ABSTRACT
Aviation is often considered the most glamorous branch of any service. One of the earliest documented uses of air assets in a military role dates back to the Napoleonic era when, in 1794, France established a balloon corps (only one company) as a branch of the artillery. After the British destroyed much of Napoleon’s ballooning equipment at Aboukir Bay in 1799, he disbanded the balloon company.1 Though balloon observation was used throughout the nineteenth century, the use of aviation to any great advantage on the battlefi eld did not occur until World War I. At the 1st Battle of the Marne in September 1914, France avoided annihilation because Allied aerial reconnaissance identifi ed a formation gap in the German front which the Allies were able to exploit and subsequently stop the German drive to Paris.2
