Fifty Years of Aviation 1957 US Army; The Big Picture TV-370

more at http://quickfound.net/

'Army TV series begins new series with salute to aviation progress -- In a salute to aviation progress, the Army's TV series, THE BIG PICTURE, has packaged a neat surprise for viewers in this half-hour episode, "Fifty-Years of Aviation." Beginning with historical footage from 1907 when the United States Army purchased the first military plane, this documentary examines the miracle of flight and pauses to consider what man has done in such a short half century. Apart from the hitherto, seldom-seen footage in this program, THE BIG PICTURE salutes the brave men and women whose courage, tenacity, and skill have directly resulted in Army, Navy and Air Force aviation power second to none. This is the Army's tribute to the pilots, the mechanics, the engineers and the countless others who have given wings to man's dreams. Seen on the screen is the Army's Delackner Aerocycle and the Hiller Flying Platform and pictures of the proposed Aerial Assault Vehicle and the Aerial Jeep.'

Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Aviation_Branch

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The United States Army Aviation Branch is the administrative organization within the United States Army responsible for doctrine, manning and configuration for all army aviation units.

After the United States Army Air Corps grew into the Army Air Forces and split into the new service, the United States Air Force, the Army was left with its sole fixed-wing aviation units flying Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper observation planes for artillery units. The Army would develop a new concept of aviation using the helicopter that would show promise during the Korean War and would revolutionize warfare during the Vietnam War...

Army Aviation traces its origins back to the American Civil War. Both Union and Confederate forces used hydrogen-filled balloons to direct artillery fire, marking the beginning of U.S. military aeronautics and of aerial support of Army ground forces...

While not part of the present Army Aviation Branch's heritage, United States military aviation began in 1907 with the Army’s acquisition of its first heavier-than-air aircraft, an airplane built to Army specifications by the Wright brothers. During World War I, the Air Service's aircraft strength grew from a few dozen to more than 11,000 planes, and the number of aviation personnel came to total more than 190,000...

When the United States Air Force was established as a separate service in 1947, the Army developed its light planes and rotary wing aircraft to support its ground operations. The Korean War and Vietnam War proved the growing capabilities of these aviation assets to perform a variety of missions not covered by the Air Force.

The Korean War provided new challenges and opportunities for Army Aviation. Organic Army Aviation had acquired its first helicopters, thirteen Bell H-13 Sioux, in 1947, shortly before the U.S. Air Force became independent of the Army. In Korea, the Army employed the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and other improved fixed wing planes, but also helicopters...

The first armed helicopter company was activated in Okinawa in 1962. It was deployed to Thailand and then to Vietnam, where it flew escort for lift helicopters. The Department of Defense did not abolish mission restrictions on the Army's rotary-wing aircraft, thereby technically authorizing the Army to arm helicopters until 1966. The "Howze Board," or "Tactical Mobility Requirements Board," was established in 1962 to develop and test the concept of air mobility...

Both Army Aviation and the helicopter came of age during the conflict in Southeast Asia. The most widely used helicopter, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, or Huey, began to arrive in Vietnam in significant numbers in 1964. Before the end of the conflict, more than 5,000 of these versatile aircraft were introduced into Southeast Asia...

Under the Johnson-McConnell agreement of 1966, the Army agreed to limit its fixed-wing aviation role to administrative mission support (light unarmed aircraft which cannot operate from forward positions).

...New or radically modified aircraft were adopted from the late 1970s into the mid-1980s. These included the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, Boeing AH-64 Apache, D-model of the CH-47 Chinook, and OH-58D version of the Kiowa...