Maneuver Camp Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio, Tex[as].

San Antonio: H. Rudolph, Fox Photographer, 1911. Original photograph measuring 48 x 7 1/2 inches. Large panoramic photo depicting the March, 1911 United States Army maneuvers which featured 20,000 troops, with early US military aircraft such as the Wright Model B biplane, as well as two others by Robert McCormick and Ben Johnson, a San Antonio inventor flying above the camp. . captions scratched into negative at lower margin (minor restoration to small portion at the very lower far right fore-edge, minor creasing), still a a wonderfully clean and clear image.This exceedingly scarce original panoramic photograph features the United States Army maneuvers in March, 1911, and was one of the earliest such camps to coordinate with US Army fliers. Within the image, the YMCA tent is identified, as well as the placement of the field hospital, field artillery, the Signal Corps, as well as the Depot Commissary in the foreground. Above three different biplanes are shown flying maneuvers, including the Wright Model B flown by Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois, who along with Phil Parmalee flew the first military reconnaissance scouting missions in a fixed-wing aircraft along the US-Mexico border; as well as planes flown by Robert McCormic, an early Chicago aviator and inventor who would later construct and house several experimental aircraft at Fort Sam Houston, as well as Ben Johnson, a San Antonio inventor, who flew a Johnson Wright Model B airplane. The Wright Model B was the Wright brothers’ most successful aircraft produced from 1910 to 1914, and they were shipping nearly 4 aircraft a month. Unfortunately, the rear elevator made the Model B more tail heavy and prone to stall, and within two years, faster propeller first aircraft with drag-reducing fuselages began appearing. Fort Sam Houston was a very popular experimental airfield for flying meets, air races, because it occupied 800 acres, annd the field was unbroken by no hills of real prominence. Established in 1890 as a post, the War Department began expanding the Fort after the Spanish-American War, adding Cavalry and Light Artillery from 1905-1912, and also served as the birth of military aviation. Lt. Foulois had made his first solo flight the year before in March, 1910. See: Edmond Percy Noel, America Now Has Forty Flying Fields, San Antonio, Tex., Aero and Hydro (1912), Vol. 4, pp. 59, 66; McFarland, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (1953), p. 1183.