Army Buys New Airplanes

Aviation becomes an Army program

The 1911 appropriation marks a shift from testing individual machines to sustaining a military aviation program. Procurement, pilot selection, accident investigation, relocation, maintenance, and training became connected institutional responsibilities.

History & service

On March 31, 1911, Congress made its first appropriation for military aviation, $125,000 for the year 1912. The Signal Corps immediately ordered five new airplanes. The first of these, a Curtiss Type IV Model D "Military", was accepted at Fort Sam Houston on April 27, 1911, and became Signal Corps Airplane No. 2. Signal Corps No. 3, a Wright Type B, was also accepted on April 27.

With the delivery of new airplanes, it was possible to accept volunteers for flight training, and 21 young officers applied for aviation duty. One of these was Lt. G.E.M. Kelly who, on May 10, 1911, took off at Fort Sam Houston in Airplane No. 2 on his primary pilot qualification flight. During his landing attempt, Kelly crashed into the ground and was fatally injured. Thus, he became the first man to lose his life due to the crash of an airplane he was piloting.

Flying activities were halted immediately at Fort Sam Houston because of Lt. Kelly's fatal accident, and in June 1911, all personnel, the two Signal Corps airplanes and tools and equipment were transferred to College Park, Md.

Details that tell the story

Congress appropriated $125,000 for military aviation in 1911 · The Signal Corps ordered five airplanes · Lieutenant George E. M. Kelly died during a qualification flight · Operations moved from Fort Sam Houston to College Park

A new invention becomes a public world

Before airplanes became routine transport, public demonstrations helped establish what they could do. Exhibition flights, races, and crossings placed fragile machines before crowds, officials, and potential customers. The audience saw courage and spectacle. Behind the spectacle were less visible questions about reliable engines, controllable wings, suitable landing grounds, and how to recover when the weather changed.

Different configurations competed at the same time. Some designers placed the propeller behind the pilot; others put it at the front. Biplanes used bracing to make light structures sufficiently rigid. Monoplanes reduced some of that external framework but posed their own structural and handling problems. Balloons and dirigibles remained part of the same aviation world, offering capabilities that early airplanes could not simply replace.

The famous firsts matter, but so does the period immediately after them. Flight schools, licensed manufacture, military trials, mechanics, and spare parts carried an invention outward. An aircraft could influence aviation through the pilots trained on it or the designs adapted from it, even after its own performance became outdated. The machines in Washington and Dayton preserve different points along that process. Their differences show how quickly an experimental achievement became an international industry, and how many people had to turn a remarkable flight into a repeatable service.