1914 in aviation

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Template:Short description Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1914.

The outbreak of World War I accelerates all aspects of aviation which in turn changes war in a twofold way. The aeroplane turns the sky into a new battlefield and eliminates the distinction between frontline and hinterland, with the civilian population far behind the frontline also becoming a target. The war results in the deaths of approximately 20,000 flyers, most of them trained pilots.

Events

January

February

March

  • 1 March – Pioneer of Argentine aviation Jorge Newbery (b. 1875) is killed in a crash at Estancia "Los Tamarindos" while performing aerobatics prior to an attempt to cross the Andes by air.

April

May

June

July

August

A German dirigible hovering over a British fleet.
  • French military aviators "attempted to destroy buildings near Wesel; others have been seen in the district of the Eifel; one has thrown bombs on the railway near Carlsruhe and Nuremberg."<ref>Germany's Declaration of War with France, 3 August 1914 https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germandeclarationofwar_france.htm</ref>
  • Imperial German Navy Rear Admiral Paul Behncke, Chief of the Naval Staff, urges that the navyTemplate:'s Zeppelins begin attacks on London, arguing that Zeppelin attacks "may be expected, whether they involve London or the neighborhood of London, to cause panic in the population which may possibly render it doubtful that the war may be continued."<ref>Murray, Williamson, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 3-4.</ref>
  • As World War I breaks out, neutral Italy has 28 combat-ready aircraft and 18 military aircraft in reserve.<ref>Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 52.</ref> Italy will join the war on the side of the Allies in May 1915.
  • 1 August – The Russian Empire enters World War I with Russia's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary.
  • 3 August
    • France and Belgium enter World War I when Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France.
    • The Imperial German Navy leases the cargo-passenger ship Answald for conversion into GermanyTemplate:'s first seaplane carrier, SMS Answald, designated Flugzeugmutterschiff I (Airplane Mothership I).<ref name=Layman2223>Layman 1989, p. 22-23.</ref>
  • 4 August – The United Kingdom enters World War I, declaring war on Germany. At the time, the Royal Naval Air Service has 52 seaplanes, of which only 26 are serviceable, with 46 more on order.<ref>Whitehouse Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 50.</ref>
  • 5 August – The Netherlands decrees that all Dutch military aircraft display an orange disc on each side of the fuselage and on the upper and lower surfaces of the wings.Template:Citation needed
  • 6 August – The first airship lost in combat is the Imperial German Army Zeppelin Z VI. Badly damaged by artillery and infantry gunfire on her first combat mission while bombing Liège, Belgium, at low altitude, she limps back into Germany and is wrecked in a crash-landing in a forest near Bonn.<ref>[http://www.hydrogencommerce.com/zepplins/zepplins.htm#The%20Zeppelins Template:Webarchive Lehman, Ernst A., Captain, and Howard Mingos, The Zeppelins: The Development of the Airship, with the Story of the Zeppelins Air Raids in the World War, Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1927, Chapter I (online). Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 48, states that Z VI, which he identifies as L 6, had attacked the French "garrison town" of "Lutetia outside Paris" when she suffered her fatal damage.</ref>
  • 8 August – A French aerial observer is injured by small-arms fire, becoming that nation's first air casualty in a war.
  • 9–10 August – Conducting a reconnaissance mission, the French dirigible Fleurus becomes the first Allied aircraft to fly over Germany during World War I.<ref>Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events 1903-2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, p. 12.</ref>
  • 12 August – Lieutenant Robin R. Skene and mechanic R. Barlow crash their Blériot monoplane on the way to Dover, becoming the first members of the Royal Flying Corps to die on active duty.
  • 13 August – Twelve Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 observation aircraft from No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, flying from Dover, become the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.
  • 14 August – The first true bomber, the French Voisin III, is used in combat for the first time in an attack on German airship hangars at Metz-Frascaty, Germany.<ref name=Crosby262>Crosby 2006, p. 262.</ref>
  • 17 August – The Imperial Japanese Navy's first aviation ship, Wakamiya, is recommissioned as a seaplane carrier.<ref name=Peattie>Peattie 2001, p. 5.</ref><ref>Gardiner, Robert, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985, Template:ISBN, p. 240.</ref><ref name=Layman87>Layman 1989, p. 87.</ref>
  • 21 August – Two Imperial Germany Army Zeppelins on their first combat missions become the second and third airships lost in combat after being damaged by French infantry and artillery fire during low-altitude missions in the Vosges mountains. Z VII limps back into Germany to crash near St. Quirin in Lothringen, while Z VIII crash-lands in Badonvillers Forest near Badonvillers, France, where French cavalry drives off her crew and loots her.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive Lehman, Ernst A., Captain, and Howard Mingos, The Zeppelins: The Development of the Airship, with the Story of the Zeppelins Air Raids in the World War, Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1927, Chapter I (online).</ref><ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 48.</ref> The loss of three airships on their first combat missions in August sours the German Army on the further combat use of airships.
  • 22 August
    • An Avro 504 of the Royal Flying CorpsTemplate:'s No. 5 Squadron on patrol over Belgium is shot down by German rifle fire, the first British aircraft ever to be destroyed in action.<ref>Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 76.</ref>
    • An early attempt to get a Lewis gun into action in air-to-air combat fails when a Royal Flying Corps Farman armed with one scrambles to intercept a German Albatros and takes 30 minutes to climb to Template:Convert because of the gun's weight. On landing, the pilot is ordered to remove the Lewis gun and carry a rifle on future missions.<ref name=Crosby17>Crosby 2006, p. 17.</ref>
  • 23 August – Japan enters World War I, declaring war on Germany.
  • 25 August – Flying a Morane-Saulnier Type G monoplane, Imperial Russian Army pilot Pyotr N. Nesterov becomes the first pilot to down an enemy aircraft in aerial combat. After firing unsuccessfully with a pistol at an Austro-Hungarian Albatros B.II crewed by Franz Malina (pilot) and Baron Friederich von Rosenthal (observer), Nesterov rams the Albatros.<ref>Guttman, p. 9.</ref><ref>Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, Template:ISBN, p. 27.</ref> Both aircraft crash, killing all three men.
  • 27 August – The Royal Naval Air ServiceTemplate:'s famed Eastchurch Squadron arrives in France for World War I service, commanded by Wing Commander Charles Samson.<ref>Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, Template:ISBN, p. 31.</ref>
  • 30 August – Paris is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time – by an Etrich Taube flown by Lt Ferdinand von Hiddessen.

September

  • Early September – In a memorandum, First Sea Lord Winston Churchill establishes the policy for the air defense of the United Kingdom. He calls for the use of antiaircraft artillery and searchlights around likely targets; the deployment of aircraft forward in Europe to attack all Zeppelin and other enemy air bases within reach; the interception of enemy aircraft between Dover and London by British aircraft, coordinated by telephone and telegraph; the basing of aircraft at Hendon specifically for the defense of London, with their crews specifically trained and equipped for night-fighting and their operations also coordinated by telephone; a blackout in major cities; and warning the public of the dangers of air attack, precautions against it, and how to take shelter when under air attack.<ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 67-68.</ref>
  • 1 September – The Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier Wakamiya arrives off Kiaochow Bay, China, to participate in operations during the siege of Qingdao. It is the first combat deployment of an aviation ship by any country.<ref name=Peattie7>Peattie 2001, p. 7.</ref><ref name=Layman85>Layman 1989, p. 85.</ref>
  • 5 September – During the siege of Qingdao, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out its first air combat mission. A three-seat Farman seaplane from the Wakamiya bombs German fortifications at Qingdao, China, and conducts a reconnaissance of Kiaochow Bay.<ref name=Peattie8>Peattie 2001, p. 8.</ref>
  • 16 September – The Canadian Aviation Corps is formed.
  • 22 September – In the first British air raid against Germany in history, Royal Naval Air Service BE.2 aircraft of No. 3 Squadron based at Antwerp, Belgium, attack German airship hangars at Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany, but fail to inflict damage due to bad weather and the failure of bombs to explode.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 215"/><ref name=Crosby264>Crosby 2006, p. 264.</ref>
  • 23 September – In France the British No. 2 Anti Aircraft Section Royal Garrison Artillery, in III Corps, commanded by Lieutenant O.F.J. Hogg became the first anti-aircraft unit to shoot down an aircraft, by firing 75 rounds from a QF 1 pdr Mark II ("pom-pom").<ref>Routledge 1994, p. 5</ref>
  • 27 September – The first French bomber group is formed.
  • 28 September – The first report by British observers of German military aircraft using the initial form of the wartime Eisernes Kreuz national markings.
  • 30 September –
    • The Wakamiya is damaged by a naval mine and forced to retire from the siege of Qingdao, ending the first combat deployment of an aviation ship in history.<ref name=Peattie7/><ref name=Layman85/>
    • The two America prototypes prepared for the Daily Mail sponsored transatlantic contest in August are shipped to the United Kingdom aboard Template:RMS for the Royal Naval Air Service, spawning a fleet of aircraft which saw extensive military service during World War I,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> developed extensively in the process for anti-submarine patrol craft and air-sea rescue.

October

November

  • The first Imperial German Navy shipboard air operations take place, when the armored cruiser Template:SMS embarks two seaplanes with which to scout Russian ports in the Baltic Sea. One is still aboard when Friedrich Carl strikes a mine and sinks on 17 November.<ref name=Layman22>Layman 1989, p. 22.</ref>
  • 1 November – The Ottoman Empire enters World War I when Russia declares war on it.
  • 6 November – Aviator Gunther Plüschow is ordered to evacuate the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory in China using his sole aircraft, a Taube, which however crashes, leaving him to make his own way back to Germany.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 18 November – The Secretary of State for the German Navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, advocating massed Zeppelin attacks on London, writes, "The English are now in terror of the Zeppelin, perhaps not without reason...[S]ingle bombs from flying machines are wrong; they are odious when they hit and kill old women, and one gets used to them. If [however] one could set fire to London in thirty places, then what in a small way is odious would retire before something fine and powerful."<ref>Murray, Williamson, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, p. 4.</ref><ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York:Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 49.</ref>
  • 21 November – Three Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s based at Belfort, France, conduct historyTemplate:'s first long-range strategic bombing raid, attacking German airship sheds on the shore of Lake Constance at Friederichshafen. Carrying four Template:Convert bombs each, they cause a gas works to explode and badly damage a dirigible, losing one aircraft shot down.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 215"/><ref name="Thetford, Owen 1991, p. 32">Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, Template:ISBN, p. 32.</ref>
  • 27 November – The first air–sea battle in history occurs when Imperial Japanese Navy Farman seaplanes make an unsuccessful attempt to bomb German and Austro-Hungarian ships in Jiaozhou Bay during the siege of Qingdao.<ref name=Layman85/>

December

  • Upon the conclusion of the siege of Qingdao, Wakamiya returns Japanese naval seaplanes deployed at Qingdao to Japan. The Japanese naval air arm sees no further combat during World War I.<ref name=Layman8687>Layman 1989, p. 86-7.</ref>
  • 10 December – HMS Ark Royal is completed. She is the first ship with an internal hangar enclosed by her hull, and the first with specially designed internal spaces to accommodate aviation fuel, lubricants, ordnance, and spares and machinery required for aircraft maintenance.<ref name=Layman45/>
  • 14 December – A Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504 of the Eastchurch Squadron drops four Template:Convert bombs on the Ostend-Bruges railway in Belgium.<ref name="Thetford, Owen 1991, p. 32"/>
  • 16 December – SMS Glyndwr is the first Imperial German Navy aviation ship to be commissioned. She serves initially as a seaplane pilot training ship.<ref name=Layman24>Layman 1989, p. 24.</ref>
  • 21 December
  • 25 December – HMS Empress, HMS Engadine, and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Nordholz Airbase. It is the first attempt in history to exert sea power on land by means of the air.<ref name="Sturtivant, Ray 1990, p. 215"/> Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.

First flights

January

February

  • 23 February − Bristol Scout<ref>Bruce Flight 26 September 1958, p. 526.</ref>

June

July

Entered service

Retirements

May

  • Avro Type D<ref>Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 75.</ref>

Notes

Template:Reflist

References

  • Bruce, J. M. "The Bristol Scout: Historic Military Aircraft No. 18: Part I". Flight, 28 September 1958, Vol. 74, No. 2592. pp. 525–528.
  • Chant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, Template:ISBN
  • Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Hermes House, 2006, Template:ISBN
  • Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, Template:ISBN
  • Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, Template:ISBN
  • Brigadier N.W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 1914–55. London: Brassey's, 1994. Template:ISBN

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