Early developments After the
French Revolution, the new rulers became interested in using the
balloon to observe enemy manoeuvres and appointed scientist
Charles Coutelle to conduct studies using the balloon ''L'Entreprenant'', the first military reconnaissance aircraft. The balloon found its first use in the
1794 conflict with Austria, where in the
Battle of Fleurus they gathered information. Moreover, the presence of the balloon had a demoralizing effect on the Austrian troops, which improved the likelihood of victory for the French troops. To operate such balloons, a new unit of the French military, the
French Aerostatic Corps, was established; this organisation has been recognised as being the world's first
air force. , during the
First World War After the invention of photography, primitive aerial photographs were made of the ground from manned and unmanned balloons, starting in the 1860s, and from tethered kites from the 1880s onwards. An example was
Arthur Batut's kite-borne camera photographs of
Labruguière starting from 1889. In the early 20th century,
Julius Neubronner experimented with
pigeon photography. These pigeons carried small cameras that incorporated timers. Ludwig Rahrmann in 1891 patented a means of attaching a camera to a large calibre artillery projectile or rocket, and this inspired
Alfred Maul to develop his
Maul Camera Rockets starting in 1903.
Alfred Nobel in 1896 had already built the first rocket carrying a camera, which took photographs of the Swedish landscape during its flights. Maul improved his camera rockets and the Austrian Army even tested them in the
Turkish-Bulgarian War in 1912 and 1913, but by then and from that time on camera-carrying aircraft were found to be superior. The first use of airplanes in combat missions was by the
Italian Air Force during the
Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912. On 23 October 1911, an Italian pilot, Capt. Carlo Piazza, flew over the Turkish lines in
Libya to conduct an aerial reconnaissance mission; Another aviation first occurred on November 1 with the first ever dropping of an
aerial bomb, performed by
Sottotenente Giulio Gavotti, on Turkish troops from an early model of
Etrich Taube aircraft. The first reconnaissance flight in Europe took place in Greece, over Thessaly, on 18 October 1912 (5 October by the Julian calendar) over the Ottoman army. The pilot also dropped some hand-grenades over the Turkish Army barracks, although without success. This was the first day of the Balkan wars, and during the same day a similar mission was flown by German mercenaries in Ottoman service in the Thrace front against the Bulgarians. The Greek and the Ottoman mission flown during the same day are the first military aviation combat missions in a conventional war. A few days later, on 16 October 1912, a
Bulgarian Albatros aircraft performed one of Europe's first reconnaissance flight in combat conditions, against the Turkish lines on the
Balkan peninsula, during the
Balkan Wars of 1912–1913.
Maturation during the First World War reconnaissance aircraft of the
RFC with an aerial reconnaissance camera fixed to the side of the fuselage, 1916 The use of aerial photography rapidly matured during the
First World War, as aircraft used for reconnaissance purposes were outfitted with cameras to record enemy movements and defences. At the start of the conflict, the usefulness of aerial photography was not fully appreciated, with reconnaissance being accomplished with map sketching from the air.
Frederick Charles Victor Laws started experiments in aerial photography in 1912 with
No. 1 Squadron RAF using the British dirigible
Beta. He discovered that vertical photos taken with 60% overlap could be used to create a
stereoscopic effect when viewed in a stereoscope, thus creating a perception of depth that could aid in cartography and in intelligence derived from aerial images. The dirigibles were eventually allocated to the
Royal Navy, so Laws formed the first aerial reconnaissance unit of fixed-wing aircraft; this became
No. 3 Squadron RAF. Germany was one of the first countries to adopt the use of a camera for aerial reconnaissance, opting for a
Görz, in 1913. French Military Aviation began the war with several squadrons of
Bleriot observation planes, equipped with cameras for reconnaissance. The French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders in record time. The
Royal Flying Corps recon pilots began to use cameras for recording their observations in 1914 and by the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 the entire system of German trenches was being photographed. The first purpose-built and practical aerial camera was invented by Captain
John Moore-Brabazon in 1915 with the help of the
Thornton-Pickard company, greatly enhancing the efficiency of aerial photography. The camera was inserted into the floor of the aircraft and could be triggered by the pilot at intervals. Moore-Brabazon also pioneered the incorporation of stereoscopic techniques into aerial photography, allowing the height of objects on the landscape to be discerned by comparing photographs taken at different angles. In 1916, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire made vertical camera axis aerial photos above Italy for map-making. By the end of the war, aerial cameras had dramatically increased in size and
focal power and were used increasingly frequently as they proved their pivotal military worth; by 1918 both sides were photographing the entire front twice a day and had taken over half a million photos since the beginning of the conflict. In January 1918,
General Allenby used five Australian pilots from
No. 1 Squadron AFC to photograph a area in
Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front. This was a pioneering use of aerial photography as an aid for
cartography. Lieutenants
Leonard Taplin,
Allan Runciman Brown, H. L. Fraser,
Edward Patrick Kenny, and L. W. Rogers photographed a block of land stretching from the Turkish front lines deep into their rear areas. Beginning 5 January, they flew with a fighter escort to ward off enemy fighters. Using
Royal Aircraft Factory BE.12 and
Martinsyde airplanes, they not only overcame enemy air attacks, but also bucked 65 mile-per-hour winds, anti-aircraft fire, and malfunctioning equipment to complete their task circa 19 January 1918.
Second World War High-speed reconnaissance aircraft 's
Lockheed 12A, in which he made a high-speed reconnaissance flight in 1940. During 1928, the
Royal Air Force (RAF) developed an electric heating system for the aerial camera; this innovation allowed reconnaissance aircraft to take pictures from very high altitudes without the camera parts freezing. In 1939,
Sidney Cotton and
Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom of the RAF suggested that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception. Although this may perhaps seem obvious today with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking.
Spitfire PR Mk XI (PL965) was a long range, high-altitude reconnaissance variant capable of flying from airfields in England and photographing targets in Berlin. Cotton and Longbottom proposed the use of
Spitfires with their armament and
radios removed and replaced with extra fuel and cameras. This concept led to the development of the
Spitfire PR variants. With their armaments removed, these planes could attain a maximum speed of 396 mph while flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet, and were used for photo-reconnaissance missions. The Spitfire PR was fitted with five cameras, which were heated to ensure good results (while the cockpit was not). In the reconnaissance role, the Spitfire proved to be extremely successful, resulting in numerous Spitfire variants being built specifically for that purpose. These served initially with what later became
No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU). prior to the
D-Day landings Other
fighters were also adapted for photo-reconnaissance, including the British
Mosquito and the American
P-38 Lightning and
P-51 Mustang. Such aircraft were painted in
PRU Blue or Pink camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often were stripped of weapons or had engines modified for better performance at high
altitudes (over ). The American F-4, a factory modification of the
Lockheed P-38 Lightning, replaced the nose-mounted four
machine guns and cannon with four high-quality K-17 cameras. Approximately 120 F-4 and F-4As were hurriedly made available by March 1942, reaching the 8th Photographic Squadron in Australia by April (the first P-38s to see action). The F-4 had an early advantage of long range and high speed combined with ability to fly at high
altitude; a potent combination for reconnaissance. In the last half of 1942 Lockheed would produce 96 F-5As, based on the P-38G with all later P-38 photo-reconnaissance variants designated F-5. In its reconnaissance role, the Lightning was so effective that over 1,200 F-4 and F-5 variants were delivered by Lockheed, and it was the
United States Army Air Forces's (USAAF) primary photo-reconnaissance type used throughout the war in all combat theatres. The
Mustang F-6 arrived later in the conflict and, by spring 1945, became the dominant reconnaissance type flown by the USAAF in the
European theatre. American photo-reconnaissance operations in Europe were centred at
RAF Mount Farm, with the resulting photographs transferred to Medmenham for interpretation. Approximately 15,000
Fairchild K-20 aerial cameras were manufactured for use in
Allied reconnaissance aircraft between 1941 and 1945. The British
de Havilland Mosquito excelled in the photo-reconnaissance role; the converted bomber was fitted with three cameras installed in what had been the bomb bay. It had a cruising speed of 255 mph, maximum speed of 362 mph and a maximum altitude of 35,000 feet. The first converted PRU (Photo-Reconnaissance Unit) Mosquito was delivered to
RAF Benson in July 1941 by
Geoffrey de Havilland himself. The
PR Mk XVI and later variants had
pressurized cockpits and also pressurized central and inner wing tanks to reduce fuel vaporization at high
altitude. The Mosquito was faster than most
enemy fighters at 35,000 ft, and could roam almost anywhere. Colonel Roy M. Stanley II of
United States Air Force (USAF) stated of the aircraft: "I consider the Mosquito the best photo-reconnaissance aircraft of the war". The
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) designation for the photo-reconnaissance Mosquito was F-8. Apart from (for example) the Mosquito, most World War II
bombers were not as fast as
fighters, although they were effective for aerial reconnaissance due to their long range, inherent stability in flight and capacity to carry large camera payloads. American bombers with top speeds of less than 300 mph used for reconnaissance include the
B-24 Liberator (photo-reconnaissance variant designated F-7),
B-25 Mitchell (F-10) and
B-17 Flying Fortress (F-9). The revolutionary
B-29 Superfortress was the world's largest combat-operational bomber when it appeared in 1944, with a top speed of over 350 mph which at that time was outstanding for such a large and heavy aircraft; the B-29 also had a
pressurized cabin for high altitude flight. The photographic reconnaissance version of the B-29 was designated F-13 and carried a camera suite of three K-17B, two K-22 and one K-18 with provisions for others; it also retained the standard B-29 defensive armament of a dozen
.50 caliber machine guns. In November 1944 an F-13 conducted the
first flight by an Allied aircraft over Tokyo since the
Doolittle Raid of April 1942. The
Consolidated B-32 Dominator was also used for reconnaissance over Japan in August 1945. The Japanese
Army Mitsubishi Ki-46, a twin-engined aircraft designed expressly for the reconnaissance role with defensive armament of 1 light machine gun, entered service in 1941.
Codenamed "Dinah" this aircraft was fast, elusive and proved difficult for
Allied fighters to destroy. More than 1,500 Ki-46s were built and its performance was upgraded later in the war with the Ki-46-III variant. Another purpose-designed reconnaissance aircraft for the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was the
carrier-based, single-engine
Nakajima C6N Saiun ("Iridescent Cloud").
Codenamed "Myrt" by the
Allies, the Nakajima C6N first flew in 1943 and was also highly elusive to American aircraft due to its excellent performance and speed of almost 400 mph. As fate would have it on 15 August 1945, a C6N1 was the last aircraft to be shot down in
World War II. Japan also developed the high-altitude
Tachikawa Ki-74 reconnaissance bomber, which was in a similar class of performance as the
Mosquito, but only 16 were built and did not see operational service. The
Luftwaffe began deploying
jet aircraft in combat in 1944, and the twin-
jet Arado Ar 234 Blitz ("Lightning") reconnaissance bomber was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber. The Ar 234B-1 was equipped with two Rb 50/30 or Rb 75/30 cameras, and its top speed of 460 mph allowed it to outrun the fastest non-jet Allied fighters of the time. The twin
piston-engined
Junkers Ju 388 high-altitude bomber was an ultimate evolution of the
Ju 88 by way of the
Ju 188. The photographic reconnaissance Ju 388L variant had a
pressurized cockpit from the Ju 388's original multi-role conception as not only a bomber but also a night fighter and
bomber destroyer, due to
RLM's perceived threat of the
U.S.'s high-altitude
B-29 (which ended up not being deployed in
Europe). Approximately 50 Ju 388Ls were produced under rapidly deteriorating conditions at the end of the war. As with other high performance weapons introduced by
Nazi Germany, too many circumstances in the war's logistics had changed by late 1944 for such aircraft to have any impact. The
DFS 228 was a
rocket-powered high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft under development in the latter part of
World War II. It was designed by
Felix Kracht at the
Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (German Institute for Sailplane Flight) and in concept is an interesting precursor to the post-war
American U-2, being essentially a powered long-
wingspan glider intended solely for the high-altitude aerial reconnaissance role. Advanced features of the DFS 228 design included a
pressurized escape capsule for the pilot. The aircraft never flew under rocket power with only unpowered glider
prototypes flown prior to May 1945.
Imagery analysis , where aerial reconnaissance intelligence was analysed The collection and interpretation of aerial reconnaissance intelligence became a considerable enterprise during the war. Beginning in 1941,
RAF Medmenham was the main interpretation centre for photographic reconnaissance operations in the
European and
Mediterranean theatres. The
Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) was later amalgamated with the Bomber Command Damage Assessment Section and the Night Photographic Interpretation Section of No 3 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit,
RAF Oakington, in 1942. During 1942 and 1943, the CIU gradually expanded and was involved in the planning stages of practically every operation of the war, and in every aspect of intelligence. In 1945, daily intake of material averaged 25,000 negatives and 60,000 prints. Thirty-six million prints were made during the war. By
VE-day, the print library, which documented and stored worldwide cover, held 5,000,000 prints from which 40,000 reports had been produced. According to
R.V. Jones, photographs were used to establish the size and the characteristic launching mechanisms for both the
V-1 flying bomb and the
V-2 rocket.
Cold War photographic analyst elucidates the location of enemy
flak batteries to plan attacks against enemy positions during the
Korean War Immediately after the Second World War, the long range aerial reconnaissance role was quickly taken up by adapted
jet bombers, such as the
English Electric Canberra and its American development the
Martin B-57, that were capable of flying higher or faster than enemy
aircraft or
defenses. Shortly after the
Korean War, the United States begun to use
RB-47 aircraft; these were at first were converted B-47 bombers, but later purposely built as RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft that had no bombing capability. Large cameras were mounted in the plane's belly and a truncated
bomb bay was used for carrying
photoflash bombs. Later versions of the RB-47, such as the RB-47H, were extensively modified for
signals intelligence (ELINT), with additional equipment operator crew stations in the bomb bay; unarmed
weather reconnaissance WB-47s with cameras and meteorological instruments also served the
United States Air Force (USAF) during the 1960s. truck convoy deploying missiles near
San Cristóbal, Cuba on 14 October 1962 (photograph taken by a
U-2.) The onset of the
Cold War led to development of several highly specialized and clandestine strategic
reconnaissance aircraft, or spy planes, such as the
Lockheed U-2 and its successor the
SR-71 Blackbird (both from the
United States). Flying these aircraft became an exceptionally demanding task, with
crews specially selected and trained due to the aircraft's extreme performance characteristics in addition to risk of being captured as
spies. The
American U-2 shot down in
Soviet airspace and capture of
its pilot caused political turmoil at the height of the Cold War. was also modified as an aerial reconnaissance aircraft during the cold war. Beginning in the early 1960s, United States aerial and
satellite reconnaissance was coordinated by the
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Risks such as loss or capture of reconnaissance aircraft
crewmembers also contributed to
U.S. development of the
Ryan Model 147 RPV (Remotely Piloted Vehicle) unmanned drone aircraft which were partly funded by the
NRO during the 1960s. During the 1960s, the
United States Navy opted to convert many of its
supersonic carrier-based nuclear bomber, the
North American A-5 Vigilante, into the capable RA-5C Vigilante reconnaissance aircraft. Beginning in the early 1980s, the U.S. Navy outfitted and deployed
Grumman F-14 Tomcat aircraft in one squadron aboard an
aircraft carrier with a system called
Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS), which provided naval aerial reconnaissance capability until the Tomcat's retirement in 2006.
Post Cold War Since the 1980s, there has been an increasing tendency for militaries to rely upon assets other than manned aircraft to perform aerial reconnaissance. Alternative platforms include the use of
surveillance satellites and
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as the armed
MQ-9 Reaper. By 2005, such UAVs could reportedly be equipped with compact cameras capable of identifying an object the size of a milk carton from altitudes of 60,000 feet. The U-2 has repeatedly been considered for retirement in favour of drones. In 2011, the USAF revealed plans to replace the U-2 with the
RQ-4 Global Hawk, a UAV, within four years; however, in January 2012, it was instead decided to extend the U-2's service life. Critics have pointed out that the RQ-4's cameras and sensors are less capable and lack all-weather operating capability; however, some of the U-2's sensors could be installed on the RQ-4. In late 2014, Lockheed Martin proposed converting the manned U-2 fleet into UAVs, which would substantially bolster its payload capability; however, the USAF declined to provide funding for such an extensive conversion. During the 2010s, American defense conglomerate
Lockheed Martin promoted its proposal to develop a
hypersonic UAV, which it referred to as the
SR-72 in allusion to its function as a spiritual successor to the retired SR-71 Blackbird. The company has also developed several other reconnaissance UAVs, such as the
Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel. ==Technologies==