1916 in aviation
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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1916:
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[edit] Events
- Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft simulate night torpedo attacks for the first time against Japanese fleet units in Tateyama Bay during annual fleet maneuvers, although no torpedoes are dropped.[1]
- The British Admiralty invites bids for aircraft catapults for the first time, asking for electric, hydraulic, and compressed air catapults. It does not pursue electric or hydraulic types, but two compressd-air types are produced.[2]
- Officers of the Chilean Navy begin flight training in Chile. It is the beginning of a Chilean naval aviation arm - the first Latin American naval air arm - which is subordinated to the Chilean Army's Military Aviation Service of Chile.[3]
[edit] January
- January 12 - German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, 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.[4]
- January 29 - The second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.
[edit] February
- 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.[5]
[edit] March
- March 16 - United States Army aircraft fly their first mission over foreign soil when Curtiss JN-3s of the 1st Aero Squadron carry out reconnaissance over Mexico.
- March 18 - German ace Ernst Udet scores his first kill.
- March 21 - Captain-Commandant of the United States Coast Guard Ellsworth P. Bertholf orders Coast Guard experimentation with the use of aircraft and directs Third Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone to begin flight training. It is the birth of U.S. Coast Guard aviation.[6]
[edit] April
- The Imperial Japanese Navy establishes its first land-based air group (kōkūtai), the Yokosuka Naval Air Group.[7]
- April 1 – U.S. Coast Guard Third Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone begins flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida. He is the first US Coast Guard aviator.[6]
- April 15 – Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service aircraft deliver 13 tons of stores into Kut el Amara, Mesopotamia, while it is besieged by the Turks. This was the first time aircraft were used for such a purpose.
- April 20 – The Escadrille Américanne ("American Squadron"), later to be known as the Lafayette Escadrille ("Lafayette Squadron"), is established as an American volunteer unit in France, equipped with Nieuport 11s.
[edit] May
- May 2 - Eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin LZ 59 (L 20) is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.
- May 17 - Parasite fighter experiments to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship begin in the United Kingdom.
- May 31 - A Short Type 184 from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier Engadine achieves the only British aerial reconnaissance flight of the Battle of Jutland, reporting the sighting of three cruisers and ten destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet before a broken fuel pipe forces it to end the mission.[8]
[edit] June
- June 17 - The first French ace, Jean Navarre, is shot down and wounded, ending his combat career with 12 confirmed kills.
- June 18 - The first German ace, Max Immelmann, is shot down and killed by a FE.2b from the Royal Flying Corps's No. 25 Squadron, a symbolic end to the "Fokker Scourge". He had scored 15 kills.
- June 23 - Victor Chapman of the Lafayette Escadrille becomes the first U.S. airman to be killed in action, shot down near Verdun-sur-Meuse.
[edit] July
- The Royal Naval Air Service's No. 3 Wing becomes Britain's first strategic bombing unit, equipped with Sopwith 1½ Strutters.
- July 1 - The Battle of the Somme begins. In the five months of the battle, the British lose 782 aircraft and 576 pilots but maintain air superiority over the battlefield.
- July 12 - The United States Navy armored cruiser North Carolina becomes the first ship to launch an aircraft by catapult while underway, launching a Curtiss flying boat piloted by Lieutenant Godfrey Chevalier.[6][9]
- July 15 - William Boeing founds the Pacific Aero Products Company. In 1917 it will be renamed Boeing Airplane Company.[10]
[edit] August
- The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet raids Varna, Bulgaria, employing a seaplane carrier-battleship force.[11]
- August 2 – 16 German Zeppelins raid southeast England. Lieutenant William Leefe-Robinson, Royal Flying Corps, shoots down Zeppelin SL 11 in a BE.2c.
- 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.[12]
- 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.[13]
- August 27 – Oswald Boelcke creates the first German special fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 2 (or Jasta 2).
[edit] September
- The Wright Company and the Glenn L. Martin Company merge to form the Wright-Martin Corporation.[14]
- September 15 - Two Austro-Hungarian Lohner flying boats, led by Fregatten-Leutnant Zelezny, sink the British submarine B-10 and the French submarine Foucault. B-10 is the first submarine sunk by aircraft, and Foucault is the first submarine sunk at sea by aircraft.
- September 17 - Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen scores his first kill, flying an Albatros D.II.
- September 23-24 - Eleven Zeppelins attack England. Two are shot down, LZ 76 by ground fire and LZ 74 by Lieutenant Frederick Sowrey.
[edit] October
- October 12 – Canadian Royal Naval Air Service ace Raymond Collishaw claims his first victory.
- October 28 – German ace 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.
[edit] November
- November 19 – Ruth Law sets a new distance record for cross-country flight by flying 590 miles (950 km) non-stop from Chicago to New York State. She flies on to New York City the next day.
- November 23 – British ace Lanoe Hawker VC is shot down and killed by Manfred von Richthofen. It is von Richthofen's 11th victory.
- November 28 – Three Royal Naval Air Service BE.2cs , one of them flown by Flight Lieutenant Egbert Cadbury, shoot down the German Zeppelin L 21 off Lowestoft, England.[15]
- November 28 – Central London is bombed by an German LVG C.II flown by R. Brandt.
[edit] First flights
[edit] February
- February 9 - Sopwith Pup flown by Harry Hawker
[edit] April
[edit] May
- Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8[16]
- May 28 - Sopwith Triplane flown by Harry Hawker
[edit] June
- June 16 - Port Victoria P.V.2
- June 17 - Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8
- June 29 - the B & W Seaplane, William Boeing's first aircraft.
[edit] July
- July 25 - Anatra DS
[edit] August
[edit] September
- September 9 - Bristol F.2A
- September 12 - the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane
[edit] October
- October 25 - Bristol F.2B Fighter
[edit] November
- November 22 - Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5
[edit] Entered service
- Albatros C.V[17]
- Late 1916 – Albatros C.III[17]
[edit] February
[edit] April
[edit] August
[edit] November
[edit] December
- December 24 - Sopwith Pup with No. 54 Squadron RFC
[edit] References
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-295-8, pp. 198–199.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 108.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation: The Early Years, 1915–1938.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Chant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, ISBN 0-7607-2012-6, p. 15.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 63.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-295-8, p. 195.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2, p. 39.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 68.
- ^ a b Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 42.
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