On November 14, 1910, the US military took its first step toward linking flight and naval operations when Eugene Ely made the first carrier takeoff, guiding a Pusher biplane off the deck of the light cruiser USS Birmingham in the waters of Norfolk, Virginia.
The Navy tapped Capt. Washington Irving Chambers — who has been called "the father of naval aviation" — earlier that year "to observe everything that will be of use in the study of aviation and its influence upon the problems of naval warfare," according to the Smithsonian.
Chambers recognized the utility of shipborne landings and takeoffs.
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