March 1912, the birth of the French Military Aviation

Journal of Air Force on the ground Villacoublay, September 27, 1912

In this photo, the six Breguet, one in the foreground, type R, the following type G.

"Article 1 - The Military Aerospace is responsible for the study, acquisition or construction, and implementation of air navigation equipment suitable for the military, such as balloons, airplanes, kites . It provides administration and mobilization training assigned to service these machines and personnel training.

Article 2 - The Military Aerospace includes: 1 / a crew, 2 / troops; 3 / institutions ... '

These two articles from a statute enacted March 29, 1912 to identify a crucial moment in the history of French military aviation. They indeed establish the birth of military aviation marks, somehow, the first steps of a range of the air weapon. Autonomy that airmen will get very close to the Great War and to which they succeed in December 1922, with the creation of a weapon of aeronautics. A decade later, in April 1933, the claims of proponents of the independent aviation reach their goals, and in July 1934, a law sanction the organization of the new entity in the previous year, the Air Force. Contrary to many misconceptions, the development of military aviation in the few years before the First World War proved an astonishing speed.Discerned. The first airplanes were soon renamed, are hardly acquired by the French army that the problem of subordination arises. After a short period of wandering, they are shared by the old weapons engineering and artillery, these flying machines barely mature soon fall into the lap of the first aircraft structure character ever, inspection of permanent military aircraft, born in October 1910. If it is important, the inspection in question does, however, if this young aviation has no unity of action. Integrated within the engineering directorate where matters concerning processed by many organs of different command and administration, she struggles to find its feet. Its leader, General Roques, convinces the political and military circles to go a little further with the law of 29 March 1912. In establishing military aviation, this legislation gives to aviation a certain autonomy, a relative of course, but autonomy anyway. It is the responsibility of the permanent inspector who reports directly to the Minister and which has power to investigate, buy and build airplanes for the army.

On July 26 following instruction sets the application tricolor cockades on the devices: "The planes will now following brands: a / on both sides of the rudder or the outer side of each rudder when there two: the initial letters of the manufacturer's 30 centimeters high and a corresponding width and the number of military aircraft corresponding figures of 15 centimeters. (...) B / Two tricolor cockades 1 m diameter placed to the right and left of the fuselage under each wing monoplanes, or on the lower biplanes. The center of the rosette will be in the axis of the wing, equidistant, or both clips extreme guy monoplanes or both poles extreme biplanes. Different areas of the rosette will have diameters of 1 m, 0.70 m and 0.40 m. "

Some time later, on August 22, an implementing decree organizes aviation squadrons, as follows: numbered 1 to 5 are designated for each of them, by the initial aircraft used within them (HF, Henri-Farman, MF, for Maurice-Farman, BL, for Blériot and D, for Deperdussin). Thus military aviation just bloomed already has directories that allow legitimacy to base part of his identity. A step of first order and has been crossed. Another fundamental step intervene with the filing of a bill of June 1913, proposing the establishment of a direction of the aircraft, the 12th, in the Ministry of War and the meeting into a single entity aviation and ballooning, hitherto separated. Adopted during the last weeks of the year, the project in question is realized shortly before the outbreak of war in spring 1914. The first political structure responsible for overseeing the Air Force will, little known fact, in September 1915, the Under-Secretary of State for the aerospace, thirteen years before the formation of the Air Ministry.