1st Provisional Air Brigade
The 1st Provisional Air Brigade was a temporary unit of the United States Army Air Service, commanded by Col. Billy Mitchell, operating out of Langley Field, Virginia, that was used in Project B to demonstrate the vulnerability of ships to aerial attack when, in July 1921, the "unsinkable" German dreadnought SMS Ostfriesland was sent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by bombardment. Other targets included the German destroyer SMS G-102, the SMS Frankfurt, and the USS Iowa.
Martin MB_1 bomber and the battleship Alabama
William Lendrum Mitchell was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.
Mitchell, c. 1920s
Mitchell as assistant chief of Air Service (in non-regulation uniform)
The French-built SPAD XVI which Mitchell piloted in the war, now exhibited inside the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The SPAD XVI, an observation and bomber aircraft, has a Lewis twin machine gun mounted in the rear cockpit.
Mitchell posing with his Vought VE-7 Bluebird aircraft at the Bolling Field Air Tournament in Washington, D.C., held on May 14–16, 1920