1907

June 4 Corporal Edward Ward becomes the military’s first noncommissioned offi­cer in the new balloon division, and he is ordered to learn balloon-manufacturing techniques.

AUGUST 1 In Washington, D. C., Army

aviation is born once the Office of the Chief of the Signal Corps authorizes an “Aeronautical Division” to study and acquire balloons, heavier-than-air machines, and matters pertaining to mili­tary applications of manned flight. Cap­tain Charles DeForest Chandler is appointed head of the new organization, but two more years lapse before the first military aircraft is acquired.

OCTOBER 17 Signal Corps Balloon No. 10 under Captain Charles DeForest Chandler flies 475 miles in 20 hours, moving between St. Louis, Missouri, and Walton, West Virginia. He wins the Lahm Cup for ballooning.

NOVEMBER 7 In Washington, D. C., the War Department awards the Army Signal Corps $25,000 to obtain an airship through the Board of Ordnance and Fortification.

NOVEMBER 30 At Hammondsport, New York, aeronautical pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss opens the nation’s first airplane company.

December 5 Wilbur Wright, in a letter to the Board of Ordnance and Fortifica­tion, proposes to build a military aircraft for $25,000. The board subsequently asks the Signal Corps for the desired specifications such a craft should include.

December 6 Over Bras d’Or Lake, Nova Scotia, Lieutenant Thomas E. Self­ridge rides the Cygnet I kite aloft as it is towed by a motorboat piloted by its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell.

December 16 In Washington, D. C., Brigadier General James Allen, the chief signal officer, issues a call for bids to pro­cure a lighter-than-air vessel, or airship.

December 23 Brigadier General James Allen, the Army’s chief signal officer, issues Specification No. 486, which out­lines requirements for acquiring a military airplane. The new machine must be capable of carrying two passengers aloft for one hour at 40 miles per hour in any direction, and land safely.