Aerospace Reconnaissance

Secure the high ground is an old military maxim, partly to give strategic advantage, but also to allow one to observe the enemy. The first uses of balloons (and kites) and of aircraft in military terms were for reconnaissance: strategic to observe movements of armies (or fleets), tactical to direct artillery fire. Even as the aeroplane defined its own offensive and defensive roles in warfare, the requirement for reconnaissance never slackened or diverted, indeed intensified both for its own airborne tactical purposes and for major strategy; how many of us are old enough to remember the aerial photographs of Cuba...