The United States was the birthplace of aviation over a century ago, and our area played a special role in launching the first flights. Although North Carolina is often remembered as “first in flight,” Virginia was also an important place for early aviation. From air shows, such as the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, opens a new window and Shannon Airport’s Harvest Festival, opens a new window, to aviation museums such as the Military Aviation Museum, opens a new window in Virginia Beach, the Marine Corps Museum, opens a new window at Quantico and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, opens a new window (National Air and Space Museum Annex) in Chantilly, there are many ways to experience our nation’s early years in the skies. From the dawn of the 20th century to the end of World War II, the development of airplane technology saw many remarkable advances. Today, you can see traces of those decades throughout the state.
The Dawn of Flight
Attempts to develop what would become the modern airplane date back to the late 19th century. One of the earliest pioneers of heavier-than-air flight was the German Otto Lilienthal, opens a new window, who had begun to experiment with winged flying machines as early as 1867! Lilienthal was inspired by the physics of bird flight and refined his gliders over the decades. His developments culminated in the creation of the Normal-Segelapparat, opens a new window (Normal Soaring Apparatus) in 1894. Sadly, Lilienthal had only two years to enjoy his achievement. He died in 1896, opens a new window after a glider crash, and his last words translate to “Sacrifices must be made."
Lilienthal’s achievements and designs were remembered by two young pioneers of the skies. Orville and Wilbur Wright, opens a new window were brothers from the Midwest with very distinctive personalities. Orville was fascinated with tinkering and discovery and was so driven to take advanced science classes that he never actually finished his senior year of high school. Wilbur was more orderly and precise, but also more reserved. The brothers first became interested in flight when their father bought them a toy helicopter in 1878, opens a new window. Their memories of playing with the rubber band-operated helicopter would inspire lifelong desires in them both to take to the skies.
Before they created the Wright Flyer, the brothers ran a successful bicycle business together. The Wright Cycle Shop was located in Dayton, Ohio, opens a new window. Dayton was a city noted for engineering innovations, opens a new window and inventors–and the perfect place for the brothers to take advantage of the safety bicycle, opens a new window boom of the 1890s. They became masters of selling and repairing bicycles and even started building their own bikes in 1896, opens a new window. 1896 was also the year the brothers first became driven to create an airplane, spurred by the news of Lilienthal’s death.
The Wright brothers’ early creations were gliders, not powered aircraft. From 1899 to 1902, they created a series of gliding craft to test their theories of flight. The first was actually a biplane kite, opens a new window in 1899, followed by a series of manned gliders from 1900, opens a new window to 1902, opens a new window. Using these gliders, the brothers explored how wind would travel along aircraft wings, how a steering system could work, and how to cope with adverse yaw, opens a new window. Adverse yaw is the tendency of a plane’s wings to become unbalanced and turn in the opposite direction of a rolling motion when performing a banked turn. The brothers had to develop an understanding of all these principles of aeronautics before developing the initial Wright Flyer.
The first Wright Flyer took to the skies in 1903 in Kill Devil Hills, opens a new window, a town in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Most components of the plane had to be custom made, including the engine, opens a new window, a 4-cylinder gasoline motor made mostly from aluminum alloy. To stabilize the plane’s wings, the brothers used a system they called wing warping, opens a new window, which used pulleys and cables to twist the edges of the plane’s wings away from each other. This provided a means of countering adverse yaw. The straight parts of the plane were built out of spruce, opens a new window, the bent parts were made of ash, and the wings themselves were made from muslin cloth. Launching and flying the plane was quite awkward. It had to roll down a 60-foot-long track on bicycle wheels, with the pilot seated on the lower biplane wing in order to take off. The plane flew a total of only five, opens a new window times: once on December 14 for 3.5 seconds, then four times on December 17 for 12, 12, 15, and 59 seconds. After its final and longest flight, the Wright Flyer hit the ground hard and broke its front supports, then was badly damaged when a sudden gust of wind tipped it over. Though the plane’s life was short, its brief flights heralded the Age of Flight.
Early Years in the Air
After designing and flying two further Wright Flyers in 1904 and 1905, the brothers decided it was time to begin a commercial airplane business in 1908. Calling it the Wright Company, opens a new window, they worked on a new airplane that was a refinement of the Wright Flyer designs. The Wright Model A, opens a new window, their new plane, was also the first plane they used in public demonstrations. Its first appearance before eager crowds was at the Hunaudieres race track in France, near Le Mans. France, opens a new window was also a major center of activity for early aviation, and was in fact where the world’s first commercial aviation company (Voisin Fréres) was founded in 1906. In August 1908, Wilbur Wright excited his audience there by performing banked turns and other precise maneuvers. France was also where the standard form of most biplanes would be shaped. The Goupy No. 2, opens a new window, created by Ambroise Goupy and Mario Calderara, was the first biplane to have staggered wings, and flew competitively at the Reims, opens a new window air show in 1910.
While Wilbur flew in Europe, Orville was encouraging the U.S. Army to buy Wright aircraft. In September 1908, Orville flew a Wright Model A before an audience of over 5,000 people at Fort Myer, opens a new window, Virginia. After several successful flights at Fort Myer, tragedy struck on September 17, when the Model A crashed, badly injuring Orville and killing his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. The brothers persisted in their efforts to sell the Army on Wright planes, performing more demonstrations at Fort Myer in 1909, from June to July. On August 2 of 1909, they were finally awarded a government contract for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, opens a new window for their plane.
Over the course of the 1910s, many aircraft manufacturers went into business in the US and around the world. Once World War I, opens a new window began in 1914, the nations involved began to incorporate aircraft into their armies. The countries most involved with the manufacturing and use of military aircraft were Germany, opens a new window, France, opens a new window, and Britain, opens a new window. Other nations used planes as well, but they were often based on designs from these three countries. The only American-built aircraft used by the U.S. during the war was the De Havilland DH-4, opens a new window, which was based on a British design. The U.S. did use other planes to train its pilots, most notably the Curtiss Jenny, opens a new window.
Although World War I dogfights loom large in people's imaginations to this day, air combat was sparse and awkward at the beginning of the war. At first, airplanes were used almost entirely for reconnaissance, opens a new window rather than as fighters or bombers. Because much of the combat in World War I took place in trenches against soldiers who were dug in, using aircraft to determine enemy positions was the best means of analyzing the battlefield. Initially, the main risk to pilots was ground-mounted machine guns, as early planes were too light to include weapons or a gunner’s seat. Some pilots tried to attack, opens a new window with pistols and rifles they carried on board, but such tactics were rarely effective and could even be dangerous to the pilot.
The role of aircraft changed over the course of World War I, evolving from recon/intel functions to aerial combat and bombing. Early attempts to mount a machine gun on the front of the plane had to work around the fact that gunfire could damage the propeller on the plane’s nose. The Foster mounting, opens a new window tried to work around this problem by putting the machine gun on the biplane’s top wing, above the propeller. Before guns could be mounted near the planes' propellers, the synchronization gear, opens a new window had to be invented. A sync gear is a device that triggers the machine gun to fire at such a rate that it will not hit the plane’s propeller. Although work on sync gears started in 1913, opens a new window, before the war began, the designs were only usable by 1915. Fighters also made a useful counter to bombers, which first appeared in 1913, opens a new window. These specialized roles would increasingly define the use of aircraft until World War I’s end in 1918.
Roaring Past the 20s: Aviation After the Great War
After the end of World War I, aviators and engineers continued to push airplanes faster and farther, as air races and ever-longer flights captured news headlines and public attention. Some of the earliest air races of note were sponsored by the newspaper publisher Ralph Pulitzer, opens a new window. Called the Pulitzer Trophy Races, these contests ran every year from 1920 to 1925. The trophy was awarded to the fastest pilot to perform four laps over a 32-mile closed course. Over the six years the race was run, top speeds, opens a new window increased from 157 miles per hour in 1920 to 249 mph in 1925. Although civilians could compete, the best performing pilots were typically in the Army or Navy. A civilian pilot only won the race once, in 1921.
As aircraft designs became more efficient and capable, pilots began to push their planes both faster and longer. One of the most renowned aviators of marathon flights was Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh completed incredible marathon flights in his biplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, opens a new window. Coming in first in his class of cadets in training for the Army Air Service and working as an air mail pilot, opens a new window gave Lindbergh ample aviation experience before he embarked on his epic transatlantic flight. He set off, opens a new window from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on May 20, 1927, embarking on a course that took him over Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, the southern tip of Ireland, and finally landing in Paris 30 hours later. Lindbergh used his newfound fame to promote aviation in the U.S. and around the world, flying promotional air mail, opens a new window between Chicago and St. Louis in 1928 and to the Caribbean, opens a new window and Latin America in 1929-1931. He also continued to perform long distance flights, most notably a 30,000-mile, opens a new window flight in a seaplane in 1933 and a 27-hour, opens a new window flight from Washington D.C. to Mexico City in 1927.
Lindbergh was not the only amazing aviation pioneer of the pre-World War II period. Amelia Earhart stands as a very influential figure, both for setting records and for her advocacy for female pilots. Earhart’s first great career achievement came in 1928, opens a new window, when she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. On this trip, she was not the pilot; the plane was flown by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. Upon her return to the U.S., she became an overnight celebrity, opens a new window and used her newfound connections and wealth to advance the cause of female pilots. She took part in the 1929 Women’s National Air Derby, opens a new window, the first air race for female pilots. This led to her helping to organize the Ninety-Nines, opens a new window, an organization for female pilots active to this day. Among her other achievements were being the first woman to fly in an autogyro, opens a new window and becoming the first woman to complete a transatlantic solo flight in 1932, opens a new window. Sadly, she did not survive what would have been her greatest achievement and vanished while flying over the Pacific in an attempt to fly around the world in 1937, opens a new window. She left behind a life of extraordinary records and achievement in aviation that would inspire female pilots for generations.
Some early aviators were so daring that they were willing to throw both caution and the law to the wind in search of flight records. Such a man was Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, opens a new window, the last of the pre-World War II daredevils. Inspired by Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight, Corrigan sought a career in aviation, but mainly worked as an aircraft mechanic in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
He also made money on the side as a barnstormer. Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment during the 1920s, in which pilots would perform a variety of daredevil stunts, opens a new window and loops with their planes, often flying close to the ground. Though barnstorming brought Corrigan extra cash, it did not grant him the fame he craved. In 1933, he used some of his earnings to buy a Curtiss Robin, opens a new window, which he began modifying for a transatlantic flight. Despite installing a new engine with nearly double the horsepower of the original motor and adding extra fuel tanks, Corrigan’s application to make a transatlantic flight was denied by the Bureau of Air Commerce, opens a new window. After two further years of attempts to persuade the federal government that he should be allowed to make the flight, Corrigan hatched a brilliant idea: why not do it anyway and tell them I took the wrong direction?
He had been given permission to fly across the U.S. in his plane, but not across the Atlantic. So on July 17, 1938, he flew out of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn into a fog bank heading eastward, even though his official flight plan was to return westward to California. Expecting Corrigan to head back west once he was clear of the airport, onlookers were shocked as he continued east over the ocean. About 28 hours later, he touched down in Ireland and famously said, opens a new window, “Just got in from New York. Where am I?” Many people at the time actually believed Corrigan’s explanation that his transatlantic flight was an accident, and it was seen as a triumph of the human spirit during the misery of the Great Depression. His achievement was all the more impressive given that his plane was leaking fuel, opens a new window from one of the tanks he installed during the flight!
World War II: A Terrible New Age of Air War
The joys of civil aviation were soon eclipsed by the storm of global conflict. A year after Corrigan’s transatlantic flight, Germany invaded Poland, opens a new window, and World War II began. World War II marked a major transition in the development of warplane technology. At the war’s onset, some nations were still using biplanes in their frontline forces. Some World War II combat biplanes included the Gloster Gladiator, opens a new window (UK), Fiat CR42 Falco, opens a new window (Italy), and Polikarpov I-153, opens a new window (Soviet Union). Although useful in the early years of the war, these planes were largely phased out after 1941, as they could not keep up with developments in monoplane technology. A few biplanes were used in niche roles all the way to the war’s end. The Fairey Swordfish, opens a new window (UK) was used throughout World War II as a torpedo bomber, as it could be reliably launched from aircraft carriers in poor weather and was easy to maintain. The Heinkel He 50, opens a new window (Germany) and Polikarpov Po-2, opens a new window (Soviet Union) were used in night bombing raids until the end of the war. The Po-2 was particularly notorious, as it became the only biplane to defeat a jet fighter during the Korean War, opens a new window. By that time, the Soviets had stopped using it in combat, and it was relegated to the North Korean military. Other biplanes, such as the Stearman Model 75, opens a new window (USAAF) and de Havilland Tiger Moth, opens a new window (Royal Air Force), were used to train pilots rather than for combat duty.
The majority of combat planes used in World War II were monoplanes, opens a new window (planes with only one pair of wings, rather than the two a biplane has). Monoplanes had actually been produced since 1907, opens a new window, but they were not used in World War I because they were heavier and less maneuverable than biplanes. By World War II, engine horsepower had increased considerably and was strong enough to counteract the higher weight of a monoplane design. A biplane design inherently has more drag, opens a new window, and its wings must be made of wood or another substance lighter than metal, or the plane would be too heavy to fly well. As airplane engines put out more and more horsepower over the course of the war, monoplanes became much faster than biplanes and replaced them in most roles.
Monoplane fighters became faster and deadlier than ever before during World War II. One of the most storied fighters of the war was the P-51 Mustang, opens a new window. The P-51 was widely used by the USAAF and other Allied forces, as its powerful Merlin engine made it capable of many different types of duty, from escorting bombers to recon. This was also the plane flown by the famed Tuskegee Airmen as the “Red Tail Squadron, opens a new window.” Another noted fighter plane of World War II was the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, opens a new window. The greatest threat to the P-51 in the Pacific theater, the Zero was first deployed in combat in 1940, and its superb maneuverability, opens a new window, firepower, and extra fuel tank made it more than a match for most Allied fighters during the first two years of its production. The Zero’s main weakness was its poor armor, which was exploited by the U.S. Navy’s greatest carrier fighter, the F6F Hellcat, opens a new window. Introduced in 1943, the Hellcat was faster, opens a new window than the Zero, although the Zero could still outmaneuver it. Because of this, Hellcat pilots tried to avoid long dogfights with the Zero and used their superior speed for “hit and run” attacks on the Japanese fighters. The F6F was so dominant in the Pacific Theater by the war’s end that it accounted for 75 percent of all U.S. Navy-recorded aerial victories.
World War II also saw the development of bombers that could fly longer and deliver larger payloads than ever before. One of the most famed long-range bombers of the war was the B-24 Liberator, opens a new window, a massive plane with four engines that could carry up to 8,000 pounds worth of bombs. It entered the war before the U.S. officially did via sales to the RAF, opens a new window and was used by both Britain and the U.S. all over the world throughout the war. The main rival for the B-24 within the U.S. armed forces was the B-17 Flying Fortress, opens a new window. Although an older design than the Liberator, the Flying Fortress was actually preferred, opens a new window by many flight crews. Though the B-17 could not carry as heavy a load as a B-24 or fly as fast, its wings were broader than the B-24’s, which made it more stable in poor weather or if the plane was damaged. Production of the B-29 Superfortress, opens a new window, the successor to the B-17, was delayed until 1944, which meant its use was largely restricted to the Pacific Theater. The B-29 is best remembered as being the only bomber to drop nuclear weapons when they were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, opens a new window, which effectively marked World War II’s end.
Memories of Early Aviation
World War II was the last hurrah for propeller planes playing a dominant role in armed conflict. Experiments with jet aircraft were ongoing throughout World War II, and even some operational jets, such as the Bell P-59, opens a new window, were produced, but jets did not play a major role in determining the course of the war. After World War II, jet technology progressed rapidly. The U.S. had already largely transitioned to using jet fighters, such as the F-84 Thunderjet, opens a new window and F-86A Sabre, opens a new window, by the start of the Korean War in 1950. Commercial use of jet planes was advancing quickly, too. The British airplane company de Havilland began work on its first jet airliner, the Comet, in 1946, and put it into service in 1952. By the early 1950s, the world of modern aviation–an airspace filled with massive airliners, helicopters, and military jets faster than the speed of sound–had arrived.
Where can you go to revisit the early days of flight and see the biplanes and propeller monoplanes of days gone by? A great place to start is the Flying Circus Airshow, opens a new window in Fauquier County (Bealeton), about 22 miles northwest of Fredericksburg. Every Sunday from May to October, you can watch pilots perform stunts in vintage biplanes and even pay for a biplane ride yourself! On some dates, the airshow may be combined with other activities, including the Hot Air Balloon Festival, opens a new window or auto shows. You may even see the planes in the air from your car while driving by the field where the airshow is performed. The Flying Circus Airshow is an heir to the barnstormers of the 1920s.
Air Museums in Virginia and D.C.
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Military Aviation Museum, opens a new window (Virginia Beach)
- WWI and WWII fighter planes, including the P-51 Mustang and FM-2 Wildcat, opens a new window
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Military Aviation Museum, opens a new window (Virginia Beach)
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National Air and Space Museum, opens a new window (Washington, D.C.)
- Exhibits on early airlines, opens a new window and the Wright Brothers, opens a new window, among others
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National Air and Space Museum, opens a new window (Washington, D.C.)
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National Museum of the Marine Corps, opens a new window (Quantico)
- The Curtiss “Jenny”, opens a new window, the SBD Dauntless, opens a new window, and the F4U Corsair, opens a new window are among planes exhibited.
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National Museum of the Marine Corps, opens a new window (Quantico)
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Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, opens a new window (Chantilly)
- Has variety of important airplanes and spacecraft from the 20th century
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Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, opens a new window (Chantilly)
Another way to relive the dawn of flight is through CRRL’s collection! We have an extensive collection of books on early aviation and pilots. You can experience all the thrills and achievements of the dawn of flight through the pages of our books and by screening documentary videos, opens a new window from our collection and through the Kanopy, opens a new window streaming service.
