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American Combat Planes of the 20th Century is an incredible reference for anyone who is interested in any American Combat Plane History. There are 758 pages and 1700 b/w photos in this substantial labor of love by Ray Wagner, who has been passionately researching and writing about aircraft for over 50 years. Whether you are already familiar with his past works, or just discovering this accomplished author for the first time... This is the book that you've been waiting for!

If you'd like to see the book's Table of Contents ... Click here. You can also browse the entire Index Section to get an idea of the extensive amount of information that is covered within this book.

Search our site for other combat planes. A- 1 Eaton A- 4 Skyhawk A- 6 & A- 7 Air Weapons AV- 8 to A- 10 A- 20 Havoc A- 22 Martin Maryland A- 23 Martin Baltimore A- 24 Douglas A- 26 Douglas Invader Attack Planes B- 2A, F-111, F-117 Stealth B- 17 Flying Fortress B- 24 Liberator B- 25 North American B- 26 Marauder B- 29 Superfortress B- 32 Dominator B- 35 Flying Wing B- 36 B- 47 Stratojet B- 50 Boeing B- 52 Stratofortress B- 57 Canberra B- 58 Hustler Biplanes Biplanes, Army Pursuits Bombers, B- 70 to Stealth Bombers, First Big Curtiss Falcon CO- 1 DH- 4 De Havilland F3D- Douglas Skyknight F3H- McDonnell Demon F4D- 1 Skyray F4F Grumman Wildcats F- 4U Corsair F6F Grumman F7F Grumman F7U Vought F9F G. Cougar F9F G. Panther F- 16 Fighting Falcon F- 84 F- 86 Sabre F- 89 to F-94 F- 100 to F-108 First Fighters Flying Boats GAX Iraq to Afghanistan Martin Bombers Missile Era Fighters Navy Fighers Navy Flying Boats O- 2 Douglas P- 35 Seversky P- 36 to 42 Curtiss P- 38 Lightning P- 39 Airacobra P- 40 Line P- 47 Thunderbolt P- 51 Mustang Fighter P- 61 Black Widow P- 63 Kingcobra P- 79 to P-81 P- 82 Twin Mustang SB2C Helldiver TBF-TBM Avenger Thomas-Morse Torpedo Planes V- 11 Vultee XB -28 XP -48 / 77

The Biplane Period, 1917 to 1932

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The thousands of DH-4 two-seaters, several hundred pursuit ships of foreign origin, and a few night bombers, would need to be replaced by more modern types. Military leaders accustomed to buying hardware that would last 20 years were reluctant to spend much money on aircraft with less than a six-year service life. Funding for fiscal year 1921 allowed Army contracts in June 1920 for only 170 new combat planes: 100 fighter, 40 observation, 20 night bomber, and 10 attack planes, as well as beginning work on the large Barling bomber prototype.

With only limited experience in air warfare and rudiments of a theory of air power, the Army Air Service had an uncertain future. The existing organization reflected the conservative view that aviation existed primarily to assist the ground army, and that bombing and pursuit aircraft in themselves were unlikely to affect the course of war. (An example of this thinking was a lengthy World War I history that mentioned only scouting as a wartime aviation activity.) The view once expressed that “the duty of the aviator is to see, not to fight” seemed to be reflected in the dispersal of air force strength into observation squadrons attached to various ground units.

Subordination of the Air Service to the Army had a bad effect on both morale and equipment. Of 517 Air Service crash deaths from January 1919 to June 1925, all but 12 were in aging aircraft built before the end of the war. The lack of improved and safer replacements was criticized, and a long debate on the control of air power ensued. Since this argument centered around the use of the bomber, it is discussed in the chapters devoted to that weapon.

The organizational impasse of the period was reflected in the relatively slow technical advance. Most of the aviation headlines were made by the skill of individual aviators, rather than by a startling advance in performance. Compare the service aircraft of 1930, a dozen years after the Armistice, with those of the war period. Still we see the same open cockpit, fabric-covered biplanes dragging struts and exposed undercarriages. Advances in top speed were modest. Fighters had gone from the 132 mph of a Spad to 166 mph for a P-12B, bombers from the 94 mph of a Handley-Page to 114 mph for a B-3A, two-seaters from the 124 mph of a DH-4 to 139 mph for an A-3B.

The Army Air Service, as it was constituted from 1920 to 1926, was viewed almost entirely as an organization to support the ground arms: infantry and cavalry, coast and field artillery. In case of war, plans called for the mobilization of six field armies, each of nine divisions in three corps. Each army would have an attack group, two pursuit groups, and an observation group, as well as observation squadrons for each division and corps, or a total force of four attack, eight pursuit and 16 observation squadrons per army. A General Headquarters element would have the only bomber group, along with attack, observation and pursuit groups.

The actual peacetime Army Air Service was planned as the cadre for a rapid wartime expansion and in 1922 consisted of 14 observation, four attack, seven bombing and seven pursuit squadrons. They were deployed in the United States as the 1st Pursuit, 2nd Bombardment, 3rd Attack, and 9th Observation Groups, as well as an observation squadron for each of the nine Army corps. Overseas possessions were protected by three composite groups with mixed squadrons; the 4th Composite Group in the Philippines, the 5th in Hawaii, and the 6th in the Panama Canal Zone.

In 1926, the Air Service became the Air Corps, and began a five-year expansion of pursuit and bomber squadrons. By 1932 there were 15 groups of combat planes, including ten in the United States and five overseas, and the Air Corps kept this organizational framework until 1940.

Navy Aviation Between the Wars
Naval aviation in the 1920s began with shore bases at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and San Diego, California, to support the fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the training establishment at Pensacola and the testing station at Anacostia. Overseas operations were based on the air stations at Coco Solo at the Panama Canal and at Pearl Harbor.

Most operational Navy service planes in 1919 were shore-based flying boats, plus some Marine DH-4s. The Naval Aircraft Factory kept busy with the overhaul and repair of flying boats continuously damaged by waves and sea water soaking.

A small postwar force, including fighting, observation, and torpedo planes, was established to operate on wheels or floats from shore bases. The next step was to perfect means by which these aircraft could accompany the fleet to sea, and the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer), established September 1,1921, devoted itself to this problem. Early shipboard operations were by seaplanes catapulted from battleships and cruisers, and lifted back by cranes after landing on the sea. There were disadvantages to this method: only a few seaplanes could be carried without impairing the ship’s fighting ability; it was difficult to recover the launched aircraft; and most important, the seaplanes were inferior in performance to landplanes.

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