The short-lived Union Army Balloon Corps in the Civil War was in a way the U.S ... They came to the U.S. military with their own balloons, offering them as reconnaissance tools to help crush ...

No longer were soldiers safe from enemy reconnaissance on the ground. They could now be watched from the air! From the French Revolution to the Civil War, balloons loomed over battlefields.

The American Civil War saw the formation of the Balloon Corps for Federal Army, ... How could there be an aerial reconnaissance platform, let alone an aircraft carrier, ...

Both satellites and balloons have played a role in reconnaissance, ... In the Civil War, prominent aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe and the U.S. Balloon Corps used floating spies, ...

A Chinese balloon seen floating over the northwestern United States this week was a reminder of how governments have used balloons for reconnaissance for more than a century.

During the Civil War, the Union Army got a leg up (way up) on the Confederates by taking to the skies. Hot air balloons had been around since the first manned flight in 1783. In less than a decade ...

The Civil War Balloonist Who Invented Aerial Recon; ... Nineteenth-century armies also relied on cavalry for reconnaissance, ... “The balloons became high-value targets,” Linick said.

When the war started in April 1861, Lowe was preparing for a balloon flight that would take him from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. Winds blew him off course, and he landed in South ...