The first babbling of Aviation engines were heard at the end of the XIX century, with the test flights of the aircrafts invented by Clément Ader , which were followed in 1903 by the first successful flights of the Wright brothers in the United States. In 1909, Louis Blériot crossed the Channel and the following year, Hubert Latham attained the fabulous altitude of 1000 meters. Shortly before the Great War, Roland Garros crossed the Mediterranean Sea and Maurice Prévost attained a record speed of 200 kilometres per hour.

Henri Farman F20

It was during the First World War that the broad spectrum of military aviation possibilities was revealed. In a period of just five years, this domain witnessed an extraordinary boom, with the use of aircrafts in intelligence and reconnaissance missions, during which opposing crews sometimes had to exchange fire using simple rifles they carried on board. This somewhat archaic period was immediately followed by one characterized by air strikes and raids.

Bombardement de nuit - Avion Bréguet - Michelin
François Flameng - Musée de l'Armée - Paris

The efficiency of aircrafts increased in all aspects: speed, flight radius, and also shooting capacity, following the invention of the technique of firing through the propeller by a Dutchman, Anthony Fokker , in 1916, which made the synchronization of machineguns possible.

With the Second World War came new technological sophistications and the exploitation of advanced applications in the domain of military aviation. The engines became more powerful and the flight radius increased. Large planes were built to transport and drop parachutists. As radars and jet engines started becoming integral parts of aircrafts, the construction of helicopters began. The Luftwaffe’s fighter aircrafts and bombers emerged and initially proved to be awfully efficient until their debacle against the English. As for Allied aviation, with its unrivalled industrial production capacity, the development was spectacular and contributed immensely to the 1945 victory. 

During the Indochina and Algerian wars, air battles became rarer. Missions entrusted to the French military aviation mainly involved reconnaissance, air raids, air support to ground troops, and transportation. In 1954, for a period of 170 days of fierce confrontations, the heroic combatants of Dien Bien Phu  received reinforcements, food supplies, ammunition and medical care thanks to a “noria” of Dakota aircrafts and Sikorsky helicopters, which braved, practically on a daily basis, the intense fire of the Viet DCA. 

After the end of the Algerian War, with the advent of new electronic applications, aircrafts tended to be more specialized. The pilots also became specialized in their various missions such as territorial air defence, interception, support and attack. To each need corresponded a particular type of aircraft; the bomber equipped with nuclear missiles became an essential component of the French dissuasion force as had been intended by General de Gaulle.

The principal missions of the air force now include : 

• warding off enemy “hostilities” and attacking
• bombing enemy positions and infrastructures
• transporting and dropping troops, supplies and equipment
• carrying out observation operations and processing collected data in real time using sophisticated PCs in the air
• providing air support, involving high and low altitude photo-taking reconnaissance missions
• refuelling in flight
• rescuing shot down pilots.

-FNCV-