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  • Cpl. Edward Ward: First Enlisted Airman

    Corporal Edward “Eddie” Ward’s leadership, talent, and technical skills played an essential part in creating American air power. Ward’s service embodies the critical role played by the millions of enlisted Airmen who followed him.In July 1907, the Army sent Ward and PFC Joseph Barrett to learn the

  • Controllable Balloons: Dirigibles

    From the beginning, the usefulness of the balloon depended upon giving it "dirigibility" or directional control -- without it, balloons could only drift with the wind. Although the U.S. Army did not buy its first dirigible until 1908, the technology had existed for more than 50 years.In 1852 Henri

  • North American O-47B

    In 1934 North American Aviation developed the O-47 to replace the O-19 and O-38 observation biplanes. Larger and heavier than most preceding observation aircraft, its crew of three sat in tandem under the long canopy. Since the wings restricted downward observation and photography, North American

  • Glenn Hammond Curtiss: Aviation Pioneer

    Like his main competitors the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss was involved in bicycling before he became interested in aviation, first racing bicycles and later motorcycles. Curtiss developed a successful motorcycle business in Hammondsport, N.Y., for which he designed and built relatively light and

  • Army Buys New Airplanes

    On March 31, 1911, Congress made its first appropriation for military aviation, $125,000 for the year 1912. The Signal Corps immediately ordered five new airplanes. The first of these, a Curtiss Type IV Model D "Military", was accepted at Fort Sam Houston on April 27, 1911, and became Signal Corps

  • Flying Schools

    In the summer of 1911, additional pilot personnel were assigned to College Park, one of whom as Lt. H.H. Arnold, destined to be the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces during World War II. He made the first "long" cross-country flight from College Park on Aug. 21, 1911, when he flew 42 miles

  • North Island Flying School

    The Signal Corps flying school at North Island was officially established on Dec. 8, 1912, following the arrival of the "Curtiss Contingent" from College Park, Md. It originally had only five flyers assigned, but in June 1913, the "Wright Contingent" arrived from Texas City, Texas. By the end of the

  • Philippine Air School

    In December 1911, the Signal Corps had shipped a Wright B airplane to the Philippines so that Lt. Lahm, already in the islands with the 7th Cavalry Regiment, could establish a flying school. He opened the Philippine Air School on March 12, 1912, and nine days later made the first flight from the

  • Rodman Wanamaker Endurance Trophy

    During the 1910-1911 period, the Signal Corps had so few airplanes that it adopted a policy of granting its pilots necessary leave from duty to fly manufacturers' airplanes at civilian flying meets. At one such meet sponsored by the Aero Club of America on Sept. 26, 1911, at the Nassau Boulevard

  • First Military Multiple-Fatality Airplane Crash

    The first airplane crash that resulted in death for two or more U.S. military personnel occurred at the Signal Corps flying field at College Park, Md., on Sept. 28, 1912. Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, with Cpl. Frank S. Scott as his passenger, was gliding to a landing in Wright B Signal Corps Aeroplane No.