Dunsworth arrived on 15 July 1917 and took command. Benedict, arrived in late June, and on 4 July, the first airplanes arrived at the new facility. Chanute Field's first commander, Captain Charles C. The construction of Chanute Field was an economic boom for the small town of Rantoul money and people flowed into the village at a rapid rate, with both workers and visitors coming to see the large construction spectacle. At its peak construction, 2,000 men, 200 teams of horses, 3 steam shovels and multiple steam tractors were working on Chanute Field, with a payroll reaching $96,000 per week. Building materiel began arriving on site on 25 May, and work began in earnest on 4 June. The contract to build Chanute Field was given to English Brothers Construction of Champaign, Illinois on, with the expectation that construction would be complete in 60 days. The village of Rantoul would also be a source for electricity and water. The War Department selected Rantoul because it was one of the few level sites in Illinois in close proximity to the Illinois Central Railroad and the ground school at the University of Illinois. The War Department immediately opened ground schools at eight colleges and established twenty-seven flying fields to train pilots. To meet the demand, Congress appropriated $640 million to build up the Air Service. In comparison, France began the war with over 1,500 aircraft. The United States possessed only one fully manned and equipped Aero squadron ( 1st Aero Squadron), and about 250 aircraft outfitted the Aviation Section of the Army's Signal Corps. In April 1917, the United States was woefully weak in the air. Even as World War I progressed in Europe, America did little to build its air strength. History World War I ДЄlthough the United States had been the birthplace of powered flight, the Army Signal Corps paid little attention to it. Chanute's biplane glider (1896) with 'two arched wings held rigidly together by vertical struts and diagonal wire bracing' (the principle of the Pratt truss used in the railroad bridges which Chanute constructed) served as a prototype design for airplanes. Chanute Field was named in honor of Octave Chanute (1832вЂ“1910), a pioneer aeronautical engineer and experimenter, and friend and adviser to the Wright Brothers.

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