Introductory Note
This is a brief but general account of the history of aviation as it is associated with southern California, a description of the War Department school of aviation at San Diego, a syllabus of the course of lectures delivered there on the subject of practical meteorology as applied to aviation, a narrative of weather-study from an airplane, and a recital of subsequent active coöperation between the aviators and the U. S. Weather Bureau.A
A It may be remembered that the weather service of the United States originated with the Signal Corps of the Army and that the Weather Bureau was created from it by Act of Congress, June, 1891, and made a bureau of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. As a former member of the Signal Corps the writer enjoyed the renewal of old friendships among the officers at the Aviation School. Col. W. A. Glassford, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, Commandant of the War Department Aviation School at San Diego, kindly read the manuscript of the following pages and the writer gratefully acknowledges his valuable suggestions.
Much of the material in the following pages was obtained by the writer while detailed as Lecturer in Meteorology to the Signal Corps, War Department Aviation School at San Diego, in 1915–1916, also when detailed in the same official capacity to the U. S. Army Military Training Encampment, Monterey, 1916; and at the summer sessions of the University of California during 1914–1916.
Los Angeles, Cal.,
February, 1917.
To
J. S. A.