The Armée de l'Air (literally, 'army of the air') is the name used for the French Air Force in its native language since it was made independent of the Army in 1933. This article deals exclusively with the history of the French air force from its earliest beginnings until its destruction after the occupation of France. French naval aviation, the Aéronautique Navale is covered elsewhere.Andre. Van Haute, Pictorial History of the French Air Force: 1909–40;and Pictorial History of the French Air Force: 1941–1974 (2 vol. 1975)

Military aviation to 1914

During the first decade of the 20th century France was at the forefront of aviation progress, with pioneers such as Louis Blériot, Henri Farman, Gabriel Voisin, Édouard Nieuport, Gustave Delage and Louis Béchereau and this led to early interest in aircraft by the military. The French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 was still very fresh, and France expected to face Germany again. From December 1909, the French Department of War began to send individuals from all branches of the army, especially engineering and artillery, to undergo flying training at civilian schools as "pupil-pilots" (élèves-pilotes) such as at Reims and Bron. In March 1910, the Établissement Militaire d'Aviation (EMA) was created to conduct experiments with aircraft and on 22 October 1910 the Aéronautique Militaire was formed as a branch of the Army"France: Air Force (Armée de l'Air), in Christopher H. Sterling, Military Communications: From Ancient Times to the 21st century (ABC-CLIO, 2008) p168 under the command of General Pierre Roques, although they would have to wait until mid-1911 the first military aviation brevets to be awarded to army pilots and 29 March 1912 for the law officially establishing the Aéronautique Militaire to be passed.

Training of military pilots was the same as civilian pilots until 1910 when the General Staff introduced the military pilot license. Military pilot badge N°1 was issued to Lieutenant Charles de Tricornot de Rose following training at the Blériot Flying School in Pau, in southwest of France, where the Wright Brothers had established the first aviation school the year before.

Shortly after the Aéronautique Militaire became be the world's first "air force" using aircraft, the German army began training airmen on 4 July 1910 but didn't create an official formation until 1 April 1911 when it formed the königlich-preußische Fliegertruppe. The British Air Battalion Royal Engineers (a precursor to the Royal Flying Corps), was formed on 1 April 1911. The Armée de l'Air was renamed in August 1933 when it gained operational independence from the Army, much later than for the United Kingdom, but some 14 years earlier than that of the United States.

First World War

At the start of the First World War ("La Première Guerre mondiale"), France led the world in an aircraft design and by mid-1912 the Aéronautique Militaire had five squadrons ("escadrilles"). This had grown to 132 machines and 21 escadrilles by 1914, the same year when, on 21 February, it formally received a budget under the Ministry of War ("Ministère de la Guerre"). On 3 August, Germany declared war against France.

At the beginning of what eventually became known as First World War, the Aéronautique Militaire concentrated on reconnaissance with aircraft like the Blériot XI. On 8 October, though, the commander-in-chief, General Barès, proposed a massive expansion to 65 escadrilles. Furthermore, he proposed that four types of aircraft could be used for four different tasks: Morane-Saulnier Ls would be used as scouts, Voisin IIIs as bombers, Farman MF.11s as reconnaissance aircraft, and Caudron G.IIIs as artillery spotters.Davilla, James J., and Arthur M. Soltan. French Aircraft of the First World War. Stratford, CT: Flying Machines Press, 1997.WWI Aircraft Profile Gallery: France An Illustrated History of World War I Accessed on 27 December 2013.

On October 5, 1914, Sergent Joseph Franz and his mechanic Caporal Louis Quénault became the first to shoot down another aircraft when they downed a German Aviatik. However, air fighting was revolutionized when a reconnaissance pilot, Roland Garros, mounted a Hotchkiss machine gun on the cowling of his Morane-Saulnier L with a mechanical interrupter mechanism. The inconsistent firing rate of the Hotchkiss prevented the mechanism from working properly and he added deflector wedges to the rear of the propeller blades, so that the wooden propeller would not be shot to pieces whenever he opened fire on German aircraft. With this setup, Garros became the world's first fighter pilot, but he was captured shortly afterwards when his engine failed.

Independently, Anthony Fokker succeeded when he fitted a Fokker M.5K Eindecker (monoplane) with a Parabellum MG14 machine gun equipped with a gun synchronizer by the start of July 1915, thus changing the way in which the air war was fought, as German and Allied fighter aircraft fought each other in the air, producing "ace" pilots. Some prominent French aces were René Fonck, who became the top-scoring Allied pilot of World War I with 75 enemy aircraft shot down, Georges Guynemer, who was killed after 54 victories, Charles Nungesser, who achieved 43 victories and survived the war, and Georges Madon who had 41 victories.

Prior to 1916, escadrilles operated a variety of different types of aircraft together to accomplish specific assigned tasks with the first fighters being distributed piecemeal to each escadrille. This type of organization was common at the time. In 1916, as a result of their failure to achieve aerial supremacy over the Battle of Verdun and the inability of the reconnaissance aircraft to track German movements, Charles de Tricornot de Rose grouped the new Nieuport 11 fighters into dedicated fighter units, so they could operate together more effectively. This so revolutionized air combat that the Germans were forced to follow suit shortly thereafter.

During this period the Lafayette Escadrille (designated N.124) was formed around a group of mainly American volunteers while their parent country remained neutral. Initially operating a mixture of Nieuport 11s, 16s and 17s, when the SPAD S.XIII entered service, they would be redesignated S.124. The entry of the United States into the war resulted in most of their surviving personnel would be transferred to the U.S. Army Air Service (USAAS) in February 1918. The unit's leading ace was French-born American Raoul Lufbery, who shot down 16 enemy aircraft (all but one with the Escadrille) prior to his death in action on 19 May 1918. Other American volunteer pilots, including the first black fighter pilot, Eugene Bullard, flew with regular French Aéronautique Militaire escadrilles.

By April 1917, the Aéronautique Militaire had 2,870 aircraft with 60 fighter and 20 bomber squadrons and 400 observation aircraft, yet, by October, an even more radical expansion to over 300 squadrons was proposed. By May 1918, over 600 fighters and bombers came under the command of the Division Aérienne. Two months later, long-range reconnaissance squadrons had been formed. At the armistice, the Aéronautique Militaire had some 3,222 front-line combat aircraft on the Western Front, making it the world's largest air force. During the war the Aéronautique Militaire claimed 2,049 enemy aircraft and 357 balloons destroyed, for some 3,500 killed in action, 3,000 wounded/missing and 2,000 killed in accidents.Christienne, Charles, and Pierre Lissarrague. A History of French Military Aviation. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986. Some 182 pilots of the Aéronautique Militaire were deemed flying aces for having scored five or more air-to-air victories.

1918–1939

The end of war may have brought peace to France, yet the country itself and its infrastructure had been ravaged by four years of warfare, and the scars left behind were not just physical. As a result, it took some time for industry to recover. Not unexpectedly, orders for military aeroplanes dropped after the Armistice, resulting in reductions being made to squadron strengths.

France had a Colonial empire extending around the globe, and it needed to be defended. Anti-Government elements in French Morocco were clamouring to expel the French. On 27 April 1925, therefore, alongside tactical and logistical support, air operations in Morocco were begun owing to the Rif War and they were to continue until December 1934.Martin Thomas, "At the Heart of Things? French imperial defense planning in the late 1930s." French Historical Studies (1998) 21#2: 325-361. online

In the 1930s, the French aeronautical industry was primarily composed of small companies such as Latécoère, Morane-Saulnier, Nieuport-Delage and Amiot, each only producing small numbers of aircraft. As a result, the French aeronautical industry proved itself incapable of delivering the aircraft that the annual fiscal budgets had called for which had been greatly increased as a result of Hitler coming to power in January 1933 and his remilitarization of Germany in defiance of the Allies and the Treaty of Versailles.Robert J. Young, In Command of France: French Foreign Policy and Military Planning, 1933–1940 (1978).

Pierre Cot, the secretary of the French Air Force, decreed that national security was too important for the production of warplanes to be left in the hands of the private enterprises that were thus far failing to meet production goals. In July 1936 the French government began nationalizing many of the larger aircraft companies, creating six state-owned companies, which encompassed the majority of aeronautical production, and regrouping those companies to their geographical regions. Bloch was nationalized in January 1937. However, the aircraft engine industry, even as it proved incapable of providing the badly needed powerful engines, escaped nationalization.

By 1937, it was clear that more modern aircraft were needed, since the air force was still flying relatively antiquated aircraft like the Dewoitine D.500 and orders to construct more than 2,500 modern machines, among them the Bloch MB.170 bomber and the Dewoitine D.520 fighter resulted. The inadequacy of the French aeronautical programs, as well as indecision in high command resulted in the French Air Force being in a position of weakness, confronting a modern and well organized Luftwaffe, which had just gained combat experience in the Spanish Civil War.

France attempted to respond to the likelihood of another European war via an intensive re-equipment and modernization program in 1938–39, as did other countries desperately in need of new aircraft including Poland whose 1939 orders of 160 MS-406 fighters from France still hadn't been delivered by the German invasion of Poland. Germany production outstripped that of its neighbours, so it was a question of "too little, too late" as far as the French – as well as the whole continent of Europe – were concerned.Robin Higham, Two Roads to War: The French and British Air Arms from Versailles to Dunkirk (Naval Institute Press, 2012).