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    Joint Base Langley-Eustis
    Joint Base Langley-Eustis
    Joint Base Langley-Eustis
    Ebook136 pages28 minutes

    Joint Base Langley-Eustis

    By Mark A. Chambers

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    About this ebook

    Joint Base Langley-Eustis (JBLE) has served for over 100 years as a cornerstone of American military aviation. The base has served as a flight test center for US Navy seaplanes and observation/spotter aircraft, as well as the ill-fated Roma airship. Additionally, JBLE was one of the first US Air Force (USAF) bases to operate the advanced Lockheed F-22 Raptor. In 1921, Langley Field served as the launching point for Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell's US Army Air Service efforts in historic battleship bombing flight experiments. Prior to World War II, Langley Field became the first US Army Air Corps base to operate the Boeing YB-17, prototype of the famous B-17 Flying Fortress. During the latter half of the 20th century, Langley Air Force Base served as the headquarters for the Tactical Air Command (TAC) and the Air Combat Command (ACC). JBLE still serves as ACC headquarters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 5, 2017
    ISBN9781439661055
    Joint Base Langley-Eustis
    Author

    Mark A. Chambers

    Mark A. Chambers works as a technical writer for Huntington Ingalls Industries/Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia. He is the author of six Arcadia Publishing/The History Press titles: Flight Research at NASA Langley Research Center, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Naval Air Station Norfolk and Naval Air Station Oceana Fleet Defenders.

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      Book preview

      Joint Base Langley-Eustis - Mark A. Chambers

      project.

      INTRODUCTION

      For over a century, Joint Base Langley-Eustis (JBLE) has served as a cornerstone for the advancement of Air Force aviation in America. This historic Air Force installation has helped keep America on the cutting edge of military aviation while proving to be vital to national defense and security. From helping to facilitate the growth and influence of Army airpower during the 1920s, helping to win World War II, and halting the spread of communism during the Korean War to quelling Cold War tensions during the Cuban Missile Crisis, supporting the American effort during the Vietnam War, and ejecting Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi military forces from Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm, JBLE has helped to extend the awesome impact of American airpower throughout the world. JBLE continued to make its presence felt in the War on Terror as well as in Operation Iraqi Freedom and will serve as an essential player in shaping America’s Air Force of the future.

      On May 6, 1896, the brilliant professor and inventor Samuel Pierpont Langley, third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a successful series of flight tests of his Aerodrome No. 5 powered flying model airplane, catapult launched from a houseboat on the peaceful waters of the Potomac River close to Quantico, Virginia. During the unprecedented test flights, the aircraft achieved altitudes of 3,300 feet and 2,300 feet on consecutive flights. The experiments marked the first time that an engine-powered heavier-than-air craft successfully achieved significant altitudes on consecutive flights. Langley then became more emboldened and ambitious, and on October 7, 1903, attempted to duplicate the feats achieved by Aerodrome No. 5, but with a full-scale, manned version, once again to be launched via catapult from a houseboat on the Potomac. Two unsuccessful attempts, with Charles Manly at the controls, were made from a massive catapult track aboard the houseboat. Manly managed to survive both failed flight attempts. Despite these failures of the full-scale, manned Aerodrome, Langley became widely recognized throughout the world as an American aviation pioneer. He was so highly respected and revered that the US Army Signal Corps paid him the ultimate honor by naming one of its first experimental flying fields, in Hampton, Virginia, Langley Field.

      In the summer of 1916, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)—the precursor agency to today’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which also included members of the Smithsonian Institution, the Army Signal Corps Aviation Section, other government departments, and aviation industry leaders—proposed the establishment of a unique experimental airfield and aviation research laboratory that was to be utilized by the NACA, Army, and Navy. On December 30, the US government purchased 2,500 acres of land upon which numerous plantations once existed, including the famous Wythe plantation. The Army Signal Corps Aviation Section ultimately purchased the land at a cost of $300,000 under the Army Appropriation Act of 1917. The total amount of land designated to comprise the new airfield and laboratory was a little over 1,600 acres, located near the Back River in Hampton. In June 1917, military personnel arrived at the site of the new airfield and research laboratory. The first organization to establish operations at the new air base was the 5th Aviation School, Signal Corps. This unit was re-designated the 119th Aero Squadron in September, and in November, the US Army School of Aerial Photography and a Photo School detachment were established at the field. The air base was officially designated Langley Field on August 7, 1917. During World War I, in addition to determining the best Allied aircraft procurement prospects for the US Army Signal Corps, Langley Field also served as a flight test center for US Navy seaplanes and observation/spotter aircraft.

      Among the seaplanes based at Langley was a small unit comprised of Italian-made Macchi flying boats that were piloted by some pioneers in US naval aviation. Among these pioneers was Lt. Charles Hazeltine Hammann (US Naval Reserve Force), who became the first US naval aviator to be awarded the Medal of Honor for uncommon valor demonstrated in combat in Europe during World War I. Tragically, Lieutenant Hammann

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