During World War II, the U.S. built the most formidable glider force in the world -- a fact not widely known. The glider pilot's job was to crash land a powerless aircraft and then go fight as a combat infantryman. Glider pilots and combat infantrymen were not ordinary fighters. They were trained to fight exclusively behind enemy lines.

Many pilots and glider infantry went through and survived terrible anti-aircraft fire on the way to their landing zones, only to be wounded or killed in the landing. Every landing was a genuine do-or-die situation for the glider pilot. It was an awesome responsibility to repeatedly risk their lives by landing heavily laden aircraft, containing combat soldiers and their equipment, in unfamiliar fields deep within enemy territory, often in total darkness.

The glider pilots were the only pilots during WWII who had no motors, no parachutes and no second chances. Many of these courageous and talented pilots had washed out of other programs and took this last chance to remain pilots. Many of them went on to become some of the best pilots in the military.

The US Army and the Air Force became two separate forces on September 16, 1947, setting the scene for each service to develop in the direction most suited for the country's military goals.

The "Golden" Age
I believe that the Golden Years of Aviation were not in the 1920s, as historians have labeled them, but suggest that the Golden Years began in the 1950s and 1960s with the advent of the Jet Age.

As the World War II years drew to a close, reciprocating engines had just about reached the end of their development and the prospect of further development was not thought to be possible. In the closing months of World War II, however, there appeared on the scene a new type of engine that would create an entirely new generation of aviation. That was the jet propulsion system.

British pilot Frank Whittle designed and developed a turbo jet engine in 1930. The first Whittle engine successfully flew in April, 1937. At the same time, Germany's Hans Von Ohain was working on his own jet engine project. Both men have been credited with the invention of the jet engine. The first jet airplane to successfully fly was the German Heinkel HE using Von Ohain's engine in 1939. However, the first American jet airplane, the XP-59A, built by General Electric for the U.S. Army Air Force, did not appear until October, 1942. The first jet helicopter, also built by GE using two turboshaft jet engines, first flew in 1957.

The use of jet propulsion in the second half of the century has led to almost as many new advancements in aviation as in the first half of the century, and has been just as spectacular as the amazing rise of powered flight in the first fifty years of the 19th century.

Sir Isaac Newton, in the 18th century, was actually the first person to theorize that a backward-channeled explosion could propel a device forward at a great rate of speed. This theory was based on his third law of motion: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."