What is United States Army Air Corps?

The United States Air Corps (USAC) was the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) from 1926 to 1941, which in turn was the forerunner of today's United States Air Force (USAF). Although abolished as an organization in 1941, it existed as a branch subordinate to the USAAF from 1941 to 1947.

Today, the Army's Aviation Branch remains a subordinate element of the United States Army, although it is unrelated to the original USAAC.

Lineage of the United States Air Force

• Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps 1 August 1907–18 July 1914
• Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps 18 July 1914–20 May 1918
• Division of Military Aeronautics 20 May 1918–24 May 1918
• U.S. Army Air Service 24 May 1918–2 July 1926
• U.S. Army Air Corps 2 July 1926–20 June 1941**
• U.S. Army Air Forces 20 June 1941–18 September 1947**
• United States Air Force 18 September 1947–Present
• ** The Air Corps became a subordinate element of the Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, and it continued to exist as a combat arm of the Army (similar to Infantry) until disestablished by Congress with the creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.

History of the Air Corps

Creation

The Lassiter Board, a group of General Staff officers, recommended to the Secretary of War in 1923 that the Air Service be replaced by a force of bombardment and pursuit units to carry out independent missions under the command of an Army general headquarters in time of war. The Lampert Committee of the House of Representatives went far beyond this modest proposal in its report to the House in December 1925. After eleven months of extensive hearings, the committee proposed a unified air force independent of the Army and Navy, plus a department of defense to coordinate the three armed services.

Another board, headed by Dwight Morrow, had already reached an opposite conclusion in only two and one-half months. Appointed in September 1925 by President Calvin Coolidge ostensibly to study the "best means of developing and applying aircraft in national defense" but in actuality to minimize the political impact of the pending court-martial of Billy Mitchell and to preempt the findings of the Lampert Committee, the Morrow Board issued its report two weeks before the Lampert Committee's. In accordance with the views of the President, it rejected the idea of a department of defense and a separate department of air, but it recommended several minor reforms including that the air service be renamed the Air Corps to allow it more prestige, that it be given special representation on the General Staff, and that an Assistant Secretary of War for air affairs be appointed.

Congress accepted the Morrow Board proposal, and the Air Corps Act (44 Stat. 780) was enacted on July 2, 1926. The legislation changed the name of the Air Service to the Air Corps, "thereby strengthening the conception of military aviation as an offensive, striking arm rather than an auxiliary service." The act created an additional Assistant Secretary of War to help foster military aeronautics, and it established an air section in each division of the General Staff for a period of three years. Other provisions required that all flying units be commanded by rated personnel and that flight pay be continued. Two additional brigadier generals would serve as assistant chiefs of the Air Corps. The Chief of the Air Service, Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick, then became Chief of the Air Corps.

The position of the air arm within the Department of War remained essentially the same as before, that is, the flying units were under the operational control of the various ground forces corps commands and not the Air Corps, which remained responsible only for procurement of aircraft, maintenance of bases, supply, and training. Even the new position of Assistant Secretary of War for Air, held by F. Trubee Davison from 1926 to 1932, was of little help in promoting autonomy for the air arm.

Perhaps the most promising aspect of the act for the Air Corps was the authorization to carry out a five-year expansion program. However, the lack of funding caused the beginning of the five-year expansion program to be delayed until July 1, 1927. The goal eventually adopted was 1,800 airplanes with 1,650 officers and 15,000 enlisted men, to be reached in regular increments over a five-year period. But even this modest increase never came about as planned because adequate funds were never appropriated in the budget and the coming of the Great Depression forced reductions in pay and modernization. Organizationally the Air Corps did double from seven to fifteen groups. (Origin of first seven groups shown here)

Air Corps Groups added 1927-1937

Group	Station	Date activated	Aircraft type
18th Pursuit Group	Wheeler Field, Hawaii	January, 1927	PW-9
7th Bomb Group	Rockwell Field, California	June 1, 1928	unknown
12th Observation Group²	Brooks Field, Texas	1930	O-19
20th Pursuit Group	Mather Field, California	November 15, 1930	P-12
8th Pursuit Group	Langley Field, Virginia	April 1, 1931	P-6
17th Pursuit Group¹	March Field, California	July 1, 1931	P-12
19th Bomb Group	Rockwell Field, California	June 24, 1932	B-10
16th Pursuit Group	Albrook Field, Canal Zone	December 1, 1932	P-12
10th Transport Group	Patterson Field, Ohio	May 20, 1937	C-27

:::::¹Redesignated 17th Attack Group in 1935

:::::²Disbanded on May 20, 1937

Most early operational fighters were of the Curtiss P-1 Hawk (1926-1930) and Boeing P-12 (1929-1935) families, and most bombers before 1934 were variants of Huff-Daland/Keystone design.

The formulation of theories of strategic bombing gave new impetus to the argument for an independent air force. Strategic or long-range bombardment was intended to destroy an enemy nation's industry and war-making potential, and only an independent service would have a free hand to do so. But despite what it perceived as "obstruction" from the War Department, much of which was attributable to a shortage of funds, the Air Corps made great strides during the 1930s. A doctrine emerged that stressed precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed long-range aircraft.

This doctrine resulted because of several factors. The Air Corps Tactical School opened in 1926 at Langley Field, then moved in 1931 to Maxwell Field, Alabama, where it taught a 14-week course for mid-career officers that included military aviation theory. The Bombardment Branch, under the direction of its Chief, Major Harold. L. George, became influential in the development of doctrine and its dissemination throughout the Air Corps. Conversely, pursuit tacticians, primarily Capt. Claire Chennault, Chief of the school's Pursuit Branch, found their influence waning because of repeated performance failures of pursuit aviation.

New bomber types under development clearly outperformed new pursuit types, particularly in speed and altitude. In both 1932 and 1933 large-scale maneuvers found P-26 fighters unable to climb to altitude quickly enough to intercept attacking Y1B-9 and B-10 prototypes, a failure so complete that Brig. Gen. Oscar Westover, following the 1933 maneuvers, actually proposed elimination of pursuits altogether. (Bowman, p.7) The superiority of bombers resulted in a 1934 feasibility study for a 35-ton 4-engined bomber (the Boeing XB-15) that, while found to be unsuitable for combat, led to the design of the Model 299, later to become the B-17 Flying Fortress, whose first flight was in July 1935.

In 1933 the Air Corps expanded to a tactical strength of 50 squadrons: 21 pursuit, 13 observation, 12 bombardment, and 4 attack.

Main article: Air Mail Scandal

GHQ Air Force

The next major step toward creation of a separate air force was taken on March 1, 1935 with the creation of a centralized operational air force, commanded by an aviator and answering to the Chief of Staff of the Army. Called General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, this command took all combat air units in the United States out of the control of corps area commanders, where they had resided since 1920, and organized them administratively into four geographical districts (which later became the first four numbered air forces) and operationally into a strike force of three wings. GHQ Air Force was a "coordinate component" of the ostensible U.S. air arm along with the Air Corps, and not subject to its control. However all its members, along with members of units stationed overseas and under the control of local ground commanders, remained part of the Air Corps.

Nonetheless, the GHQ Air Force remained small in comparison to European air forces. Lines of authority were also difficult as GHQ Air Force controlled only combat flying units within the continental United States, with the Air Corps still responsible for training, aircraft development, doctrine, and supply, and the ground forces corps area commanders still controlling their installations and the support personnel manning them. The commanders of GHQ Air Force and the Air Corps, Major Generals Frank Andrews and Oscar Westover respectively, clashed philosophically over the direction in which the air arm was heading, adding to the difficulties, with Andrews in favor of autonomy and Westover espousing subordination to the Army chain of command. The air arm embraced strategic bombing as its primary doctrine after the creation of GHQ Air Force, but could only buy a few of the new four-engined B-17 Flying Fortresses, so that by 1938 there were still only thirteen on hand and orders for more had been suspended.

In January 1936 the AAC contracted with Boeing for thirteen Y1B-17 prototypes, enough to equip one squadron for operational testing, with deliveries made from January to August 1937. The cost of the aircraft disturbed both Army Secretary Harry Woodring, who denied requests for further purchases, and Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig, who in 1938 reversed plans for five squadrons of B-17s (67 airplanes) to be purchased with carryover funds. The Air Corps also incurred the enmity of the Navy by widely publicizing an interception on May 12, 1938, of the Italian ocean liner Rex by three B-17s while it was 725 miles off-shore of New York City; Craig placed a 100-mile restriction on all off-shore flights in response.

The separation of the combat organization (GHQ Air Force) from the logistic organization (Air Corps) created serious problems of coordination. To correct this condition and coinciding with a change of command at GHQ Air Force, the combat force was placed under the new Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, in March 1939, but divisions were not entirely resolved. The two organizations were separated again on November 19, 1940, when its flying units were again placed under direct control of the Army Chief of Staff (then George C. Marshall) and its airfields under local corps commanders. However Arnold had joined the General Staff as acting "Deputy Chief of Staff for Air" on November 11, 1940, a position that enabled him to coordinate the two sections of the air arm until the organizational problems were repaired.

The problems of lack of unity of command were again exacerbated in March 1941 when the commander of GHQ Air Force, Delos C. Emmons, who had begun his tour junior to Arnold, was promoted to lieutenant general, forcing him to report to and act under an inferior in rank (both Arnold and his acting replacement as chief of the Air Corps, George H. Brett, were major generals). On June 20, 1941, to end the divisions, the War Department revised Army Regulation 95-5 to create the Army Air Forces with the Air Corps and GHQAF (the latter redesignated as Combat Command) as its major components, authorized an Air Staff to manage planning and execution of expansion of the air arm, and named Arnold as Chief of the Army Air Forces.

During World War II the role of the Air Corps changed again. On March 9, 1942, with the issuance of War Circular 59, the Air Corps was further subordinated to the USAAF as a combatant arm (as Infantry and Field Artillery were subordinate combatant arms of the Army Ground Forces) and the office of Chief of the Air Corps was abolished. The required Congressional disestablishment of the Army Air Corps itself did not occur until July 26, 1947, with the passage of the National Security Act of 1947 (61 Stat. 502).

The Air Corps tested and employed a profusion of pursuit, observation, and bomber aircraft during its 15-year history. The advent of the all-metal monoplane, enclosed cockpits, retracting landing gear, enclosed bomb bays, and the emergence of strategic bombardment doctrine led to many designs in the mid and late 1930s that were still in use when the United States entered World War II. Among the key technology developed were oxygen and cabin pressurization systems, engine superchargers (systems essential for high-altitude combat), and the Norden bombsight.

Notable fighters developed during the late 1930s were the P-40 (first flown October 1938), P-38 (January 1939), P-39 (April 1939), P-51 (October 1940), and P-47 (May 1941). Bombers developed during this period for or used by the USAAF in World War II were the A-20 (first flown October 1938), B-25 (January 1939), B-24 (December 1939), and B-26 (November 1940). Except for the B-24, P-47 and P-51, all had production deliveries begun before June 1941. Three other long-range bombers began development during this period, though only mockups were produced before World War II: B-29 (study begun in 1938), B-32 (June 1940), and B-36 (April 1941).

Main article: Military aircraft of the United States

Organization of the Air Corps

Army Air Corps, March 1, 1935

SOURCE: Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II

General Headquarters Air Force (Maj. Gen. Frank Andrews, Langley Field, Virginia)

• 1st Wing (Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, March Field, California)
• 7th Bombardment Group, Hamilton Field, California
• 9th, 11th, & 31st Bombardment Squadrons
• 17th Attack Group, March Field, California
• 34th, 37th, & 95th Attack Squadrons
• 19th Bombardment Group, March Field, California
• 23d, 30th, 32nd, & 72nd Bombardment Squadrons (23rd & 72nd BS based in Hawaii)
• 2nd Wing (Brig. Gen. H. Conger Pratt, Langley Field, Virginia)
• 1st Pursuit Group, Selfridge Field, Michigan
• 17th, 27th & 94th Pursuit Squadrons
• 2nd Bombardment Group, Langley Field, Virginia
• 20th, 49th, and 96th Bombardment Squadrons
• 8th Pursuit Group, Langley Field, Virginia
• 33rd, 35th & 36th Pursuit Squadrons
• 9th Bombardment Group, Mitchel Field, New York
• 1st, 5th, 14th & 99th Bombardment Squadrons
• 3rd Wing (Col. Gerard Brant, Barksdale Field, Louisiana)
• 3rd Attack Group, Barksdale Field, Louisiana
• 20th, 49th, & 90th Attack Squadrons
• 20th Pursuit Group, Barksdale Field, Louisiana
• 55th, 77th & 79th Pursuit Squadrons

Other flying units

• Advanced Flying School, Kelly Field, Texas
• 39th Attack, 42nd Bombardment, 43rd Pursuit Squadrons (from 3rd Wing)
• Air Corps Technical School, Chanute Field, Illinois
• 48th Pursuit Squadron (from 3rd Wing)
• Air Corps Tactical School, (Lt.Col. John F. Curry) Maxwell Field, Alabama
• 54th Bombardment, 86th Observation Squadrons (from 2nd Wing)
• Rockwell Air Depot, Rockwell Field, California
• 4th Transport Squadron
• Second Corps Area, Mitchel Field, New York
• 97th Observation Squadron (from 2nd Wing)
• Sixth Corps Area, Scott Field, Illinois
• 15th Observation Squadron (from 2nd Wing)
• Ninth Corps Area, Crissy Field, California
• 91st Observation Squadron (from 1st Wing)
• 12th Observation Group, Brooks Field, Texas
• 11tn & 22nd Observation Squadrons (from 1st Wing)

Overseas units

• 18th Composite Wing, (Lt. Col. Delos Emmons, Fort Shafter, Hawaii)
• 5th Composite Group, Luke Field, Hawaii
• 26th Attack, 40th & 50th Observation Squadrons (23rd, 72nd BS attached)
• 18th Pursuit Group, Wheeler Field, Hawaii
• 6th, 19th Pursuit Squadrons
• 19th Composite Wing, (Lt. Col. William C. McCord, Albrook Field, Panama Canal Zone)
• 6th Composite Group, Albrook Field, Canal Zone
• 25th Bombardment, 7th & 44th Observation Squadrons
• 16th Pursuit Group, Albrook Field, Canal Zone
• 24th, 29th, 74th & 78th Pursuit Squadrons
• 4th Composite Group, Clark Field, Luzon
• 3rd Pursuit & 28th Bombardment Squadrons

Annual strength

Strength as of June 30 of each year

Year	Strength		Year	Strength		Year	Strength
1927	9,979		1932	14,650		1937	18,572
1928	10,518		1933	14,817		1938	20,196
1929	12,080		1934	15,621		1939	22,387
1930	13,305		1935	15,945		1940	51,185
1931	14,485		1936	16,863		1941	152,125

Chiefs of the Air Corps

• Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, July 2, 1926-December 13, 1927
• Maj. Gen. James E. Fechet, December 14, 1927-December 19, 1931
• Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois, December 20, 1931-December 21, 1935
• Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, December 22 1935-September 21, 1938
• Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, September 29, 1938-June 20, 1941
• Maj. Gen. George H. Brett, June 20, 1941-March 9, 1942

Army Aviation today

Main article: United States Army Aviation Branch

Today, the Army's aviation assets are consolidated as the Army Aviation Branch, an administrative body of the Army established in 1983 which serves to organize, train, equip and operate the Army's light aircraft and helicopter assets. Its primary function is the tactical support of the army by providing tactical direct fire support and transport services. An updated version of the Key West Agreement governs the division of responsibility for air assets between the Army and the Air Force (the Army is precluded from operating fixed-wing aircraft in the airlift or close air support roles).

See also

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• United States Army Air Service
• United States Army Air Forces

Sources

• [https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/PopTopics/Evolution.htm U.S. Air Force Historical Studies Office]
• Bowman, Martin W., "Background to War", USAAF Handbook 1939-1945, ISBN 0-8117-1822-0
• Maurer, Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II, Office of Air Force history (1961). ISBN 0-40512-194-6
• Shiner, John F., Winged Shield, Winged Sword: A History of the United States Air Force (1997), ISBN 0-16-049009-X
• Vol. I, Chap. 4, "The Coming of the GHQ Air Force, 1925-1935"
• Vol. I, Chap. 5, "The Heyday of the GHQ Air Force, 1935-1939"
• 2006 Almanac, Air Force Magazine: Journal of the Air Force Association, May 2006, Volume 89 Number 5

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Preceded by United States Army Air Service	United States Army Air Corps 1926-1941	Succeeded by United States Army Air Forces