Army Avn History

Aviation has long been a force multiplier in battle. Taking to the skies has been a valuable asset for many aspects of American combat. From its humble and crude beginnings in the American Civil War as hot-air balloons to the present day juggernauts of the Apache Longbow attach helicopters, the evolution of US Army aviation is marked with ever farther leaps in technology and the deliveries of victories to the hands of the combat commander. Aviation is the forefront of the American War Machine.

The history of US Army Aviation finds its earliest root in the American Civil War. The Northern Union as well as the Southern Confederacy both used the technique of launching manned hydrogen-filled balloons as a means of directing artillery fire. This is the beginning of the Army using aeronautics and aerial support as a means of supplementing the power of the ground forces. Balloons were also used in the Spanish-American War and World War I, but airplanes ultimately replaced balloons for the majority of the latter conflict.

In 1909, with the Army’s purchase of its first heavier-than-air “flying machine,” Army Aviation began in an official capacity. The Wright Brothers built the first airplane to Army specifications to serve as the first combat aircraft. During World War I, the Army’s aircraft strength grew to more than 11,000 planes from a humble beginning of only a few dozen. The total number of Army Aviation personnel totaled more than 190,000. This all led to the birth of the Army Air Service in 1918.

Air service leaders such as General William Mitchell began to speak out in favor of a separate and independent Air Force. They argued that aviation could serve as a separate striking force and resented the idea that it remained tethered to the ground forces. They wanted an armed service capable of independent operations, separate and in equal standing to the existing Army.

While congress and most of the Army’s leaders were not in favor of...