September 24th, 1918
Lieutenant David S. Ingalls becomes the first “Ace” of the U. S. Navy, and the only “Ace” of World War I.
David S. Ingalls’ accomplishment as the first Navy “Ace” gave him a unique perspective of the origins and development of Naval aviation in the United States. It was this perspective that he shared later in an article written for the October 1930 issue of Proceedings. Ingalls, then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, described the evolution of Naval aviation in the years before and during the first World War and speculated on the developments that the future would bring:
Naval aviation today is the result of a post-war incorporation of aviation into our Navy. Prior thereto there was no such thing as naval aviation as now known. Read the rest of this entry »