This is a list ofaviation-related events from 1914.
The outbreak ofWorld 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.
The Naval Wing of theRoyal Flying Corps is given the responsibility for the operation of all British militaryairships. TheRoyal Navy retained control of all British airships until December 1919.[5]
TheSikorskyIlya Muromets sets a load-to-altitude record, lifting 16 people to 2,000 metres (6,600 feet).
1 February – TheAero Club of America announces plans to sponsor an around-the-world airplane race.[7]
3 February – German aviatorBruno Langer sets a new flight endurance record, flying nonstop for 14 hours 7 minutes.[8]
7 February –Karl Ingold sets a new world flight endurance record, flying nonstop for 16 hours 20 minutes in anAviatikbiplane. The flight, fromMulhouse toMunich,Germany, covers a distance of 1,700 km (1,100 mi).
8–10 February – Berliner, Haase and Nikolai fly 3,053 km (1,896statute miles) in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record stands until 1950.[9]
11 February – Flying anLFG Roland Pfeilflieger biplane, German aviator Bruno Langer attempts to break the flight endurance record Karl Ingold set on 7 February, but falls 20 minutes short, landing atKreuz after 16 continuous hours in the air.[8]
1 March – Pioneer of Argentine aviationJorge Newbery (b. 1875) is killed in a crash atEstancia "Los Tamarindos" while performing aerobatics prior to an attempt to cross the Andes by air.
6 June – The third annualAerial Derby – postponed from 23 May due to poor weather – is held, sponsored by theDaily Mail. Eleven participants fly over a 94-mile (151-kilometer) circuit beginning and ending atHendon Aerodrome inLondon with control points atKempton Park,Esher,Purley, andPurfleet.Walter Brock is the overall winner for the second consecutive year, completing the course in 1 hour 18 minutes 54 seconds in aMorane-Saulnier G with a handicap of 20 minutes 24 seconds. The outbreak ofWorld War I during the summer will prevent the event from being held again until1919.
20 June – While theAustro-HungarianairshipMilitärluftschiff III (orM.III) hovers overFischamend testing new camera equipment, anAustro-Hungarian Army pilot tries to loopM.III in aFarmanbiplane. The airplane strikes the top of the airship, tearing a hole and igniting the escapinghydrogen gas. Both aircraft are destroyed, and both men in the airplane and all seven men aboardM.III are killed. It is the end of the Austro-Hungarian airship program.[15]
23 June – The first flight of the flying boatAmerica, which businessmanRodman Wanamaker has ordered with a goal of sponsoring the firsttransatlantic flight, occurs atHammondsport, New York.[16] The outbreak ofWorld War I five weeks later will prevent the transatlantic attempt from taking place.
24 June – AtJohannistal,Germany, German aviatorGustav Basser sets a new flight endurance record, flying nonstop for 18 hours 10 minutes.[17]
30 June – ASikorskyIlya Muromets airplane takes off fromSaint Petersburg forKiev for its first long-range test flight, a world record with a distance of some 1,200 km (750 mi) and just one fuel stop.[18]
The Naval Wing of the BritishRoyal Flying Corps is separated from the RFC and established as a separate service, theRoyal Naval Air Service, under the control of the Royal Navy.[5]
10–11 July – German Reinhold Böhm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 minutes without refueling and nonstop. This one-man-flight record lasts until 1927.[20][21]
11 July – London–Paris return air race won by the American Walter L. Brock.[22]
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."[27]
Imperial German NavyRear AdmiralPaul Behncke, Chief of the Naval Staff, urges that the navy'sZeppelins begin attacks onLondon, 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."[28]
AsWorld War I breaks out,neutralItaly has 28 combat-ready aircraft and 18 military aircraft in reserve.[29] Italy will join the war on the side of theAllies inMay 1915.
1 August – Russia enters World War I with Russian declaration of war on Austria.
3 August
France and Belgium enter World War I when Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France.
4 August – The United Kingdom enters World War I, declaring war on Germany. At the time, theRoyal Naval Air Service has 52seaplanes, of which only 26 are serviceable, with 46 more on order.[31]
5 August – TheNetherlands decrees that all Dutch military aircraft display an orange disc on each side of thefuselage and on the upper and lower surfaces of thewings.[citation needed]
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 dirigibleFleurus becomes the firstAllied aircraft to fly over Germany during World War I.[33]
12 August – Lieutenant Robin R. Skene and mechanic R. Barlow crash theirBlériot monoplane on the way to Dover, becoming the first members of theRoyal Flying Corps to die on active duty.
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 theVosges mountains.Z VII limps back into Germany to crash nearSt. Quirin inLothringen, whileZ VIII crash-lands inBadonvillers Forest nearBadonvillers, France, where Frenchcavalry drives off her crew and loots her.[38][39] The loss of three airships on their first combat missions in August sours the German Army on the further combat use of airships.
An early attempt to get aLewis gun into action in air-to-air combat fails when a Royal Flying CorpsFarman armed with one scrambles to intercept a GermanAlbatros and takes 30 minutes to climb to 1,000 feet (300 meters) because of the gun's weight. On landing, the pilot is ordered to remove the Lewis gun and carry a rifle on future missions.[41]
23 August – Japan enters World War I, declaring war on Germany.
25 August – Flying aMorane-Saulnier Type Gmonoplane,Imperial Russian Army pilotPyotr N. Nesterov becomes the first pilot to down an enemy aircraft in aerial combat. After firing unsuccessfully with a pistol at anAustro-HungarianAlbatros B.II crewed by Franz Malina (pilot) and Baron Friederich von Rosenthal (observer), Nesterov rams the Albatros.[42][43] Both aircraft crash, killing all three men.
Early September – In a memorandum,First Sea LordWinston Churchill establishes the policy for the air defense of theUnited Kingdom. He calls for the use ofantiaircraft artillery andsearchlights around likely targets; the deployment of aircraft forward inEurope to attack allZeppelin and other enemy air bases within reach; the interception of enemy aircraft betweenDover andLondon by British aircraft, coordinated bytelephone andtelegraph; the basing of aircraft atHendon specifically for the defense of London, with their crews specifically trained and equipped fornight-fighting and their operations also coordinated by telephone; ablackout 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.[45]
5 September – During the siege of Qingdao, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out its first air combat mission. A three-seatFarmanseaplane from theWakamiya bombs German fortifications atQingdao,China, and conducts a reconnaissance ofKiaochow Bay.[48]
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").[50]
27 September – The first French bomber group is formed.
28 September – The first report by British observers of German military aircraft usingthe initial form of the wartimeEisernes Kreuz national markings.
30 September –
TheWakamiya is damaged by anaval mine and forced to retire from the siege of Qingdao, ending the first combat deployment of an aviation ship in history.[46][47]
The twoAmerica prototypes prepared for theDaily Mail sponsored transatlantic contest in August are shipped to the United Kingdom aboardRMS Mauretania for theRoyal Naval Air Service, spawning a fleet of aircraft which saw extensive military service during World War I,[51] developed extensively in the process for anti-submarine patrol craft and air-sea rescue.
13 October – The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts air-to-air combat for the first time, as a naval airplane joins threeImperial Japanese Army airplanes in an attempt to attack a German reconnaissance plane during the siege of Qingdao. The German aircraft escapes.[52]
The first Imperial German Navy shipboard air operations take place, when thearmored cruiserFriedrich Karl embarks twoseaplanes with which to scoutRussian ports in theBaltic Sea. One is still aboard whenFriedrich Karl strikes amine and sinks on 17 November.[53]
1 November – TheOttoman Empire enters World War I when Russia declares war on it.
18 November – The Secretary of State for the German Navy,AdmiralAlfred von Tirpitz, advocating massedZeppelin 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."[55][56]
21 November – Three Royal Naval Air ServiceAvro 504s based atBelfort, France, conduct history's first long-rangestrategic bombing raid, attacking Germanairship sheds on the shore ofLake Constance atFriederichshafen. Carrying four 20-pound (9.1 kg) bombs each, they cause agas works to explode and badly damage adirigible, losing one aircraft shot down.[24][57]
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 inJiaozhou Bay during the siege of Qingdao.[47]
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.[58]
10 December –HMSArk Royal is completed. She is the first ship with an internalhangar 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.[11]
25 December –HMSEmpress,HMSEngadine, andHMSRiviera launch aseaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds atNordholz Airbase. It is the first attempt in history to exert sea power on land by means of the air.[24] Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.
^abcdefSturtivant, Ray,British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990,ISBN0-87021-026-2, p. 215.
^Murray, Williamson,Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 3-4.
^Gooch, John,Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007,ISBN978-0-521-85602-7, p. 52.
^Whitehouse Arch,The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 50.
^[https://web.archive.org/web/20120213172227/http://www.hydrogencommerce.com/zepplins/zepplins.htm Archived 2012-02-13 at theWayback Machine 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 thatZ VI, which he identifies asL 6, had attacked the French "garrison town" of "Lutetia outside Paris" when she suffered her fatal damage.
^[1]Archived 2012-02-13 at theWayback Machine 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.
^Donald, David, ed.,The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 76.
Chant, Chris,The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000,ISBN0-7607-2012-6
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,ISBN9781846810008
Peattie, Mark R.,Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909–1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001,ISBN1-55750-432-6
Layman, R.D.,Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849–1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,ISBN0-87021-210-9
Brigadier N.W. Routledge,History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 1914–55. London: Brassey's, 1994.ISBN1-85753-099-3
