American observation balloon service in World War I
United States Army balloon squadrons and companies organized under the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps and served overseas with the United States Army Air Service before and during World War I. There were also French, British, and German balloon corps.
Type R Balloon (a Caquot dirigible) and winch truck at Ross Field
Hangars from the U.S. Army's Ross Field Balloon School, 1922
Caquot Type R Observation balloon at USAF Museum
winch wagon
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
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, Signal Corps, and conducted the activities of Army aviation until its statutory responsibilities were suspended by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918. The Aviation Section organized the first squadrons of the aviation arm and conducted the first military operations by United States aviation on foreign soil.
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.
