When war was declared in 1917, naval aviation consisted of 54 airplanes, 38 pilots, and 163 enlisted men. By rapid expansion it had reached the strength of more than 50,000 men and over 2,000 airplanes by the end of the war. Some 17,000 men and 540 airplanes were sent abroad during the conflict. Extremely successful anti-submarine and patrol operations were carried on throughout the war, and our naval aviators served with great distinction.
Our early models of big flying boats, like the F5-L above, were so successful that the Navy ordered even larger ones. The “big boats” as they were termed, were giant four-engine planes with a wingspan of 126 feet, the largest built to that time. Their size created a difficult shipping problem and it was decided that they were to be flown overseas. Commander John H. Towers, pioneer naval operator, was assigned to the task of supervising their construction and flight tests. The planes were ordered in December, 1917, and ten months later the first of the “big boats” proved its ability in a series of test flights. The planes were designated the NC’s, Navy Curtiss. With everyone rushing madly to finish the NC’s for their overseas flight, the war ended abruptly.
After the Armistice the NC’s were not needed in Europe, but they were ready and the Navy felt sure that they could fly the Atlantic. On May 6, 1919, three NC’s took off from Far Rockaway, New York, on one of the most significant flights in history. After making a stop at Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, the NC’s with “Jack” Towers in command, flew through the stormy Atlantic night to land the following morning on the water near Horta in the Azores. The planes were badly battered, and the crews were weary. Only the NC-4 Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read in charge, flew on to Lisbon, Portugal, and finally to Plymouth, England, in the first transatlantic flight.
A month after the first transatlantic flight of the U. S. Navy NC boats, two Royal Flying Corps pilots, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown, flying a two-engined Vickers Vimy biplane, flew nonstop from Newfoundland to Ireland. To those two hardy adventurers goes the credit for the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic by airplane.
MEN AND MACHINES WORLD WAR I
Slow as she had been in starting, America picked up speed and finished World War I with a record definitely creditable. American aviation discarded its swaddling clothes forever. At the time of the Armistice, American fliers had flown more than 3,500,000 miles in battle and dropped 275,000 pounds of explosives on the Germans. In plane-to-plane combat our military pilots showed a courage and initiative unequaled by ally or foe.
With our entry into the war, our infant aviation industry also picked up speed. With typical American energy it built up an enviable production record before the end of the war. As America had no combat airplane designs at the start of the war, our industry turned out planes and engines of foreign design. Aircraft factories built English DH-4 observation planes, Handley-Page bombers, and SE-5 fighter planes. We did build one plane of American design, the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny training plane. The Jenny was the best training plane in the world at that time. Our factories built hundreds of them in 1917 and 1918. Practically all American and many Allied fliers received their flight training in the famous old Jennies.