One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

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