1916 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1916:

Years in aviation: 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years: 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

Events

January
  • On a single evening, 10 of the 16 Royal Flying Corps aircraft which take off to defend England against German air attack crash, killing three pilots. By May, RFC night flying skills will have improved to the point that 10 aircraft that take off on a single evening all land safely.[5]
  • January 12 – German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, each with eight kills, are the first pilots awarded the Pour le Mérite ("Blue Max").
  • January 13 – The Curtiss Aeroplane Company, Curtiss Motor Company, Curtiss Engineering Company, and Burgess and Curtis merge to form the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.[6]
  • January 14 – In response to high losses German Fokker Eindecker fighters are inflicting on Allied reconnaissance aircraft flying over the Western Front, Royal Flying Corps Headquarters orders that reconnaissance planes have an escort of at least three fighters flying in close formation with them, and that a reconnaissance aircraft must abort its flight if even one of the three fighters becomes detached from the formation for any reason.[7]
  • January 18 – The world's first practical all-metal aircraft, the Junkers J 1, makes its first true flight.
  • January 29 – The second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.
  • January 31-February 1 (overnight) – German airships resume bombing raids against the United Kingdom, as nine Imperial German Navy Zeppelins led personally by the chief of the German Naval Airship Division Peter Strasser attempt to attack Liverpool. None do, and they scatter their bombs widely around the English Midlands. Zeppelin L.19 (LZ 54) and her entire crew are lost in the raid; she is last seen on February 3 when the British trawler King Stephen finds her floating in the North Sea, speaks with her crew, and then leaves them to their fate.[8]

February
  • The German Army's air service, the Imperial German Flying Corps, takes the first step toward forming separate fighter squadrons by establishing Kampfeinsitzer Kommando ("single-seat battle unit," abbreviated as KEK) formations consisting only of fighter aircraft. KEK units form in France at Vaux-en-Vermandois, Avillers, Jametz, Cunel, and other strategic locations along the Western Front to act as Luftwachtdienst (aerial guard force) units.
  • Command of all pilots, airplanes, and searchlights devoted to the defense of London from air attack is consolidated under a single commander – Major T. C. Higgins, the commanding officer of the Royal Flying Corps's No. 19 Reserve Squadron at Hounslow – for the first time.[9]
  • February 6 – Aircraft from the Imperial Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet's seaplane carriers Imperator Nikolai I and Imperator Aleksandr I sink the Ottoman collier Irmingard (4,211 grt). Irmingard is the largest ship sunk by air attack in World War I.[10]
  • February 21 – The Battle of Verdun begins. The Germans deploy 168 aircraft. To support the morale of French troops defending against the German offensive, the future French ace Jean Navarre soon begins daily aerobatic flights over the front line in a Nieuport 11 Bébé ("Baby") fighter with its fuselage painted in French red, white, and blue.[11]
  • February 26 – Merely by appearing behind a German two-seat aircraft over the Verdun battlefield, Jean Navarre induces its crew to land in French-held territory and surrender without ever firing a shot. Later that morning he shoots down a German bomber for his fifth victory.[12]

March

April

May

June

July

August
  • The Imperial German Flying Corps (Fliegertruppen des Deutschen Kaiserreiches) creates its first single-seat fighter squadrons, or Jagdstaffeln.[29]
  • The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet raids Varna, Bulgaria, employing a seaplane carrier-battleship force.[30]
  • August 2 – A Bristol Scout C from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier Vindex unsuccessfully attacks the German Zeppelin L 17. It is the first interception of an airship by a carrier-based aircraft.[31]
  • August 6 – French ace Capitaine René Fonck gains his first confirmed victory. He will become the highest-scoring Allied and second-highest-scoring ace overall of World War I.
  • August 23 – The Brazilian Navy establishes a naval aviation arm with the creation of a naval aviation school.[32]
  • August 24–25 (overnight) – Led by the commander of the Imperial German Navy's airship force, Peter Strasser, aboard the Zeppelin L 32, 13 German naval airships attack England. Several are damaged by British antiaircraft fire and a British seaplane and most of their bombs miss their targets widely, but L 31 under Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy bombs southeast London, inflicting £130,000 in damage, including damage to a power station at Deptford, and killing nine and injuring 40 civilians.[33]
  • August 27

September
  • The Wright Company and the Glenn L. Martin Company merge to form the Wright-Martin Corporation.[34]
  • A formation of German Gotha G.III heavy bombers destroys the railway bridge over the Danube River at Cernavodă, Romania.
  • September 2–3 (overnight) – 12 German Navy and four German Army airships raid southeast England in the largest airship raid of World War I; they drop 823 bombs totaling 38,979 pounds (17,681 kg), killing four people and injuring 12 and causing over £21,000 in damage. Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant William Leefe-Robinson, flying a B.E.2c, shoots down the German Army Schütte-Lanz airship SL 11, which falls spectacularly in flames near London, killing her entire crew of 16. Leefe-Robinson becomes the second pilot to shoot down an airship and the first to do it over the United Kingdom, and the German Army Airship Service withdraws from future bombing raids on England, leaving the bombing campaign to German naval airships. It is considered the turning point in the defense of the United Kingdom against German airship raids.[35]
  • September 5 – It is announced that Lieutenant William Leefe-Robinson has received the Victoria Cross for shooting down SL-11.[36]
  • September 15 – Two Austro-Hungarian Lohner flying boats, led by Fregattenleutnant Zelezny, sink the British submarine B-10 and the French submarine Foucault. B10 is the first submarine sunk by aircraft, and Foucault is the first submarine sunk at sea by aircraft.
  • September 16
    • Two Imperial German Navy airships, the Zeppelins L 6 and L 9, are destroyed by fire in their hangar due to an inflation accident.[37]
    • The future Schiphol Airport opens as a Dutch military airfield southwest of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
  • September 17
  • September 23–24 (overnight) – Twelve German Navy Zeppelins attack England. Most scatter their bombs widely, and bombs strike Nottingham and Grimsby. L 33 bombs central London with 42 high-explosive and 20 incendiary bombs, hitting several warehouses and setting fire to an oil depot, a lumber yard, and several groups of houses, with 10 people killed and 12 seriously injured. L 31 under Heinrich Mathy also bombs London, destroying a tramcar, damaging houses and shops, and killing 13 and injuring 33 people. Two of the newest Zeppelins are shot down, L 33 by ground fire and L 32 by Royal Air Force Lieutenant Frederick Sowrey; L 33's crew is captured at Little Wigborough (the only armed enemy personnel to set foot in England during the War) and L 32's is killed. Their loss shocks the German naval airship commander Peter Strasser.[39]
  • September 25–26 (overnight) – Nine German Navy Zeppelins set out to attack England. Some turn back and the rest scatter their bombs widely over the countryside and sea. L 22, however, bombs an armament factory complex in Sheffield, killing 28 and injuring 19 people, and L 21 drops several bombs on Bolton.[40]

October
  • October 1–2 (overnight) – Eleven German Navy Zeppelins set out to attack England. Three turn back and the others fail to drop their bombs or scatter their bombs widely, killing one British soldier. Royal Flying Corps Second Lieutenant W. J. Tempest in a B.E.2c shoots down L 31 in flames outside London, killing its entire crew, including the famed airship commander Heinrich Mathy, who leaps to his death from the burning Zeppelin.[41]
  • October 5 – Concerned that civil aviation might not be taken seriously after World War I and anticipating the growth of civil air transport after the war, the British aviation pioneer George Holt Thomas registers Aircraft Transport & Travel Limited.[42] In 1919, the company will become the first to operate a London-Paris airline service.
  • October 8 – The Imperial German Flying Corps (Fliegertruppen des Deutschen Kaiserreiches) is reorganized and renamed the German Air Force (Luftstreitkräfte).[29]
  • October 12
  • October 18 – Italian future ace Pier Ruggero Piccio scores his first aerial victory, shooting down an enemy observation balloon.
  • October 19 – German Navy Zeppelins participate in a High Seas Fleet sortie into the North Sea, but German and British ships do not come into contact with one another, although the Zeppelin L 14 sights part of the Royal Navy's Harwich Force. Five Zeppelins suffer serious mechanical breakdowns during the operation.[44]
  • October 28 – German ace Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke is killed in a mid-air collision between his Albatros D.II and the fighter of the German ace Erwin Böhme. A highly influential pilot considered by the some the "father" of the German fighter force, and the author of the Dicta Boelcke, the first formal codification of the rules of aerial warfare, he is Germany's leading ace with 40 victories at the time of his death. World War I will end with him tied with Oberleutnant Lothar von Richthofen and Leutnant Franz Buchner as the 10th-highest-scoring German aces of the conflict.[45]

November

December
  • December 26–27 (overnight) – In Operation Iron Cross, the Imperial German Navy dirigibles L 35 and L 38 attempt the first bombing of Petrograd, Russia. Neither bombs the target due to clouds and bad weather, and L 38 makes a forced landing at Seemuppen, Courland, in German-occupied Russia, where strong winds eventually destroy her[49] on December 29.
  • December 28 – While ground crewman are walking the German Navy Zeppelin L 24 to her shed at Tondern, Germany, she is slammed against her hangar by wind and catches fire. She and the Zeppelin L 17, which is in the hangar, are destroyed in the resulting blaze.[50]
  • December 28–29 (overnight) – Six German Navy airships – five Zeppelins and the Schütte-Lanz SL12 – attempt a raid on England but are recalled due to bad weather. SL12 is unable to return to base and lands nearby, where she is battered to pieces by wind.[50]
  • December 31 – 17,341 officers and men are deployed in the United Kingdom for home air defense. Among them are 12,000 officers and men manning antiaircraft guns and 2,200 officers and men assigned to the 12 Royal Flying Corps squadrons assigned to home air defense, operating 110 aeroplanes.[51]

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October
  • October 25 - Bristol F.2B Fighter

November

December

Entered service

January

February

April

July

August

November

December

Retirements

March

April

October

References
  1. Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6, p. 35.
  2. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 78.
  3. Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-295-8, pp. 198–199.
  4. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, p. 139.
  5. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, p. 138.
  6. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 108.
  7. Franks, Norman, Aircraft vs. Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998, ISBN 1-902304-04-7, p. 20.
  8. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, p. 131–133.
  9. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 130.
  10. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 101.
  11. Hollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, p. 38.
  12. Hollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, pp. 38–39.
  13. Whitehouse, Arch (1966). The Zeppelin Fighters. New York: Ace Books. No ISBN. pp.129–130.
  14. United States Coast Guard (2016). "Commander Elmer Fowler Stone, USCG". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved March 21, 2016.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  15. Sanger, Ray (2002). Nieuport Aircraft of World War One. Wiltshire, UK: Crowood Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-1861264473.
  16. Whitehouse, Arch (1966). The Zeppelin Fighters. New York: Ace Books. pp.134–137.
  17. Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6, pp. 14, 29, 253, 255.
  18. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, p. 137.
  19. Lebow, Eileen (2002). Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation. Potomac Books. pp. 90–91.
  20. Johnsen, Frederick A., "Mother Ships," Aviation History, January 2018, p. 48.
  21. Franks, Norman, Aircraft Versus Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998, ISBN 1-902304-04-7, p. 29.
  22. Hollway, Don (2016). "The Sentinel of Verdun". Aviation History. Retrieved May 18, 2016.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  23. Guttman, Jon (2005). Balloon-busting aces of World War 1. Osprey aircraft of the aces 66. Oxford, UK: Osprey. p. 12. ISBN 978-1841768779.
  24. Chant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, ISBN 0-7607-2012-6, p. 15.
  25. Baker, David (1994). Flight and Flying: A Chronology. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-8160-1854-3.
  26. Haddow, G.W.; Peter M. Grosz (1988). The German Giants - The German R-Planes 1914–1918 (3rd ed.). London: Putnam. ISBN 0-85177-812-7.
  27. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 113.
  28. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 63.
  29. Blumberg, Arnold, "The First Ground-Pounders," Aviation History, November 2014, p. 39.
  30. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, pp. 96, 101.
  31. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 50.
  32. Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-295-8, p. 195.
  33. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 163–164.
  34. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-56588-9, p. 460.
  35. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, pp. 140–146, 165.
  36. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, p. 146.
  37. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, p. 165.
  38. Kilduff, Peter, The Red Baron: Beyond the Legend, London: Cassell, 1994, ISBN 0-304-35207-1, p. 223.
  39. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 166–171.
  40. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 172–173.
  41. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 174–177.
  42. Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN 0-89009-771-2, p. 27.
  43. "Tony Jannus, an enduring legacy of aviation". Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  44. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, p. 178.
  45. Franks, Norman, Aircraft Versus Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998, ISBN 1-902304-04-7, p. 63.
  46. Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2, p. 39.
  47. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 178–181.
  48. Donald, David (1997). The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Prospero Books. p. 553. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
  49. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 218–221.
  50. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, p. 182.
  51. Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN number, pp. 183–184.
  52. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 68.
  53. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 185.
  54. Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912: Sixth Revised Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2, p. 481.
  55. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 42.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.