US Naval Aviation, 1898–1945

Rare Photographs from Naval Archives

Leo Marriott

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781526785404
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

This pictorial history tells the story of US naval aviation from its early beginnings in the 1920s to its dominance in the Pacific theater of WWII. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sank or crippled almost all of the battleships in the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. But the fleet's aircraft carriers survived—and soon demonstrated the power of US naval aviation. Thanks to pioneering technology and far-sighted pre-war policy, the US Navy had the necessary ships, aircraft, and crews to turn the tide of the Pacific war. With more than 200 rare photographs, Leo Marriott traces the growth of US naval aviation from the flimsy seaplanes of the first years of the twentieth century to the mighty armadas that challenged those of the Japanese and, after the carrier battles at Coral Sea and Midway, led the advance across the Pacific. Marriott puts special focus on the navy's first aircraft carriers of the 1920s, the tremendous progress made in the decades between the wars in tactics and strategy, and the innovative design of ships and aircraft themselves.

Chapter 1

Pioneers of Naval Aviation

US naval interest in the possible military value of aviation can be traced back to 1898 when an inter-service committee was set up to investigate the potential of a flying machine, the Langley Aerodrome, which was then the subject of a government-sponsored development contract. Unfortunately, the Aerodrome failed to fly and although the Wright brothers successfully achieved the goal of manned powered controllable flight in December 1903, it was another five years before official US naval interest was to be reawakened. In 1908 the US Army arranged trials of the Wright Flyer and invited naval observers to attend. Subsequently, the Navy ordered two Curtiss flying machines, which were delivered in 1911, and also arranged for naval officers to train as pilots.

From this point progress was rapid. A Curtiss pilot, Eugene Ely, had already made the first take-off from a ship in November 1910 and subsequently the first landing aboard in January 1911. However, for the next few years, naval aviation concentrated on seaplanes and flying boats, and although the US Navy had pioneered the first steps in naval aviation, it was the British Royal Navy which then forged ahead under the pressure of war, and by 1918 it had the world’s first flush-decked true aircraft carrier (HMS Argus). In addition, most capital ships were equipped with scout planes and fighters, which were flown off platforms erected over the gun turrets. The US Navy was quick to emulate this example, although their first aircraft carrier (USS Langley) did not commission until 1923.

During the First World War the aviation element of the US Navy in Europe was almost entirely dependent on its British, French and Italian allies for the supply of aircraft as well as airships. The US Navy Air Corps had been officially formed in 1915, but even by April 1917 it mustered only fifty-four aircraft and forty-eight pilots (including some still training). By November 1918 it had expanded dramatically, with 2,107 aircraft on strength together with fifteen dirigible airships. Personnel strength was 37,409 officers and men, with a further 2,462 US Marines on aviation duties. One field in which the US Navy was ahead of its allies was in the development of large flying boats. This was due to the work of Glenn Curtiss who, in 1914, had produced the Curtiss America, and developed versions were produced for the US Navy as the H-12 and H-16. After 1918, improved and redesigned variants were produced by the Naval Aircraft Factory as the PN series, some of which were still in service at the outbreak of the Second World War.

With peace restored, the US Navy used its flying boat experience to achieve the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic. It was flown in stages and not without some drama, but it served to publicise the capabilities of the naval air service at a time when the existence and role of naval air power was the subject of considerable debate.

In the late nineteenth century, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, Samuel Langley, designed and built a number of powered model aerial vehicles for which he coined the term ‘Aerodrome’. The success of these trials prompted the US Navy to take an interest and provide $50,000 for the development of a man-carrying aircraft and the full-scale Langley Aerodrome was ready for its first flight on 7 October 1903. It was launched from a catapult mounted atop a houseboat barge moored in the Potomac River, but failed to fly and flopped down into the river. A similar attempt on 8 December also failed and further work was abandoned, although in 1914 Glen Curtiss coaxed a modified version into the air for a few short hops, at least proving the soundness of Langley’s original work.

A few days after Langley’s second flight attempt, the Wright brothers made the now famous first manned flight in a powered controllable aircraft at Kittyhawk on 17 December 1903. However, it was not until 1907 that the US Army began to take an interest in their activities and organised a series of flight trials at Fort Myer, which commenced in the summer of 1908. Unfortunately, the Wright Flyer crashed on 17 September, killing the Army observer (Lieutenant Selfridge) and seriously injuring Orville Wright. The trials, which were observed by the US Navy, were successfully completed in 1909 with a new aeroplane.

On 14 November 1910, Eugene B. Ely, a civilian pilot employed by Glenn Curtiss, made the first take-off from a ship using a platform built over the bows of the cruiser USS Birmingham (the aircraft having previously been hoisted aboard by crane). A few weeks later, on 18 January 1911, he landed on the stern platform aboard the cruiser US Pittsburgh, anchored off Hunters Point, San Francisco Bay. He subsequently took off again (the moment captured in this photograph) and flew back to Selfridge Field. This was a convincing demonstration of the potential of the new aeroplanes for naval purposes.

A view of the armoured cruiser USS Pittsburgh in January 1911 showing the temporary flight deck erected on the stern in preparation for Ely’s flight trials. Not yet installed at this point was a system of arrester wires attached to sandbags arranged along each side of the deck.

Although the initial shipborne trials were flown by a civilian pilot, Glenn Curtiss had already offered to train two naval officers. The first of these was Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson USN, who reported to North Island, San Diego, at the end of 1910 and subsequently qualified as Naval Aviator No. 1. In this image, taken on 3 July 1911, he is shown at the controls of the A1 preparing for a flight with Captain Washington I. Chambers USN, who at that time was the senior naval officer responsible for aviation affairs.

The success of the military trials at Fort Myer and Ely’s shipborne flights encouraged the US Navy to order aircraft, and although it subsequently bought a few Wright Model seaplanes in 1912, its first aircraft was actually a Curtiss pusher seaplane designated A-1 (later AH-1), which it acquired in July 1911.

From 1911 to 1914, the US Navy purchased a total of fourteen Curtiss pusher aircraft given designations with the suffix A (landplanes) or AH (hydroplanes). T...