Air Photography and its serious application to map-making may be traced to the Great War. It was at this period that grave consideration had to be given to Air Photography as a method of producing maps.

In all the theatres of war, which included France, Palestine, Salonica, and Mesopotamia (or Iraq as this country is now known), extensive operations were carried out in Air Photography, and the photographs used for the amplification of existing maps, and in many cases to the compilation of new maps.