A Short History of Army Aviation
- Apr 3
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 17
Like all veterans I’m proud of my service. I served back in the 1980s as a scout helicopter pilot, flying OH-58s in the 11th Armored Cavalry in Fulda, Germany, patrolling the East German border. That’s where the opening clip of the video (below) came from: the Blackhorse movie. After that came a tour as an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker, Alabama and a couple of years in the National Guard where I transitioned to CH-47s and UH-60s. As you can imagine, I like talking about helicopters. This is a short history of Army Aviation.
The United States Army states: “The mission of Army Aviation is to find, fix and destroy any enemy through fire and maneuver and to provide combat support and combat service support in coordinated operations as an integral member of the combined arms team.”
As a former Army Aviator myself, I think that sounds pretty badass. You know, we used to brag that the army had more aircraft than the Air Force. Well, that’s not true, although it might seem like it and we’re pretty close. As of 2024, the Army operates approximately 4400 aircraft including helicopters, fixed-wing airplanes, and drones. That’s compared to the Air Forces’ 5500 aircraft, the Navy’s 3700, and the 1300 Marine Corps aircraft. The Army is heavily focused on rotary-wing aviation with over 2100 UH-60 Blackhawks, 700 AH-64 Apaches, 500 UH-72 Lakotas, and 400 CH-47 Chinooks. Don’t forget to include about 700 drones to the total. So how did we get here, from the basic combat branches of infantry, cavalry, and artillery to a high tech, integrated combined arms team?
Aviation didn’t become a separate branch within the Army until April 12, 1983, but soldiers have been taking to the air since the days of the observation balloon. Aviation is one of the combat arms branches today, but in the beginning, flying was just a method of observation and scouting. During the American Civil War, both the North and the South used balloons to direct artillery fire and observe enemy dispositions. This marked the beginning of aerial support for ground forces. The United States also used balloons during the Spanish American War and WWI. But, as the airplane evolved, it quickly replaced balloons for practically every military purpose.
The Wright brothers flew the first heavier-than-air, engine-powered, full-size airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. Within a few years, the leadership of the Army began to run tests with the new invention to see if it had any military benefits. During one of these tests, Lt. Thomas Selfridge became the first U.S. soldier killed in an airplane crash. He was flying with Orville Wright on September 17, 1908, when the mishap occurred. The following year, the Army accepted delivery of "U.S. Army Aeroplane No. 1," on August 2, 1909, built to specification by the Wright Brothers. The following October 26 saw the designation of the first two Army aviators, Lieutenants Frederic E. Humphreys and Frank P. Lahm, when each completed their first solo flight.
With the approval of Congress, an Aviation Section was created under the U.S. Army Signal Corps on July 18, 1914. The first tactical use of Army airplanes was during the 1916 Punitive Expedition to Mexico. General John J. Pershing used the eight 8 Curtiss JN-3 airplanes of the 1st Aero Squadron for scouting while the expedition searched for Pancho Villa's forces in northern Mexico. Nevertheless, the Army only had a few dozen aircraft in the inventory when the First World War began.
Despite the media images of dogfights and fighter pilots in silk scarves, there was a significant and rapidly evolving level of coordination between aircraft and troops on the ground during the war. The two components transitioned from almost no communication to primitive tactical integration by 1918. Aircraft became essential for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even direct ground support in the form of trench strafing. During World War One, the number of Army aircraft grew to more than 11,000 planes with more than 190,000 aviation personnel in the Army Air Service, which was created in May 1918.
After the First World War, the leadership of the Army Air Service, particularly General William "Billy" Mitchell, argued forcefully for the creation of an independent Air Force, separate from the ground forces of the Army. That argument was rejected at the time, but it was evident that aviation needed to be considered a combat arm to itself. With the required action of Congress, the Army Air Service was changed to the Army Air Corps on July 1, 1926, with a newly designated "Secretary of War for Air" to manage it. This action put the Air Corps in equal status with the other traditional army combat arms branches: Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery.
During the 1930s the top leadership of the Army Air Corps was focusing on the potential for air power to be employed as a strategic asset (in other words, bombing major targets rather than supporting ground units). This concerned ground forces commanders, particularly in the artillery branch that benefited from using light observation aircraft for adjustment of indirect fire. The Army experimented with organic light aircraft in artillery units during maneuvers in 1940 and 1941. The tests of these "Grasshoppers," as the light planes were called, were very successful. Their performance was better than the larger Air Corps planes that had been used previously. Meanwhile, technology continued to progress. In January 1938, the War Department disbursed $2 million for research into the possibility of developing rotary-wing aircraft. The Army acquired its first real helicopter on November 1, 1941, a Sikorsky YR-4.
On June 6, 1942, the Air Corps was elevated to the Army Air Forces (AAF), which put that component of the Army on the same level as the Army Ground Forces. The Field Artillery branch was allowed to keep "organic army aviation" under its control. This meant that light observation aircraft like the L-4 Grasshopper and the L-5 Sentinel and their personnel were organic to the artillery battalions and brigades that they worked for. On June 6, 1942, the Department of Air Training was established at the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This date is recognized as the birth date of Army Aviation.
Organic Army Aviation first participated in combat during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. While the original function of Army Aviation was to adjust artillery, during the course of the war, it expanded. During World War II, L-4 Grasshoppers and a few larger L-5 Sentinels were used to adjust artillery fire, gather intelligence, support naval gunfire, conduct medical evacuations, and perform other functions like command and control. The expanding mission and close coordination with ground forces were primarily because the aircraft were available to, and often under the command of, the commander on the ground where the assets of the Army Air Forces were not.
The difference in need, mission, priorities, and philosophy as to the employment of aviation assets continued to cause a lot of friction between the leaders of the Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces. It was time to separate the two. The United States Air Force became its own branch of service, separate from the Army, on September 18, 1947. (Happy Birthday Air Force!) There continued to be a great deal of rivalry between the services with suspicion of overlapping areas of responsibility and competition for precious funding.
On April 21, 1948, President Eisenhower signed the "Key West Agreement" that provided for the division of assets between the Armed Services. Under the agreement, the Air Force would have control of all strategic air assets as well as most tactical aviation and logistic functions. The Army was allowed to retain aviation assets to be used for reconnaissance and medical evacuation purposes. The Navy could have its own combat air arm to support naval operations, which included combat aircraft to support the Marine Corps. After the adoption of the Key West Agreement, the Army continued to develop its light planes and rotary-wing aircraft to support its ground operations. In 1949 the Army established the Warrant Officer Pilot Program to fly the new helicopters it was fielding.
The Korean War saw a leap forward in Army Aviation. On January 3, 1951, the first combat medical evacuation by helicopter was conducted - in Korea by 1LT Willis G. Strawn and 1LT Joseph L. Bowler. The H-13 Sioux rotary wing aircraft had been fielded since 1947 and was used for MEDEVAC and command and control operations. The helicopter proved its worth in the rugged terrain of Korea. Recognition of the capabilities of rotary-wing aircraft increased the demand for machines and pilots. In 1951 the Army began organizing helicopter transport companies and fielding the H-19 Chickasaw, albeit in limited numbers because of the competition for the aircraft from the Air Force.
Forward-thinking leaders in the Army saw the potential of rotary wing aviation. General James Gavin, the famous commander of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War Two, published an article in April of 1954 titled "Cavalry, and I Don't Mean Horses." In this influential article, Gavin called for the use of helicopters in cavalry operations that would provide the mobility that the Army lacked in Korea due to the terrain. This was an indicator of a doctrinal push that rapidly expanded Army Aviation into the combat arm it is today. On November 1, 1954, the Army Aviation School was moved from Fort Sill to Fort Rucker, Alabama. The United States Army Aviation Center was established there in March 1955.
Under this new doctrine of "air cavalry," the Army saw the need to mount weapons on helicopters to serve as a kind of "aerial artillery." The French Army had seen some success mounting rocket launchers and 20-mm cannons on helicopters during the Algerian War of 1954-1962. Based on this example, the Army began running tests on armament systems for rotary-wing aircraft in 1956. Primarily, Colonel Jay D. Vanderpool directed these combat development experiments. Vanderpool also wrote the first doctrinal manuals. This research and development was conducted while the Air Force still theoretically had exclusive responsibility for aerial fire support. Nevertheless, Army commanders felt that the Air Force was not doing enough to prepare to support ground forces and under the Key West Agreement were not allowed to arm their fixed-wing aircraft. Therefore, it would seem that competition between the services actually led to the development of armament systems for Army helicopters.
An armed helicopter company was activated in Okinawa in 1962 and later deployed to Thailand and then Vietnam. In Vietnam, the new helicopter company flew escort for lift helicopters. There were no mission restrictions on the army aircraft enforced by the Department of Defense. Thus, the army continued with what they interpreted as implied permission to deploy armed rotary wing aircraft. Also in 1962, the Tactical Mobility Requirements Board was formed. Commonly known as "The Howze Board" for its chairman, Lieutenant General Hamilton H. Howze, this group had been established to develop and test the concept of air mobility. After test exercises, war games, and concentrated study and analysis, the Howze Board recommended that the Army commit itself to organic air mobility through the extensive use of helicopters.
The 11th Air Assault Division (Test) put the Howze Board's recommendations into testing from 1963 to 1965. Beginning with their deployment to Vietnam in 1965, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) repeatedly demonstrated the validity of the airmobile concept in combat. On April 6, 1966, the Johnson-McConnell agreement was signed between the Army and the Air Force. The Army gave up its fixed-wing tactical airlift aircraft (primarily the DHC-4 Caribou) in exchange for the Air Force relinquishing its claim to most forms of rotary-wing aircraft.
Vietnam was truly America's "Helicopter War." The United States' involvement in Vietnam began with Army Aviation operating a fleet of reciprocating engine aircraft. In the early days of the development of air mobility, the UH-1 Iroquois, or Huey, was introduced. The Huey was a modern turbine-powered aircraft with both troop carrier and gunship versions developed specifically with deployment to southeast Asia in mind. Before the end of the Vietnam War, more than 5,000 of these truly versatile aircraft were sent overseas. Also during Vietnam, the OH-6 Cayuse (the "Loach") and the OH-58 Kiowa were fielded as scout aircraft, replacing the OH-13. In 1967, the AH-1G Cobra came online to begin replacing the Huey gunships as an attack aircraft. The U.S. Army's heavy lift helicopter in Vietnam (and ever since) was the tandem rotor Boeing CH-47 Chinook, introduced in 1962. The OV-1 Mohawk and U-21 Ute (Beechcraft King Air) were part of the small fixed-wing aircraft inventory flown by the Army.
After US combat forces left Vietnam, Army Aviation continued to develop and pass major milestones. On June 4, 1974, Fort Rucker graduated the first female Army aviator, 2LT Sally D. Woolfolk (Murphy) from Rotary Wing Flight School. NASA chose Major Robert L. Stewart to be the first Army aviator to become an astronaut in January 1978. The aircraft inventory began to enter the modern era with the delivery of the first UH-60 Blackhawk to Fort Rucker on April 1, 1979. The Army began to field the AH-64 Apache in 1984.
In recognition of the demonstrated and increasing importance of aviation in Army doctrine and operations, Aviation became the fifteenth basic branch of the Army on April 12, 1983. Since then, commissioned officer pilots would be branched aviation, fully dedicated to learning its operations and tactics, rather than being temporarily detailed from another branch like Armor or Infantry. On May 16, 1990, the 160th Aviation Battalion was reorganized and designated the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The unit was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and signaled the arrival of dedicated aviation assets to special operations.
Since Vietnam and during operations in Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, deployments to the Balkans, and the Global War on Terror, Army Aviation has played a major role in combat and support operations. An Army aviator fired the first shot of Operation Desert Storm from an Army helicopter. Within a few minutes, two teams of AH-64 Apaches destroyed two Iraqi radar stations on January 17, 1991. During the next 100 hours of ground combat, Army aviation dominated night operations. The Army can be justly proud of the performance of its aviation assets and personnel during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
In April 1993, attack pilot positions were opened to female aviators. Another milestone was reached when Lieutenant Colonel Nancy J. Currie, the first female Army aviator to become an astronaut, made her first space flight on June 23, 1993. By 1998 the AH-64D Longbow Apache was arriving at Fort Hood, Texas. In December 2006 the Army accepted its first UH-72A Lakota, a twin-engine light utility helicopter long overdue in the inventory.
Army Aviation has the organic flexibility, versatility, and assets to fulfill a variety of maneuver, combat support, and combat service support roles and functions. These cover the spectrum of combined arms operations. Aviation can accomplish each of these roles during offensive or defensive operations and for joint, combined, contingency, or special operations. Since its inception over one hundred years ago, Army Aviation has continued to modernize. Today, with the advent of Unmanned Aerial Systems, (drones), Army Aviation stands on the threshold of a new age more mission-capable than ever.
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