1960. Wright, Orville. How We Invented the Airplane. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1953.

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