ISR Tour: Wright Flyer

ISR Audio Tour Part 1

Air intelligence did not begin with the Wright Brothers. It initially became possible because of the Montgolfier brothers’ first manned balloon flight on 21 November 1783. Count Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes ascended up to 3,000 feet in a hot air balloon and traveled for five miles (see model above you). Eleven years later, the French first used the balloon in combat. The Battle of Fleurus took place in June 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French defeated the Austrian Army, in part, because they could see the enemy’s troop movements from above. The gas-filled balloon L’Entreprenant stayed at 1,700 feet for over eight hours, delivering messages in bags with ballast on rings down the tether lines and via semaphore. During the American Civil War, men like Thaddeus Lowe also used the balloon to collection intelligence. Like today’s satellites and remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), the intelligence sensor collected what the warfighter needed and delivered it down the line, enabling the leaders to correctly deploy troops in response and win the battle. The Wright Brothers understood the potential of air intelligence. After Wilbur made the first “practical” long, circular flight at Huffman Prairie in October 1905, the property’s owner, Torrence Huffman, asked him, “What’s it good for?” Wilbur answered, “War.” Even the Wright Brothers realized their new invention’s potential reconnaissance value. When the Army purchased the Model 1909 Flyer in 1909, the first fixed-wing military aircraft became a reality. The 1909 Flyer put the U.S. Army in the history books as the first operator of a fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft. However, it was the Italians that first used fixed-wing aircraft in combat.