[2] A component of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division procured the first powered military aircraft in 1909, created schools to train its aviators, and initiated a rating system for pilot qualifications.

[4][n 1] Following statutory authorization of an Aviation Section in the Signal Corps by the United States Congress in 1914, the Aeronautical Division continued as the primary organizational component of the section until April 1918, when its inefficiency in mobilizing for World War I caused the War Department to replace it with an organization independent of the Signal Corps that eventually became the foundation of the Army's Air Service.

[6][n 3] In 1898–99, the War Department accepted the report of an aeronautically minded investigating committee that included Alexander Graham Bell and invested $50,000[7] for the rights to a heavier-than-air flying machine being developed by Samuel Pierpont Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Although Langley's "Aerodrome" failed embarrassingly, the Army later resumed its interest in aviation as a result of the success of the Wright Brothers and entered into protracted negotiations for an airplane.

In 1906, the commandant of the Signal School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Major George O. Squier, studied aeronautical theory and lectured on the Wright flying machine.

Captain Charles deForest Chandler was named to head the new division, with Corporal Edward Ward and Private First Class Joseph E. Barrett as his assistants.

Lahm had earned renown the year before when he won the inaugural Gordon Bennett Cup, an international balloon event, while Chandler was already a member of the Aero Club of America.

William McEntee, and another from the Marine Corps, 2nd Lt. Richard B. Creecy, were present at Fort Myer as official observers, accompanied by Secretary of the Navy Victor H.

[14] Under orders to travel to St. Joseph for the dirigible exhibition, Selfridge asked to take Sweet's place on a scheduled test flight, conducted in front of 2,500 onlookers.

[n 6] During the flight, flying at 150 feet (46 m), a propeller split and shattered on the fourth lap, severing a guy wire to the rudder, and caused the airplane to crash.

[15][n 8] Orville Wright, along with Wilbur this time, returned to Fort Myer in June 1909 with a new though smaller and faster airplane, powered by the engine from the wrecked 1908 Flyer.

The brothers spent the better part of July fine tuning the airplane and warming up for the final tests while bad flying weather hampered much of the month.

Wright began instruction of Lahm and 2nd Lt Frederic E. Humphreys, detailed from the Corps of Engineers, flying constantly in front of often large crowds of curiosity seekers, newspaper reporters, and dignitaries.

[20][n 9] The dirigible service proved short-lived, as the corrosive effects of weather and the hydrogen gas used to lift the ship caused the gasbag to leak with increasing severity.

Foulois had been a vocal critic of the dirigible, recommending that it be abandoned, and although one of the two candidates selected to be trained as an airplane pilot, he was sent to Nancy, France instead as a delegate to the International Congress of Aeronautics.

[16] Because of inclement winter weather at College Park, Foulois was assigned to move the flying program to Fort Sam Houston, an Army post near San Antonio, Texas.

[28] In early 1911, the United States gathered much of the Regular Army in south Texas as a show of force to Mexican revolutionaries, forming the "Maneuver Division".

In March 1911 near Fort McIntosh at Laredo, Texas, Foulois and Wright instructor Philip Orin Parmelee demonstrated the use of airplanes in support of ground maneuvers for the first time.

[29][n 11] Squier, now Chief Signal Officer of the Maneuver Division, formed a provisional aero company on April 5, 1911, the first aviation unit in American history,[n 12] in anticipation of training 18 additional pilots.

[32] All three of the Army's aircraft took to the air at the same time on April 22, 1911, during a parade and review of troops of the Maneuver Division at Fort Sam Houston, captured in a panoramic photograph linked below.

[33] After Army acceptance of the aircraft on April 27, Foulois and Ely then undertook training a small group pilot candidates on the Curtiss machine, including three (Capt.

[n 15] Foulois remained behind with the Maneuver Division and was removed from aviation in July by assignment to the Militia Bureau in Washington, D.C. Beck served as the Curtiss instructor at College Park until May 1, 1912, when he was returned to the Infantry by enforcement of the so-called "Manchu Law".

In 1911, relocated to Fort Jay, New York, Arnold sent a request to transfer to the Signal Corps, and on April 21, 1911, received orders detailing him and 2nd Lt. Thomas D. Milling to Dayton, Ohio, for flight instruction at the Wright brothers' aviation school.

[36][n 23] Arnold accepted delivery of the Army's first tractor plane (with a propeller and engine mounted on the front) on June 26, 1912, but crashed into the bay at Plymouth, Massachusetts, during takeoff.

Despite calling the incident an "incipient mutiny", Scriven relieved Chandler on April 1 and transferred him to Fort McKinley in the Philippines,[39] replaced on an interim basis by Cowan, who was already in Texas City as the signal officer of the mobilizing 2d Division.

By April 24 they had completely occupied the city after severe fighting and were provided reconnaissance support by five Navy seaplanes assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet.

In 1912 Beck authored an article for the Infantry Journal entitled, "Military Aviation in America: Its Needs", promoting the concept of an independent air force with its own missions.

The Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (World War II)[43] listed the strength of the division at 51 officers and men on November 1, 1912, and 114 on September 30, 1913.

Reber became chief of the section and was promoted to lieutenant colonel, delegating the duties of head of the Aeronautical Division to another non-aviator, Major Edgar Russel, senior instructor and assistant commandant of the Signal School.

28–102; Warnock, "From Infant Technology to Obsolescence: the Wright Brothers' Airplane in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1905–1915" The executive head of the Aeronautical Division had no official title between 1907 and 1914 but was usually referred to as the officer in charge (OIC).