“Conflicts, no doubt, will be carried on in the future in the air, on the surface of the earth and water, and under the earth and water,” a young captain wrote while stationed in Leavenworth, Kansas. The year was 1906, a mere three years after the Wright brothers’ first successful flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Still, the captain’s belief in the future of military aviation was resolute.
Capt. William “Billy” Mitchell wrote down his ideas in a paper that day, but soon enough, his growing vision would prompt him to act. Today, thanks to his efforts, he’s called the “Father of the United States Air Force.”The Making of an AviatorMitchell joined the Army Signal Corps as an enthusiastic 18-year-old inspired by the Spanish-American War. There, he became familiar with balloons and dirigibles—the latest lighter-than-air technology. The Signal Corps didn’t purchase its first heavier-than-air aircraft until a decade later, in 1909, and Mitchell had little knowledge of it even when he was given a new appointment to the General Staff of the U.S. Army in Washington in 1912.
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