Some continued to be employed in the mid-1930s for WWI aviation pictures filmed in Hollywood. The Tommy on show was given to the museum in March 1965 by Capt. R.W. Duff, Miami, Fla, and revived by Aero Mechanics school, Detroit, Mich.

With 434 other SPAD XIIIs after the truce, this aircraft went to San Diego, Calif, and a smaller, 150-hp Wright-Hispano engine replaced its Hispano- Suiza engine. The museum staff revived this SPAD XIII to its original configuration, including a 220-hp Hispano-Suiza engine. It is painted in the markings of America’s highest scoring ace of WWI with twenty-six victories, Capt. Edward V.

The plane was an instant success, basically because its structural ruggedness allowed it to dive at high speeds without disintegrating. About 189 of the marginally more than five thousand SPAD VIIs built went to the AEF. The plane on view was obtained from the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Sick , and revived by the initial Fighter Wing, Selfridge Air Force Base, Mich, 1962-1966.

Though 5,490 Camels were produced, only a few remain in existence today. USAF staff built the Camel on show from the first WWI factory drawings, completing it in 1974. The airplane is painted and marked as the Camel flown by Lt. George A. Vaughn Jr, 17th Aero Squadron.

The CL IV changed into a hunted target of associated pursuit squadrons, but it gave a good account of itself in dogfights. A flexible machine, the CL IV also performed as an interceptor against associated night bombing raids and served as a night bomber against troop concentrations and airports close to the front lines.

The museum purchased the Halberstadt CL IV on view in 1984. Badly deteriorated at the time, its restoration was a joint global co-operative venture by the Museum fur Verkehr und Technik in Berlin, Germany, the Smithsonian Establishment’s State Air and Space Museum and the nation’s Museum of the US Air Force. It is marked as the CL IV of the squadron leader of the Schlachtstaffel twenty-one, which is understood to have engaged components of the U.S. Armed forces’s 94th and 95th Aero Squadrons in mid-July 1918 in the Castle Thierry battle.

The prototype S.E.5 first fly in December 1916, and the deliveries of an improved version, the S.E.5A, which was started in March 1917.

For its pilots already in Europe, the North American Expeditionary Force purchased 38 S.E.5A aircraft from Great Britain, and in the U. S. the Govt placed orders with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motors Company. The truce halted production after Curtiss had completed only 1 S.E.5A, but fifty six more were constructed from parts shipped from Great Britain. In 1922 the Eberhart Steel Products Corp. Received a contract to reconstruct fifty of the regiment Air Service’s S.E.5A aircraft using 180-hp Wright-Hispano “E” engines. The regiment Air Service used these aircraft, redesignated the SE-5E, for sophisticated coaching. The museum purchased the SE-5E thru a contribution by the estate of Lt. Col. William C. Lambert, USAF Ret. A WWI ace with 21.5 victories, Lambert flew the S.E.5A as an Yank member of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. The Air Force Museum Foundation also helped buy the aeroplane. It is painted to represent an SE-5E of the 18th HQ Squadron, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C, in 1925.

entered WWI in Apr 1917, the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps only had 132 aircraft, all outdated. Modeled from a combat tested Brit De Havilland design, the DH-4 was the sole U.S. Built aircraft to see combat during WWI. With insufficient funding to purchase new aircraft, the recently created U.S. Military Air Service continued to use the DH-4 in a number of roles in the lean years following the war. When it was ultimately retired from service in 1932, the DH-4 had been developed into over sixty variants. The Great War During WWI, the Air Service utilized the DH-4 essentially for day bombing, observation and artillery spotting. The 1st American-built DH-4 arrived in France in May 1918, and the 135th Aero Squadron flew the 1st DH-4 combat mission in early Aug. By war’s end, 1,213 DH-4s had been dropped at France. Sadly , the early DH-4s had flaws, including the fuel system. The pressurized gas tank had an inclination to explode and a rubber fuel line under the exhaust manifold caused some fires. This led on to the title “The Flaming Coffin,” although only 8 of the thirty three DH-4s lost in combat.

burned as they slipped. Additionally, the position of the gas tank between the pilot and observer limited communication and could crush the pilot in an accident. Perhaps the most outstanding mission flown in the DH-4 was the brave effort by 1Lt. Harold Goettler and 2Lt. Erwin Bleckley of the fiftieth Aero Squadron to find and aid the legendary “Lost Battalion” on Oct. Six, 1918. In a resupply mission to this trapped unit, their DH-4 was shot down.

The plane soon became the anchor of the “barnstormers” of the 1920s, and many Jennies continued flying into the 1930s. The JN-4D on show was obtained from Robert Pfeil of Taylor, Texas, in 1956.

Albert Caquot. The hydrogen-filled balloon could lift 2 passengers in its basket, with charting and communications appliances, and the weight of its mooring wire, to a height of roughly four thousand feet in good weather. Standard operations were between one thousand and four thousand feet. During WWI, Yank balloon observers directed artillery fire at targets like troop concentrations and supply dumps. They spotted more than one thousand enemy aeroplane sightings, one thousand instances of army traffic on railroads and roads and four hundred artillery batteries. Caquot balloons were made in great numbers in WWI; virtually one thousand were made in the US in 1918-1919. During World War Two, the British produced Caquots once more, but in limited numbers.

Made in 1944, the balloon displayed at the museum is thought to be the only survivor. The UK used it for parachute testing and noncombat aerial observation and photography till 1960. The UK Ministry of Defense, Royal Aircraft Corporation, presented the Caquot to the museum after it was found with the help of Yankee and British WWI balloon vets in 1975. Aided by the Goodyear Aerospace Company of Akron, Ohio, which had produced these balloons during WWI, museum staff mended and sealed the balloon fabric and prepared it for inflation. It was placed on show in May 1979.

Armed forces Air Service. In the meantime, many American student pilots went abroad for flight training and those were sent to Great Britain learned the Avro 504K tutor before advancing the fight aircraft.

The U.S. Army Air Service ultimately established its main coaching center at Issoudun, France, and in July 1918, the North American Expeditionary Force (AEF) chiefs ordered 52 Avro 504K aircraft for teaching aerobatics at Issoudun. After the war, the regiment Air Service brought some Avro 504K aircraft back to the U. S. , and they stayed in coaching service for a couple of years. Using original parts, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Aircraft Upkeep & Development Unit built the aircraft on display in 1966-1967 with a 110-hp Le Rhone J rotary engine. It turned up at the nation’s Museum of the U.S. In May 2003 Air Force, and it is painted to represent one of the 52 Avro 504K aerobatic trainers used at the AEF.