On a cold December morning in 1903, two brothers changed the world with a historic, successfully controlled 12-second flight of a heavier than air vehicle. Within 4 years America had its first Airmen, 18 pilots, 100 support personnel, and 31 planes, all belonging to the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Thirty-seven years later at the height of World War II, the United States had 2.4 million Airmen and 80,000 planes. Airpower had come into its own and on September 18, 1947, the United States Air Force became the newest Armed Service, marking the start of unrivaled dominance in air and space.