French Aerostatic Corps The French Aerostatic Corps or Company of Aeronauts ( ) was the world ' s first air force , founded in 1794 to use balloons , primarily for reconnaissance . Experimentation . Numerous suggestions had been made for the use of balloons during the French Revolutionary Wars , and in 1793 the Committee of Public Safety began testing their potential . Initial tests of airship designs proved unsatisfactory . However , experiments conducted near the Tuileries from September to October 1793 to produce the required hydrogen without the use of sulphuric acid , which was in short supply , were successful , producing more than 20 cubic metres . As a result , the Committee determined to use this technique to float tethered balloons . At the end of October 1793 , chemist Jean - Marie - Joseph Coutelle and his assistant , the engineer Nicolas Lhomond , were sent to join the Army of the North , with 50 , 000 livre to acquire equipment . They were given a letter from Lazare Carnot commending them to General Jean - Baptiste Jourdan and representative Ernest Dominique François Joseph Duquesnoy , which informed them that " Citizen Coutelle is not a charlatan " . However , on arrival , Jourdan ridiculed the project , ordering Coutelle back to Paris , with the message that an Austrian attack was imminent , and a battalion was required , not a balloon . Formation . Back in Paris , the Committee of Public Safety ordered further tests on the balloon technology , to be conducted at the Chateau de Meudon , where the Aerostatic Development Centre was founded . Nicolas - Jacques Conté led the research , refining balloon shapes and materials , and also improving the hydrogen production process . This culminated in a series of ascensions , viewed by leading figures on the Committee , who passed an Act creating the Aerostatic Corps on 2 April 1794 . The corps consisted of a captain and a lieutenant , a sergeant - major and sergeant , two corporals and twenty privates . All these men were required to have skills relevant to ballooning , such as chemistry or carpentry . The Act creating the corps envisaged three roles : reconnaissance , signalling and the distribution of propaganda . Coutelle was created captain , and Lhomond lieutenant . Battle of Fleurus . In May 1794 , the new corps joined Jourdan ' s troops at Mauberge , bringing one balloon : " L ' Entreprenant " . They began by constructing a furnace , then extracting hydrogen . The first military use of the balloon was on 2 June , when it was used for reconnaissance during an enemy bombardment . On 22 June , the corps received orders to move the balloon to the plain of Fleurus , in front of the Austrian troops at Charleroi . This was achieved by twenty soldiers who dragged the inflated balloon across thirty miles of ground . For the three following days , an officer ascended to make further observations . On 26 June , the Battle of Fleurus was fought , and the balloon remained afloat for nine hours , during which Coutelle and Antoine Morlot took notes on the movements of the Austrian Army , dropping them to the ground for collection by the French Army , and also signalled messages using semaphore . The French won the Battle of Fleurus , but reports of the usefulness of the balloon corps varied . Louis - Bernard Guyton de Morveau , who had been present throughout the battle , strongly supported it , but Jourdan believed that it had contributed little . Guyton had already supervised the construction at Meudon of the " Martial " , a cylindrical balloon , which was supplied to the corps soon after the battle , but it proved too unstable for use . The corps followed the Army of the North into Belgium and was present at battles in Liege and Brussels , although they did not see action . With winter approaching , they constructed a balloon depot at Borcette near Aachen . Second company . On 23 June , an Act creating a second aerostatic company had been passed , to be trained at Meudon by Conté . It was provided with two new balloons , " Hercule " and " L ' Intrépide " , and in March 1795 it was attached to the Army of the Rhine . Coutelle was recalled in order to head the new company , Lhomond being promoted to captain of the first company , while Conté remained at Meudon . In October , he was made head of a new school of ballooning , where replacement soldiers for the two companies were trained . The second company conducted ascensions at the Battle of Mainz , and were also active during the evacuation of Mannheim . For the winter , they established a base at Frankheim , then followed the Army north and conducted observations at Stuttgart , Rastatt and Donauwörth . Decline and disbanding . Meanwhile , in 1795 , the first company was transferred to the Army of Sambre - et - Meuse , which was now led by Jourdan . They were not directly involved in any action , but Jourdan appears to have warmed to the balloonists , printing official correspondence forms depicting a balloon above his army . In September 1796 , they were at the Battle of Würzburg when the French Army was defeated , and the entire company was taken captive with its balloon " L ' Intrépide " , which is now on display at the " Heeresgeschichtliches Museum " in Vienna . Following this disaster , the second company was attached to the reconstructed Army of Sambre - et - Meuse . Coutelle withdrew to Meudon , overcome by fever , and new commander Delaunay was unable to work with the new General , Lazare Hoche , who refused to let them participate in any action . The first company were released in April 1797 , under the terms of the Treaty of Leoben , and petitioned for the reinstatement of Coutelle as their commander . This was permitted ; Coutelle was made a colonel , while Lhomond was promoted to major and permitted to remain second - in - command . In 1798 , the company joined the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt . On arrival , they decided to initially leave the ballooning equipment on their ship . This was destroyed in the Battle of the Nile , and the company was assigned to other duties . They were able to conduct a few demonstrations of more basic balloons for entertainment purposes . On 15 January 1799 , the Directory passed an act disbanding the balloon corps . The second company was immediately disbanded , but the first was still in action in Egypt and remained in existence until its return to France in 1802 .