Pre World War 1 Aviation

Now I've stepped into it.

I read a book a few years ago about pre-1900 military aviation. Specifically blimps (NOT zeppleins) and balloons used in the American Civil War.

I'm trying to build evidence to an assertion that contrary to what might be thought the air, sea, land domains existed before airplanes and are consistent with a large amount of the American experience with conflict.

The key that I'm working towards is that Space is following similar trend that the C4ISR paradigm (as an example) for space (cameras, to weaponization) is similar between aviation and space... And thus should follow cyber...

Any online journals or articles for the military? I've looked and found pictures but nothing substantive which means I may not be using the right search terms.

All I can find are articles on how weaponiztion of aircraft lead to major leaps in technology and a similar progression of use for UAVs. I'll use the universities journal search feature tonight and see what I can find.
Reed

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Originally Posted by reed11b

All I can find are articles on how weaponiztion of aircraft lead to major leaps in technology and a similar progression of use for UAVs. I'll use the universities journal search feature tonight and see what I can find.
Reed

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Pretty much what I'm finding. You would think that military journals would have talked about things like balloons in the civil war. I found a picture, but nothing really scholarly. Unless it is actually bunkum and never happened.

Balloon use in the spanish-american war is better documented, perhaps you could use that as a search start point?
Reed

Do some searches on the DTIC archive. I did some sample searches for the civil war and got a lot of interesting stuff on balloon ops. I suspect there is more in there for the period between the civil war and WWI.

Balloons were used for recon in the Civil War, made effective by running a telegraph line from the balloon to the ground. However, because they remained tethered, the info was of necessity narrowly collected of a selected battlefield before and during the engagement. But it was still a significant asset, because they were able to not just provide battlefield intel to commanders, but also acted as floating aerial forward observers for the arty, enabling them to hit unseen targets with accuracy. Yet they were not willing risked floating free over the enemy - I know of at least one occasion where a recon balloon was shot down because it broke its tether to keep it out of the hands of the enemy.

There's even a claim for a first aircraft carrier - there was a recon balloon run up off a purpose-built barge in the first year of the Civil War which addressed part of the fixed position problem by being able to tow a balloon up or down river while it was tethered to its deck.....

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"In 1793, the French government formed an air arm to the Army, and balloons were used for reconnaissance during the French Revolution."

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LINK.

Or this one:

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"At 8 a.m. on the morning of September 23, another aeronaunt named Jules Durouf took off from Montmartre in a the balloon “Neptune.” He carried 103 kilograms of letters and secret dispatches.

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LINK.

there's more:

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"The first aerial bombing was attempted in 1849 when the Austrians launched 200 pilotless, bomb-carrying hot-air balloons against forces defending Venice. Each bomb was released by a time fuse. However, the wind sent the balloons back over the Austrian troops."

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LINK.

Ken I did see a few things on the French revolution. I'm trying to keep it to the American experience so I'm not criticized for mixing apples with french fries. Thank you to everybody I hadn't thought about the Spanish American War... That is a great idea.

Entropy I had never run across DTIC before. I know that is likely some kind of crazy stupid but I now have a new place to go thank you very much.

Jedburgh that is exactly the kind of analysis I'm trying to build and show as a "model" of how Cyber will follow the aviation experience. I know it is a stretch and I'm trying to clean up my model significantly.

Thank you all. Anything I'm missing?

As concerns fixed wing, IIRC The Italians used aircraft against Turks in 1911. There was even some use of aircraft in the Balkan War of 1912.

Sam, I read the book you need pre-2006, and cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was called, or even who sent it to me.

It was sent to me by someone from Tanknet, and I've sense returned it, and it explored American balloon employment, maintenance, training and even tried some theory.

It was written around 1900 and had some interesting stuff in it, but I'm just drawing a blank.

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Originally Posted by William F. Owen

As concerns fixed wing, IIRC The Italians used aircraft against Turks in 1911. There was even some use of aircraft in the Balkan War of 1912.

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Giulio Douhet, an Italian General, wrote one of the earliest theoretical pieces on air combat - Command of the Air, published in 1921. Nothing exceptional for today's reader, but he was an early advocate of the concept that a nation had to be able to destroy the enemy's capability and will to resist through combat airpower.

These may or may not be of any use to you:"

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For several decades, visionary military leaders had called for the use of balloons in warfare. During the Seminole War in Florida (1835–1842), Col. John Sherburne tried unsuccessfully to gain War Department support for a plan to use balloons for spotting Seminole campfires at night. A decade later, in the Mexican War, John Wise, later dubbed “the Father of American Aeronautics,” proposed a balloon bombing campaign against the city of Veracruz, although the War Department ignored his proposal.

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LINK

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"Just three months after the first manned balloon flights in France in 1783, Benjamin Franklin wrote of the new invention's military capabilities..."

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We're here to hep...;)

for early United States Army experience with ballooning. I recommend Rebecca Raines' excellent Getting The Message Through, published by the Army's Center of Military History. The Chapters I, III, and especially IV have a lot of excellent info on American military balloon operations in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Kennett's "The First Air War," although dealing mainly with World War I, does have a decent section on events leading up to the war and the understanding of airpower that existed at that time.