One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
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1918<br />
February 5: Lt. Stephen W. Thompson, flying as a gunner in a French-piloted<br />
airplane, became the first Army soldier to score an aerial victory.<br />
16<br />
Many American pilots in World War I flew the Nieuport 28, a French fighter.<br />
February 18: <strong>The</strong> 103d Aero Squadron, composed <strong>of</strong> former members <strong>of</strong><br />
the Lafayette Escadrille and using Spad airplanes, began operating at<br />
the front under tactical control by the French.<br />
March 5: <strong>The</strong> 2d Balloon Company became the first Army air unit to serve<br />
with American troops at the front in World War I when it began operations<br />
under I Corps at the Toul Sector.<br />
March 11: Lt. Paul Baer <strong>of</strong> the 103d Aero Squadron earned the first Distinguished<br />
Service Cross awarded to a member <strong>of</strong> an Army air unit by<br />
becoming the first pilot with an American squadron to down an enemy<br />
airplane. U.S. pilots with earlier aerial victories had served with the<br />
French.<br />
April 1: <strong>The</strong> Royal <strong>Air</strong> Force emerged from the combined resources <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval <strong>Air</strong> Service.<br />
April 14: Lt. Douglas Campbell and Lt. Alan F. Winslow became the first<br />
members <strong>of</strong> the 94th Aero Squadron to shoot down enemy aircraft<br />
when they downed two German fighters within minutes <strong>of</strong> each other<br />
over Toul <strong>Air</strong>drome.<br />
April 21: Capt. A. Roy Brown, a Canadian member <strong>of</strong> Britain’s Royal <strong>Air</strong><br />
Force, shot down Baron Manfred von Richth<strong>of</strong>en, Germany’s “Red<br />
Baron.” Richth<strong>of</strong>en, the leading ace <strong>of</strong> the war, had shot down 80 airplanes.