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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1917-Continued

designation as Naval Aviator (Dirigible). These men,

the first trained specifically as dirigible pilots, were

subsequently assigned Naval Aviator numbers ranging

from 94 to 104.

6 October The Secretary of War authorized the Navy

to use a part of the Army landing field at Anacostia,

D.C., for the erection and maintenance of a seaplane

hangar. Terms of use were within those of a revokable

license and with the understanding that the Army

might have joint use of the Navy area at any time. In

the following January, NAS Anacostia, D.C., was estab-

lished to provide a base for short test flights, to pro-

vide housing and repair services for seaplanes on test

flights from NAS Hampton Roads, Va., and the Army

station at Langley Field, Va., and to set up new sea-

plane types for study by those responsible for their

construction and improvement.

11 October The catapult, aircraft and all aeronautics

gear were removed from North Carolina (ACR 12) at

the Brooklyn Navy Yard, NY

13 October After serving on convoy duty without

using her aeronautic gear except for one attempt with

a kite balloon, Huntington (ACR 5) transferred her

equipment ashore at New York. This transfer, and the

subsequent departure of aviation personnel, marked

the end of the operational test with aircraft on board

combatant ships that had started with the North

Carolina (ACR 12) in 1916.

14 October The Marine Aeronautic Company at

Philadelphia, Pa., was divided into the First Aviation

Squadron, composed of 24 officers and 237 men, and

the First Marine Aeronautic Company, composed of 10

officers and 93 men. On the same day, the First

Marine Aeronautic Company transferred to the Naval

Air Station at Cape May, N.J., for training in seaplanes

and flying boats and on 17 October the First Aviation

Squadron transferred to the Army field at Mineola,

Long Island, N.Y., for training in landplanes.

16 October The first power driven machine was

started at the Naval Aircraft Factory, just 67 days after

ground was broken.

21 October First flight test of Liberty engine-The

12-cylinder Liberty engine was flown successfully for

the first time in a Curtiss HS-l flying boat at Buffalo,

N. Y. This flight and other successful demonstrations

led to the adoption of both the engine and the air-

plane as standard service types.

22 October Special courses to train men as inspec-

tors were added to the Ground School program at MIT

with 14 men enrolled. Eventually established as an

Inspector School, this program met the expanding

need for qualified inspectors of aeronautical material

by producing 58 motor and 114 airplane inspectors

before the end of the war.

24 October The first organization of U.S. Naval

Aviation Forces, Foreign Service, which had evolved

from the First Aeronautic Detachment, was put into

operation as Captain Hutch 1. Cone relieved Lieutenant

Commander Kenneth Whiting of command over all

Naval Aviation forces abroad.

24 October Routine instruction in flight and ground

courses began at NAS Moutchic, France, established as

a training station serving naval air units in Europe.

2 November Twelve men who had organized as the

Second Yale Unit and had taken flight training at their

own expense at Buffalo, N.Y., were commissioned as

Ensigns, USNRF, and soon after received their designa-

tions as Naval Aviators.

5 November To coordinate the aviation program,

Captain Noble E. Irwin, Officer-in-Charge of Aviation,

requested that representatives of bureaus having cog-

nizance over some phase of the program meet regular-

ly each week in his office for the purpose of discussing

and expediting all matters pertaining to aviation.

9 November Permission was received from the

Argentine Government to use three Argentine Naval

Officers, recently qualified as U.S. Naval Aviators, as

instructors in the ground school at Pensacola, Fla.

10 November A Navy "flying bomb," manufac-

tured by the Curtiss Company, was delivered to the

Sperry Flying Field at Copiague, Long Island, N.Y.,

for test. Also called an aerial torpedo, the flying

bomb was designed for automatic operation carrying

1,000 pounds of explosive with a range of 50 miles

and a top speed of 90 miles per hour. In addition to

this specially designed aircraft, N-9s were also con-

verted for automatic operations as flying bombs that

were closely related to the guided missile of today.

14 November A major step in assuring the success

of the Navy's World War I aircraft production pro-

gram was taken when the Secretary of War, Newton

D. Baker, approved a recommendation "that priority

be given by the War Department to naval needs for

aviation material necessary to equip and arm sea-

plane bases."