Origins of Aerial Photographic Interpretation, U.S. Army, 1916 to 1918

World War I formed the incubator for aerial reconnaissance and photointerpretation. This study, based upon official histories and archival materials, including correspondence, reports, unit histories, and related documents, surveys the development of photoreconnaissance as practiced by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the period 1917 to 1919. The most visible advances were technologic improvisations, developed in the field that integrated the camera and the airplane to form, arguably, the most effective intelligence resource of the conflict. Technological innovations were accompanied by parallel developments in organizational and training infrastructures necessary to derive information for images acquired by these instruments. Interpretation techniques developed from simple annotations of oblique photographs acquired using handheld cameras to sophisticated analyses of images acquired by automatic cameras suspended in the aircraft fuselage. As the war concluded, efforts were underway to develop foundations for photogrammetric methods to derive accurate planimetry, which later formed foundations for civil applications of aerial photography.