32

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1918-Continued

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Na val aircraft on beach at Pensacola, World War I 426915

21 January The First Marine Aeronautic Company,

Captain Francis T. Evans, USMC, commanding, arrived

at Naval Base 13, Ponta Delgada, Azores, to fly antisub-

marine patrols over convoy lanes in the Azores area.

25 January The Supervisor, Naval Reserve Flying

Corps requested that Dr. Alexander McAdie, Director

of Blue Hill Observatory, Harvard University, be

enrolled as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval

Reserve and be assigned to the Aviation Office in CNO

to organize a Naval Aerological Organization.

3 February Aerial gunnery training for prospective

Naval Aviators and enlisted men began under

Canadian Royal Flying Corps instructors at the Army

field at Camp Taliaferro, Fort Worth, Tex.

8 February A change in national aircraft insignia

was promulgated by the Navy which replaced the

white star with concentric circles of red and blue

around white, and reversed the order of the red, white

and blue vertical bands on the rudder, placing the red

nearest the rudder post.

21 February NAS Bolsena, Italy, was established,

Ensign William B. Atwater commanding. The first of

two air stations established in Italy during World War

I, Bolsena was used primarily as a flying school.

22 February The Director of Naval Communications

was requested to provide wireless transmitting and

receiving equipment at five naval air stations on the

Atlantic coast and at San Diego, Calif., and Coco Solo,

Panama, to permit pilots on patrol to communicate

with their bases. The following May, this request was

expanded to cover all naval air stations.

22 February NAS Queenstown, Ireland, an assembly

and repair station for all naval air stations in Ireland,

was established, Lieutenant Commander Paul J. Peyton

commanding.

26 February In recognition of the importance to

flight operations of data on weather phenomena in the

upper atmosphere, and acting largely on the recom-

mendations of Lieutenant Commander Alexander

McAdie, formerly of Harvard University's Blue Hill

Observatory, the Chief of Naval Operations established

an allowance list of aerographic equipment for air sta-

tions abroad.

28 February The president issued a proclama-

tion, effective in 30 days, that prohibited private

flying over the United States, its territorial waters

and its possessions without a special license issued

by the Joint Army and Navy Board on Aeronautic

Cognizance.

1 March The dirigible station at Paimboeuf, France,

where several aviation personnel had been on duty

with the French since November 1917, was taken over

by American forces and established as a Naval Air