Aerospace Influence in World War I

John Moss Wathen IV earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He also served as a cadet in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. Today, John Wathen IV is interested in going to flight school after taking courses on flight in college.

Humans generated a need for airplanes after the Wright Brothers completed a successful flight test in 1903. The aerospace attraction grew so quickly that in 1909, Eustace, Horace, and Oswald Short built six planes in Britain using a license the Wright Brothers provided them.

The Wright Brothers created the first military aircraft in 1908, and the First World War accelerated the production of military aircraft so much that by the beginning of the war, France and Germany had over 3,500 military aircraft combined. The United States joined the war in 1917 and, in the same year, embarked on the mass production of military aircraft. By the end of the war, aerospace factories in America could produce up to 21,000 planes per year, contributing to the Allied Powers' victory.