Aviation Firsts - 100 Years Ago

[IrishGunner]

4 Feb 1913: The German railroad car manufacturer Gothar Waggonfabrik began an aviation division, which would create one of the first heavy bombersused in war, the Gotha G.I, a twin-engine airplane that would drop bombs on the Great Britain during the First World War.

5 Feb 1913: First Lieutenant Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristeidis Moraitinis of the Greek Navy conducted the first aerial attack on a warship in history, dropping four bombs on Turkish ships in the Dardanelles, albeit without inflicting any casualties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_1913#February_5.2C_1913_.28Wednesday.29

[IrishGunner]

No one interested in the rapid advance of aviation in the year prior to the outbreak of WWI?

Feb 10, 1913: Charles Rumney Samson, who had been the first person to fly an airplane off of the deck of a ship (on May 9, 1912) became the first person to fire a machine gun from an airplane in flight.

[Claudius]

No one interested in the rapid advance of aviation in the year prior to the outbreak of WWI?

I can't speak for anyone else...but keep them coming!

[army historian]

IrishGunner the first person to fly off and land on a Warship was the American Eugene Ely with a Curtiss flyer in 1911. Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886^[1] – October 19, 1911) was an aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing. In October, Ely and Curtiss met Captain Washington Chambers, USN, who had been appointed by George von Lengerke Meyer, the Secretary of the Navy, to investigate military uses for aviation within the Navy. This led to two experiments. On November 14, 1910, Ely took off in a Curtiss pusher from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham.^[7] The aeroplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83-foot platform runway; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising.^[7] Ely's goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as planned.^[7] John Barry Ryan offered $500 to build the platform, and a $500 prize, for a ship to shore flight.^[13]

First fixed-wing aircraft landing on a warship: Ely landing his plane on board the USSPennsylvania in San Francisco Bay, 18 January 1911.

Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay. Ely flew from the Tanforan airfield in San Bruno, California and landed on the Pennsylvania, which was the first successful shipboard landing of an aircraft.^[14][15] This flight was also the first ever using a tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson.^[7] Ely told a reporter: "It was easy enough. I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten."

Here is an other article on Ely: http://www.militarymuseum.org/Ely3.html Captain Albert

[NPGilbert]

A Very interesting topic. Would enjoy reading and learning more. Have the same opinion as Claudius - Keep them coming.