John Blackshoe Sends: Serendipity History – Some Early U.S. Aeronautical Background (Part 1 of 2)

So, how do we end up with an Air Force where some guy’s job is ride out in a truck with a screwdriver and light bulb to tell the pilot to take his unauthorized sunglasses off?  

 Compare that with World War I where some 9,500 Aero Squadron troops deployed into the forests to build railroads, cut trees, and mill them into lumber.  But, in keeping with the future USAF “Aren’t we special” attitude, unlike the rest of the Army, they only worked eight hour days, and on top of their Army pay got paid the different up to prevailing local wages.

 It’s a long story, but we need to start at the beginning.

Man’s fascination with flight has ancient origins, but was first achieved by the Montgolfier brothers in Paris in 1783 in a hot air balloon.   Starting with scientific or “recreational” flights, it was not long before various military  forces began to experiment with them for observation purposes.   During our Civil War, Professor Thaddeous S.C. Lowe sold the idea of using balloons, and was appointed “Chief Aeronaut of the U.S. Army Balloon Corps” by President Lincoln, basically working directly for the Commander to the Army of the Potomac.  He procured or made several balloons and some portable gas generators (Hydrogen from sulfuric acid and iron filings) and in October 1861 was making tethered ascensions and providing information via telegraph to the ground.   We know he did not have any light bulbs, and may or may not have had a screwdriver.

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T.S.C. Lowe inflating balloon from portable gas generators circa 1862.

In November 1862 he ascended from what could be called our first aircraft carrier, the [USS?] George Washington Parke Custis. This was a coal barge, provided by CAPT John Dahlgren of the Navy, stripped to a flush deck to carry a balloon and its associated gas generators, cables, etc. Apparently it was only used a few times and Lowe went back to working with the Army.

 

Joint service balloon operation- Army balloon, Navy “carrier.” No cats involved.

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Balloons were used sporadically during the 1862 campaigns, but lacking a commission or any impressive sufficient rank, Lowe was treated as an annoyance, and had to gain the support of each new commander.  Eventually the balloons were assigned to the Engineers, where the officer in charge was jealous of Lowe’s much higher flight pay ($10 per flight day-in gold!) cutting it to $6 in greenback, worth about $3 in gold.  So, Lowe resigned in April 1863 deflating Army balloon efforts.

 

 

In 1893, the Army Signal Corps was pretty innovative with cable based communications along with visual (flag and heliograph) and proposed using some balloons.  A $10k funding request was denied, but they diverted some existing funding, and got a balloon and got back in the air.   First demonstrating at the 1893 World’s Fair, then at Fort Riley, and they finally moved in1894 to Fort Logan, CO.  (Basically following the assignments of the officer who was interested in this stuff.)  Balloons were used for observation and communicated now with telephone via wires in the tether rope.  In 1898 the Signal Corps pretty much on their own initiative managed to get their balloon, gas generators, ropes, etc shipped to Tampa, and embarked on the transports bound for Cuba.  (Very much like Lt. John H. Parker and his Gatling Gun Detachment, another unloved program with no real patrons at the senior level.)

 

After several days delay, the balloon was finally brought ashore in Cuba and by 1 July was at the front for the attack on San Juan Hill.  Sent aloft to observe from the rear of the U.S. lines, Shafter’s chief engineer (along for the ride, outranking the Signal Corps balloonist/observer) demanded that the balloon be moved forward with the troops.   This provided the Spanish with an excellent aiming point for the location of our troops resulting in heavy fire on folks previously unmolested in the dense foliage.  The Signal Corps and its balloon became very unpopular at that point, did no more flying.  But, it set the precedent that balloons up in the air communicated via wires so they must belong to the Signal Corps, and henceforth U.S. Army aviation had a home as part of the Signal Corps.

Signal Corps balloon being inflated near Santiago, Cuba July 1898.

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In 1899 the Army disbanded the Balloon operation.  In 1903 the Wright brothers made their historic first flight, and interest in aeronautical activities was resurrected.  On August 1, 1907, the Chief Signal Officer of the Army decreed:

 

OFFICE MEMORANDUM NO. 6

An Aeronautical Division of this office is hereby established, to take effect this date.

 

This division will have charge of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred subjects. All data on hand will be carefully classified and plans perfected for future tests and experiments. The operations of this division are strictly confidential, and no information will be given out by any party except through the Chief Signal Officer of the Army or his authorized representative.

 

Captain Charles DeF. Chandler, Signal Corps, is detailed in charge of this division, and Corporal Edward Ward and First-class Private Joseph E. Barrett will report to Captain Chandler for duty in this division under his immediate direction.
Source:  Hennessy, Juliette A. (1958). The United States Army Air Arm, April 1861 to April 1917. USAF Historical Study No. 98. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air Force Historical Research Agency, p. 217.

 

In 1908 the Wrights made test flights of the Army's first airplane built to Signal Corps' specifications. On August 2,1909 they bought their first plane, Wright Model A, serial number 1. Joe Baugher’s serial number page over on the right side of Sarge’s home page tells us “By 1911 was in poor condition, having been wrecked and rebuilt several times. Retired May 11, 1911, now in Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.” 

The Army’s first Airplane, serial number 1.

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This was the Army’s first (and only) plane for the next two years.  Perhaps this was an inspiration for President Calvin Coolidge’s later counter to and Army request for many aircraft during his administration: “Why don't we just buy one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it?” Coolidge (in office 1923-1929) was the last president to never fly in a plane.

 

Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918, when it became the Army Air Service.

 

So, that is why during WW1 the Army’s airplanes, and everything related to them belonged to the Army Signal Corps in Aero Squadrons.  Basically, “we’ve always done it that way.”

 

From its shaky start with a single plane from 1909-1911, the Army’s love affair with aviation exploded with rapidly improved designs.   By the time “Black Jack” Pershing was chasing Pancho Villa around Mexico, airframes serial number 43 and 53 were there assisting in a futile mission.

 

According to the official caption:

“A cool Lt. Herbert A. Dargue posing in front of 1st Aero Squadron Curtiss JN-3 Signal Corps No. 43 at Chihuahua City, Mexico. He and the airplane have just been stoned by a hostile crowd. Dargue had the photographer pose him as long as possible to avoid further mob violence. The mob did not attack while the camera was in use.”

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 At the time of U.S. entry into WW1 (April 4, 1917 they had ordered around 100 aircraft.  By the end of WW1 on November 11, 1918 the Army had about 7,900 planes (and several hundred observation and barrage balloons).

 Most planes then were built with wooden frames and fabric covered wings, requiring a huge amount of aircraft grade lumber, primarily select old growth Sitka spruce, which was light weight and strong.   We’ll talk about the “Soldiers in the Woods” who provided that timber in Part II.

 

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