Army Air Force

[Punk_Waffen]

When did the Army Air Force become just the Air Force..


Toodles, PW

[Marcus]

The Army Air Corps was renamed US Army Air Forces (USAAF) 1941.

/Marcus

[Vinnie O]

Prior to 1947 there were 2 US Cabinet-level departments: War (Army) and Navy. The Marines were simply a component of the Navy Department, and the Army Air Forces (an organization equivalent to the Army Ground Forces (AGF) and Army Service Forces (ASF)) were a component of the War Department. Prior to the designation of the Army Air Forces, the Army Air Corps was merely a branch, like Armor or Field Artillery.

In 1947 Congress created the new Department of Defense, with the War Department renamed as the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. Off hand, I don't believe that the Navy Department gave ANYTHING from Naval Aviation to the new Air Force.

[USAF1986]

For the lineage of today’s U.S. Air Force, please see these links:

http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Po ... ineage.htm

http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/afhra/wwwr ... birth.html

From the first link:

The Lineage of the United States Air Force

• Aeronautical Division, US Signal Corps
1 August 1907 - 18 July 1914

• Aviation Section, US Signal Corps
18 July 1914 - 20 May 1918

• Division of Military Aeronautics
20 May 1918 - 24 May 1918

• Air Service
24 May 1918 - 2 July 1926

• Air Corps*
2 July 1926 - 18 September 1947

• Army Air Forces
20 June 1941 - 18 September 1947

• United States Air Force
18 September 1947

* The Air Corps became a subordinate element of the Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, and it continued to exist as a combat arm of the Army until 1947.

Regards,
Shawn