 The availability of an elevated visual observation platform significantly enhanced the success of destroyers in finding and attacking U-boats prior to the invention of sonar.Convoys might have been better protected if every destroyer had been equipped with a kite balloon; but there was a limited number of balloons, and even fewer pilots qualified to fly in them.The United States Navy established an emergency balloon pilot training program in October, 1917, at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company's Wingfoot Field in Akron, Ohio.