Photo By Erin Thompson | Lieutenants Milling and Sherman upon returning to Texas City, Texas, after their...... read more read more
by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
31 MARCH 1913
On 31 March 1913, Lt. (later Lt. Col.) William C. Sherman sketched a map of the terrain during a flight from San Antonio to Texas City, Texas. It was the first attempt to prove the value of aerial mapping for military planning.
William Sherman was a natural achiever. Born in 1888, he graduated high school, completed two years of college, and received an appointment to West Point, all before the age of eighteen. The multi-talented Georgia-native—he excelled at chess and polo and sang in the choir—showed an early interest in what he referred to as “aerial navigation.” Upon graduating third in his class, however, he was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers instead of the Signal Corps, with its fledgling aviation department. Forced to take flying lessons on his off-duty time, in 1912, he applied for and was approved for temporary aviation duty. He reported to the aviation school at College Park in September that year.
By early March 1913, with increasing violence in Mexico threatening to spill over the border into the United States, Lieutenant Sherman and other aviators in the First Aero Squadron were attached to the 2d Division at Texas City, Texas. There, Sherman linked up with his good friend, Lt. (later Brig. Gen.) Thomas DeWitt Milling, the Army’s first certified pilot and future leader of the First Army’s Air Service in World War I. Sherman and Milling would work together in various assignments the rest of their careers.
On 28 March, Milling and Sherman set American distance and duration records when they flew a 224-mile, non-stop trip from Texas City to San Antonio in four hours and twenty-two minutes.
Mechanical problems with their single-engine Burgess-Wright Model H biplane prevented their return to Texas City until 31 March. The three-hour, fifty-seven-minute return trip set no
endurance records but was significant for another reason. From the passenger seat of the Burgess biplane traveling at approximately fifty-six miles per hour, Lieutenant Sherman sketched a terrain map of the entire route—the first such aerial map ever made.
Using the plane’s fuselage for orientation and a compass for bearings, Sherman sketched the map in sections, each of which represented a ten-minute interval. The completed map, approximately fifteen feet long, included the locations of railroads, wagon roads, towns, streams, woods, and hills. Sherman also made notes of the atmospheric conditions, strength and direction of the wind, and the flight time. The aviators’ report noted the resulting map was “rough” but were cautiously optimistic that “after some experience, a sketch can be made by this method, of sufficient accuracy to fulfill the requirements of a strategic reconnaissance, and locate the larger units of the enemy.”
A month after Sherman’s mapping feat, on 3 May, Lt. J. D. Park conducted a similar experiment, mapping the terrain around San Diego, California, during a thirty-five-minute solo flight. Both efforts proved the military value of the maps and the feasibility of producing them during aerial scouting missions over enemy territory. By the time World War I began, however, hand-sketched aerial maps were supplanted by advancements in aerial photographic technologies and techniques.
Six months after his record-setting flights, Lieutenant Sherman returned to the Corps of Engineers. During World War I, he served as first aide-de-camp and then, for a short time in early 1918, as G-2 in Maj. Gen. William L. Sibert’s 1st Division. He finally returned to aviation in October 1918 as chief of staff of the First Army’s Air Service. Post-war, he played a significant role in developing doctrine and training for the Army’s growing aviation forces until his untimely death from pneumonia in November 1927.
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| Date Taken: | 03.24.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2023 18:23 |
| Story ID: | 441073 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
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