1917-Continued

_I11III.&"':,

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Navy's first airship approaches floating hangar /9370

18 months duration to qualify officers as pilots of

either seaplanes or dirigibles. The program also pro-

vided for training enlisted men as aviation mechanics

and for selection of a few for pilot training and qualifi-

cation as quartermaster.

4 May The Commandant of the First Naval District

was directed to assume control of the Naval Militia

station at Squantum, Mass., for use in air training. On

the same date, arrangements were completed to take

over the Naval Militia station at Bay Shore, N.Y. These

were two of several actions taken immediately after

declaration of war to expand the flight training pro-

gram while stations of a more permanent nature were

being built.

5 May The Secretary of War agreed to a proposal of

the Secretary of the Navy that a joint board be estab-

lished for the purpose of standardizing the design and

specifications of aircraft. The board, subsequently

established, was originally titled "Joint Technical Board

on Aircraft, except Zeppelins."

5 May Pensacola, Fla., reported on a test in which a

Berthier machine gun, synchronized to fire through

the propeller, was fired from a Curtiss R-3 taxiing on

water and standing on the beach.

15 May The Secretary of the Navy established an

order of precedence for work involved in the prepara-

tion for war which placed "aircraft and their equip-

ment" ninth on a list of twenty major fields of material

procurement.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

25

16 May The Aircraft Production Board was estab-

lished by resolution of the Council of National

Defense as a subsidiary agency to act in an advisory

capacity on questions of aircraft production and pro-

curement. Membership included a representative from

each service, the Navy's being Rear Admiral David W.

Taylor. Reconstitution of the Board by Act of Congress

on 1 October 1917, transferred its control to the War

and Navy Departments, enlarged its membership for

greater service representation, and changed its title to

Aircraft Board.

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17 May Aircraft machine gun procurement- The

Chief of Naval Operations requested purchase of 50

aircraft machine guns synchronized to fire through

propellers and 50 for all-around fire.

17 May Captain Noble E. Irwin was ordered to the

Material Branch to relieve Lieutenant John H. Towers

as Officer-in-Charge of the aviation desk in the Office

of the Chief of Naval Operations. Lieutenant Towers,

who remained as an assistant to Irwin, was given addi-

tional duty orders to the Bureau of Navigation as

Supervisor, Naval Reserve Flying Corps.

17 May The Navy awarded a contract to the Curtiss

Exhibition Company to train 20 men of the Naval

Reserve Flying Force as aviators at the company field

at Newport News, Va.

18 May Experimental self-sealing fuel tanks, consist-

ing of double walled galvanized iron containing layers

of felt, gum rubber and an Ivory soap-whiting paste,

were demonstrated to representatives of the Army and

Navy by the Bureau of Standards.

19 May A distinguishing insignia for all United

States Government aircraft was described in a general

order which directed that it be placed on all naval air-

craft. The insignia called for a red disc within a white

star on a blue circular field to be displayed on the

wings and for red, white and blue vertical bands on

the rudder, with the blue forward.

19 May The Secretary of the Navy directed that the

building (bureau) number of each aircraft be placed in

figures three inches high at the top of the white verti-

cal band on each side of the rudder. As a result of this

order, the practice of assigning numbers to aircraft, as

AH, was discontinued and the building (bureau) or

serial number became the sole means of identifying a

particular aircraft.