<text id=00od0200><title>Organization and Deployment: Pre-1945</title>
<history>US Air Force: Briefing</history>
<article><hdr>Organization and Deployment—Pre-1945</hdr><body>
<p>The modern-day USAF traces its roots to the Aeronautical Division of the US Army's Signal Corps, established on 1 August 1907. Its first aircraft was a Wright Flyer. On 18 July 1914, the name was changed to Aviation Section, still within the Signal Corps, and remained so well into World War I when, on 20 May 1918, it became the US Army Air Service. The first US-trained American Expeditionary Forces air ace was Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker, who, by the end of the conflict, became the leading Air Service ace with 26.33 aerial victories.
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<p>Between wars another change of name occurred, when today's USAF was renamed the US Army Air Corps on 2 July 1926. Prior to America's entry into World War II, yet another renaming took place on 20 June 1941 and the Air Corps became US Army Air Forces (USAAF).
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<p>The wartime USAAF, fed by the giant industrial machine of the American heartland, eventually had nearly 60,000 warplanes and reached its peak strength of 2,372,292 personnel in 1944. The B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Superfortress and P-51 Mustang were among the best-known warplanes and played vital roles in defeating the Axis. A Superfortress brought the dawn of the atomic age with the 6 August 1945 bombing of Hiroshima.
