CNAPG air force history page.

United States Navy (USN)

History

The first flight of an aircraft from a United States Navy (USN) ship occurred on the 14th of November, 1910, when Eugene Ely flew a Curtiss biplane off the U.S.S. Birmingham. The Navy had been watching the progress of aviation and a number of their personel were keen to exploit this new technology for the Navy. The Navy Department formally created the Naval Aviation Service on the 4th of March, 1911.

The USN set up its first airfield at Greenbury Point, Maryland. In 1912 it recieved its first flying boat and up until the end of World War One (WWI) the navy built up its forces, mainly concentrating on flying boats.

When the United States entered into WWI, Navy Squadrons were sent to Britain and France, where they flew sea patrols and carried out attacks on German submarine bases. During their operations in Europe the USN Squadrons were credited with sinking four and damaging twelve enemy submarines.

With the end of WWI, the USN cut back in many aereas and the air arm of the service was no exception to this rule. A lot of the hiararchy were against spending scarce fund on the air arm, preferring to channel the money into other areas of the Navy. This attitude was somewhat changed when an Army Officer, “Billy Mitchell”, instigated a series of trials using Army bombers to attack warships. The successful sinking of some of these targeyts by aerial bombing caused the Navy high command to take naval aviation seriously and accordingly the service was expanded. This expansion included the setting up of fighter, observation and torpedo bombing units.

The USN soon recieved its first aircraft carrier, the “U.S.S. Langley”’ and the first flight from this ship occured on the 17th of Octoiber, 1922. The Navy steadily expanded its air arm and by the 7th of December, 1941, it had seven first-line aircraft carriers and almost 6,000 aircraft. This was the day that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and brought the United States into World War Two (WWII).

Naval aviation rapidly expanded and by the end of the war the USN had 99 aircraft carriers and over 41,000 aircraft. The Navy once again was involved in combat operations in the skies over Korea, where they carried out a large number of operations. The navy was also heavily involved in Vietnam and the Gulf War and has also been involved in many other confrontations since the end of WWII.