U.S. Army Signal Corps
The Signal Corps, established in 1860, is a division of the U.S. Army primarily responsible for information and communication. Its original mandate included weather forecasting.
In 1893, Adolphus Washington Greely created a new balloon program within the Signal Corps. In the Spanish-American War one balloon was used during the battle for San Juan Heights, east of Santiago de Cuba.[1]
In 1907 the Signal Corps created an Aeronautics Section, which was spun off in 1918 as the Army Air Service.
Also in 1907 the Signal Corps issued Signal Corps Specification Number 486, a request for bids to construct an airplane, with notoriously stringent requirements. The contract was awarded to the Wright Brothers who delivered the army's first airplane, the Wright Military Flyer (a.k.a. Type A, Model A, Signal Corps No. 1), to Fort Myer, Virginia. The Aeronautical Board created oversee trials of this airplane included Frank Lahm and Frederic Humphreys. In 1909, the army brought in Wilbur Wright to train Lahm and Humphreys as the first military aviators at a field in College Park, Maryland.[2]
On 3 March 1911, Congress made its first official appropriation for aviation: $125,000. The Signal Corps used these funds for training at San Antonio and in June 2011 to formalize the flying school at College Park. By the end of the year the American air force had five planes, three balloons, and six pilots.[3]
| Organization names | Army Signal Corps |
|---|---|
| Entity type | |
| Country | US |
| Locations | |
| Affiliated with | |
| Scope | national |
| Started aero | 1907 |
| Ended aero | |
| Keywords | |
| Key people | |
| Wikidata id |
Links
- w:Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps; w:Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
- Abbe, 1893, Meteorological Work of the U.S. Signal Service, 1870 to 1891
- "Aviation Section of the Signal Corps Includes Many Men Prominent in Big Engineering and Business Organizations", Air Service Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2., July 19, 1917, p. 61.
References
- ↑ Jerome V. Martin, "Balloons, U.S. Signal Corps"; in The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, vol. 1, ed. Spencer C. Tucker; ABC CLIO, 2009, p. 43.
- ↑ Catherine Wallace Allen, "Wright Military Training at College Park, 1909", Air Power History, Winter 2002.
- ↑ Sweetser, 1919, The American Air Service, pp. 11–12.
Publications referring to U.S. Army Signal Corps
- Abbe, 1893, Meteorological Work of the U.S. Signal Service, 1870 to 1891 (Simple title: Meteorological Work of the U.S. Signal Service, 1870–1891)
- Publication 10204, 1908, Regolamento emesso dal 'Signal Corp ' degli Stati Uniti per la fornitura al Coverno d'un aeroplane d'uso militare (Simple title: Regulations issued by the United States 'Signal Corp' for the supply to the [Government?] of a military aircraft, Journal: Boll. Soc. Aer. Ital.)
- Publication 1209, 1908, Baldwin's dirigible airship accepted by the United States Government (Simple title: Baldwin's dirigible airship accepted by the United States Government, Journal: Pop. Mech.)
- Publication 187, 1908, Aeronautical news of the army for June (Simple title: Aeronautical news of the army for June, Journal: Aeronautics)
- Publication 805, 1908, Army aeronautics (Simple title: Army aeronautics, Journal: Aeronautics)
- Publication 5416, 1908, The government dirigible and dynamic flyer (Simple title: The government dirigible and dynamic flyer, Journal: Amer. Mag. Aeronautics)
- Hersey, 1909, Menace of aerial warfare (Simple title: Menace of aerial warfare, Journal: Century Mag.)
- Bradley and Perry, 1909, Power generation and transmission in aeroplanes (Simple title: Power generation and transmission in aeroplanes, Journal: Eng. Mag.)
- Dienstbach, 1909, Die bisherigen Resultate der Bemühungen des amerikanischen 'Sig- nalkorps' um die Schaffung einer Luftwehr für die Vereinigten Staaten (Simple title: The results so far of the efforts of the American 'Signal Corps' to create an air force for the United States, Journal: Ill. Aër. Mitt.)
- Signal Corps, 1910, 20 aeroplanes for Signal Corps (Simple title: 20 aeroplanes for Signal Corps, Journal: Aeronautics)
- Signal Corps, 1916, Reported plans of the aviation section (Simple title: Reported plans of the aviation section, Journal: Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering)
- Hennessey, 1958, The United States Army air arm (Simple title: The United States Army air arm)
- Crouch, 1983 (Simple title: The Eagle Aloft)
- Lebow, 1998 (Simple title: The American Balloon Service in World War I)
