Air Force Army

The People's Liberation Army Air Force is the aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army, the military of the People's Republic of China. It currently consists of approximately 250,000 personnel and 2300 combat aircraft, making the PLAAF the largest air force in Asia and the third largest in the world.Although the Chinese Red Army (PLA's predecessor) had operated a few aircraft since the Second Sino-Japanese War, the first organized air arm of the PLA was the Nanyuan Flying Group, formed in the summer of 1949 with about 40 ex-Nationalist aircraft, responsible for the air defence of the soon-to-be capital city of Beijing, China.The Soviet Union helped found the Air Force on November 11, 1949, shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic, and began to provide aircraft in late 1951. Production technology came two years later.

Soviet involvement also extended to training combat pilots. Soviet instructors trained the new pilots in Soviet tactics. Those new PLAAF pilots took part to some degree in the Korean War, where they along with their Russian counterparts often engaged American aircraft in combat.By 1956 China was assembling its own aircraft, but initially these were copies of Soviet types. The first of them was the J-2 (copy of MiG-15) Some western observers referred to the upgraded MiG-15bis variant as J-4, but the PLAAF never used the "J-4" aircraft designation. By 1958, increased cooperation with the Soviets allowed China to produce both the J-5 (MiG-17 copy) and the J-6 (MiG-19 copy) under license.The 1960s proved to be a difficult period for the PLAAF.

This was due to the break in relations with the Soviet Union, and as a consequence of the withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1960 the Chinese aircraft industry almost collapsed. The industry declined markedly through 1963, further hindered by the high priority accorded to the competing missile and nuclear weapons program. The aircraft industry began to recover in about 1965, as China began providing the forces of North Vietnam with J-2s, J-4s, J-5s, and some J-6s on the onset of the Vietnam War. The 1960s also saw the first indigenous Chinese design, namely the J-8.The USAAF had its roots in a turn-of-the century effort at technology assessment of the progress of aviation. The issuance of a patent to the Wright Brothers in 1906, and the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt brought about the creation on August 1, 1907, of the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps, headed by Captain Charles deForest Chandler, established to develop all forms of flying.

In 1908, the corps ordered a dirigible balloon and contracted with the Wrights for an airplane. Despite a crash that destroyed the first model, the Wright plane was delivered in 1909. The inventors then began to teach a few enthusiastic young officers to fly.The progress of U.S. military aviation was slow in its early years. Congress voted the first appropriation for military aviation in 1911 and expanded the service into an Aviation Section in 1914. A provisional squadron was formed to support the Punitive Expedition under General John J. Pershing on the Mexican border in 1916 but failed, largely because of poor equipment unsuited to the harsh expeditionary conditions and bad maintenance.

The importance of military aviation was established with its role in Europe during World War I. At the time of America's declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, the Aviation Section was marginal at best. France asked the United States to provide an air force of 4,500 airplanes and 50,000 men, and with more enthusiasm than wisdom, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker asked for and received $640 million from Congress for aviation. The result was chaos. By May of 1918, it was clear that the Signal Corps was overtasked in the aviation mission. The War Department then set up an Air Service consisting, at first, of two agencies reporting directly to the Secretary of War: one under a civilian, to deal with the manufacturers, and one under a military officer, to train and organize units.

In August President Woodrow Wilson appointed John D. Ryan, Second Assistant Secretary of War, to consolidate the whole under the aegis of the Air Service.The Air Force of the Polish Army (Polish: Lotnictwo Wojska Polskiego), unofficially known as the People's Polish Air Force is the name of the Soviet-controlled Polish Air Force in the USSR between 1943 and 1947 create

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