Airpower is not widely understood. Even though it has come to play
an increasingly important role in both peace and war, the basic
concepts that define and govern airpower remain obscure to many
people, even to professional military officers. This fact is
largely due to fundamental differences of opinion as to whether or
not the aircraft has altered the strategies of war or merely its
tactics. If the former, then one can see airpower as a
revolutionary leap along the continuum of war; but if the latter,
then airpower is simply another weapon that joins the arsenal along
with the rifle, machine gun, tank, submarine, and radio. This book
implicitly assumes that airpower has brought about a revolution in
war. It has altered virtually all aspects of war: how it is fought,
by whom, against whom, and with what weapons. Flowing from those
factors have been changes in training, organization,
administration, command and control (C 2), and doctrine. War has
been fundamentally transformed by the advent of the airplane. Billy
Mitchell defined airpower as "the ability to do something in the
air. It consists of transporting all sorts of things by aircraft
from one place to another."1 Two British air marshals, Michael
Armitage and Tony Mason, more recently wrote that airpower is "the
ability to project military force by or from a platform in the
third dimension above the surface of the earth."2 In truth, both
definitions, though separated in time by almost six decades, say
much the same thing. Interestingly, however, most observers go on
to note that airpower includes far more than air vehicles; it
encompasses the personnel, organization, and infrastructure that
are essential for the air vehicles to function. On a broader scale,
it includes not only military forces but also the aviation
industry, including airline companies and aircraft/engine
manufacturers. On an even broader plane, airpower includes
ideas-ideas on how it should be employed. Even before the aeroplane
was invented, people speculated-theorized-on how it could be used
in war. The purpose of this book is to trace the evolution of
airpower theory from the earliest days of powered flight to the
present, concluding with a chapter that speculates on the future of
military space applications.3 Attempting to find the origins of
airpower theory, trace it, expose it, and then examine and explain
it, is no easy task. Perhaps because airpower's history is
short-all of it can be contained in a single lifetime-it lacks
first-rate narrative and analytical treatments in many areas. As a
result, library shelves are crammed with books about the
aerodynamics of flight, technical eulogies to specific aircraft,
and boys' adventure stories. Less copious are good books on
airpower history or biography. For example, after nearly five
decades, we still do not have an adequate account of American
airpower in the Southwest Pacific theater during World War II, or
the role of George Kenney, perhaps the best operationallevel air
commander of the war. Similarly, we need a biography of one of the
most brilliant thinkers and planners in US Air Force history; the
only airman ever to serve as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and
the third youngest general in American history-Lauris Norstad. Nor
do we have a complete, official history of airpower's employment in
the war in Southeast Asia. Much needs to be done to fill such gaps.
General
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