Despite the unfair criticism towards the use of aeroplanes as a war weapon, some effort was made to use aircraft for military purposes. Some of the earliest efforts took place in Italy. In April 1909, the newly formed Italian aviation club, Club Aviatori, brought Wilbur Wright to Italy to demonstrate his Military Flyer at a military base near Rome. Before leaving Rome, Wilbur trained the naval officer who would become Italy’s first pilot, Lieutenant Mario Calderara. In 1910, Italy set up its first military flying school at Centocelle. (Angelucci, Enzo, and Matricardi, Paolo. )
During the next few years, Italy’s military use of aviation increased. At the start of the Turko-Italian War in 1911, Italy mobilized its Italian Aviation Battalion and aircrafts under the command of Captain Carlo Piazza sent them with sent two Blériot XIs, three Nieuport monoplanes, two Farman biplanes, and two Etrich Taube monoplanes to Tripoli in Libya, then part of the Ottoman Empire. On November 1, Second Lieutenant Giolio Gavotti carried out the first aerial bombardment mission, dropping four bombs on two Turkish-held oases. (Angelucci, Enzo, and Matricardi, Paolo. )
At the same time, other European countries had begun developing military aviation. The French army bought its first planes in 1910 and trained 60 pilots. It began to install armament in its reconnaissance craft in 1911. In Russia, Igor Sikorsky built the first "air giant," a four-engine plane that was the forerunner of the multiengine strategic bombers of World War I. The French military began experimenting with aerial bombing in 1912, as did the British in 1913. Adolphe Pégoud in France also experimented with a hook-and-cable system for landing a plane on a ship at sea—following Eugene Ely in the United States who had successfully taken off and landed on the deck of a ship. (Gibbs-Smith, Charles H. )
The United States had also experimented on a limited basis with military operations in aircraft. Glenn Curtiss experimented with the plane as a means of bombardment in June 1910 with his Golden Flyer. On August 20, 1910, at Sheepshead Bay racetrack near New York City, Lieutenant James Fickel fired the first shot from an airplane--a rifle at a target from an altitude of 100 feet (30 meters) with Glenn Curtiss piloting. On November 14, 1910, Eugene Ely made the first takeoff from a warship, the cruiser Birmingham, anchored near Hampton Roads, Virginia, in the Curtiss Hudson Flyer. On January 18, 1911, he made the first carrier landing onto a 125-foot (38-meter) platform on the warship Pennsylvania, anchored in San Francisco Bay. In 1912, an Army officer, Captain C.D. Chandler, fired a 750-round-per-minute, air-cooled recoilless machine gun successfully from a Wright B flyer over College Park, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. But, in spite of these achievements, no country had developed an air attack or bomber by this time. (Chandler, Charles F. and Lahm, Frank P. )
Some countries had also formed small "air forces" that were connected to their other military operations. Great Britain formed the Royal Flying Corps on April 13, 1912. In June 1914, the Naval Wing of this formation was removed to form the basis of the Royal Naval Air Service. The United States also established the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1907 and created the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps in July 1914. (Harrison, James P. )
The U.S. government generally lagged behind its European counterparts in these efforts and was much later in supporting aviation than Europe had been. Back in 1890, the French had ordered an aircraft from the aviator Clement Ader and had appropriated $100,000 for that purpose, even though the aircraft he developed never flew in a controlled flight. But the Wright brothers, who had developed and demonstrated a fully controllable aircraft in 1903 that could take off, land, bank, turn, climb, and descend, did so with their own funds. Not until 1909 did the Signal Corps purchase an aircraft for military purposes. The U.S. Navy purchased its first plane, a derivative of the Curtiss Golden Flyer, in July 1911.
On March 31, 1911, Congress first appropriated funds for military aviation, $125,000. The U.S. Signal Corps immediately ordered five new airplanes. Two of these--a Curtiss Type IV Model D "Military," and a Wright Model B--were accepted at Fort
Century of Flight Contributors. "Aviation During World War I." Century of Flight. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <>.
Angelucci, Enzo, and Matricardi, Paolo. World Aircraft: Origins – World War I. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1975.
Angelucci, Enzo, and Matricardi, Paolo. World Aircraft: Origins – World War I. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1975.
Angelucci, Enzo, and Matricardi, Paolo. World Aircraft: Origins – World War I. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1975.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles H. The Invention of the Aeroplane -1799-1909. New York: Taplinger, 1966.
Chandler, Charles F. and Lahm, Frank P. How Our Army Grew Wings. New York: Ronald Press, 1943.
Harrison, James P. Mastering the Sky – A History of Aviation From Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Sarpedon, 1996.
