The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps was the first heavier-than-air military aviation organization in history and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S. Army Signal
The first Wright airplane arriving at Ft. Myer, VA, 1 September 1908
1st Lt. Frank Lahm and Orville Wright in the first U.S. Army airplane, S.C. No. 1, July 27, 1909
Crashed Wright Flyer that took the life of Selfridge September 17, 1908
Henry H. Arnold at the controls of a Wright Model B airplane 1911
The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the aerial warfare service of the United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the
Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps
…in its inventory, built a 30th from spare parts, and leased a civilian airplane for a short period in 1911. Following statutory authorization of an Aviation Section in the Signal Corps by the United States Congress in 1914, the Aeronautical Division continued as the primary organizational component of the section…
Members of the 1st Aero Squadron and a Burgess Model H trainer at North Island (later Rockwell Field), San Diego, California, 1915
Members of the 1st Aero Squadron in Mexico, 1916
Lt. Carleton G. Chapman in 1st Aero Squadron Curtiss JN-3 Signal Corps No. 53 preparing to takeoff at Casas Grande, Mexico
Lt. Herbert A. "Bert" Dargue posing in front of Signal Corps No. 43 at Chihuahua City, Mexico