On this Day (WWI aviation news)

[PJ Fisher]

Lost British Flyer Lands in Germany... Asks for Directions to Gotha Base... Proceeds on Raid
(from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 20 December 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Fainted Flyer Awakens Inverted (and Other Hair-Raising Tales)
(from the Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 11 December 1917):

   

[PJ Fisher]

Hotdogging American Crashes Albatros D.III into Ukranian Palace
Edmund Pike Graves went to his grave stunting in the sky over Lemberg (known today as Lwów/Lviv; the second-largest city in Western Ukraine) in celebration of the city's defense from the Russians. Mariam C. Cooper, Grave's fellow pilot in Poland's Kościuszko Squadron, and the future director of the original King Kong, was an eyewitness. He recalled:

"Graves was circling over the city, showing off his aviatic art, but was circling too low. Being over Potocki Palace, at an altitude of two hundred feet, he performed a so-called “double barrel”. This is one of the most difficult maneuvers acrobatic pilots do. Aircraft was too weak for such performances; right wing of the airplane broke up and fell to the ground. Graves never lost his presence of mind in danger. In the blink of an eye he could still grab a parachute and jump out of the falling machine. However, he was too low - the parachute failed to open and unfortunate Graves fell on his head and was killed instantly."

Potocki Palace nearly burned to the ground; eleven years passed before it was fully restored.  Today it houses Ukraine's National Art Gallery (presently closed due to the current Russian conflict).  While largely forgotten, Graves embodied the classic American aviator profile: scion of well-to-do New England Family, Ivy League graduate, fearless flyer with risk-taking bravado, rushed to join the Royal Flying Corp before the US entered the conflict.  His thirst for action led him, following demobilization after the Armistice, to immediately volunteer for the Polish-Soviet War.  And that is how Edmund P. Graves wound up in the cockpit of a German Albatros on that fateful day.
(respectively from the Washington Journal [12 December], the Norwich Bulletin [2 December], and the Atlanta Semi-Weekly Journal [9 December]; 1919):

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Check out forum member hadzi's 1/72nd-scale Pegasus build of an Oeffag D.III in service with Kościuszko's Squadron: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2875.msg47739#msg47739

[PJ Fisher]

Italian Ace Downs Austrian Observation Balloon...by Flying DIRECTLY THROUGH IT
Talk about going in deep... singed Drachen fabric was reportedly still clinging to Giovanni Ancillotto's Nieuport when he returned to 77a Squadriglia's airfield! Ancillotto, a pioneer night fighter, is also a member of the '27 Club', having died five years after the war in a car accident.
(respectively from the Saratoga Sun and the South Bend News-Times; 13, 9 December 1917):




Check our forum member Dirigible-Al's superlative scratch-built 1/72nd scale Drachen Balloon: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=3765.msg241679#msg241679

[PJ Fisher]

"Racing Yacht of the Air"
Which sounds glamourous, except this 'yacht' is engineered to kill you.  Brilliantly detailed drawing by the way.
(from Popular Science, December 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

German Giant to Carry Passengers
Comparable to the Handley Page V/1500 that was spotlighted here recently, two of these reisenflugzeuge were flying before the war's end, though they dropped no bombs. Despite this article's enthusiasm, this plan never took flight either.
(from Aerial Age Weekly, 15 December 1919):

   

[PJ Fisher]

L'As la Jambe de Bois
We recently read an unconfirmed report of a one-legged German flyer serving at the front (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg249995#msg249995). Today's news from France provides us the real deal. Paul Albert Pierre Tarascon, known as 'The Ace with the Wooden Leg' became an amputee after a plane crash way back in 1911.  Tarascon joined the French military in 1901 and was already in his mid-thirties when earned ace status. He ended the Great War with 12 confirmed and 10 probable victories. Tarascon later fought in the French Resistance and lived until 1977. 
(From Fair Play, 16 December 1916):

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More on this airman's life, including some color profiles of the Nieuports/Spads he flew over at as1914-1918.net: http://www.as14-18.net/Tarascon
Meanwhile, check out forum member 1/144_Nut's tiny 1/144 scale diorama of Tarascon's already tiny Nieuport 11:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=10118.msg183532#msg183532

[PJ Fisher]

When Pigs Fly
Today's news covers one of the most significant aerial missions of the Great War.
(Respectively from the from the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Tulsa Daily World, 16-17 December 2016):

 

[PJ Fisher]

Royal Flying Corpse
Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke's death (in October 1916) was reported here recently.  His name headlined again on this day in 1918, after a collection of his flying reports circulated in the press.  One story recounts Boelcke flying closely alongside a comatose British pilot... whose plane remained circling in the air with stubborn calm. More from Hauptmann Boelcke's Feldberichte:

"I was astonished at the opponent's tenacity. I must have long since really finished him off, but he flew on in the same way, around in a big circle. Finally it became apparent. I said to myself the fellow is long since dead and the machine is held on course by the rubber cords on the steering mechanism being in the right-hand position. Therefore I flew right up next to him and saw the occupant slumped over to the right, lying dead in the fuselage. In order to know later which of my shot-down aircraft this one was (as it indeed had to come down), I noted the [rudder serial] number -- 7495 -- pulled away from him and then took on the next one."

Thanks to Boelcke recalling that plane's serial number, we know that plane was a Martinsyde Elephant flown by Second Lieutenant Stephen Dendrino of 27 Squadron.  Interestingly, historians note that Dendrino actually wasn't yet dead at the stick but survived his encounter with Boelcke (and his subsequent unconscious crash landing) to briefly become a PoW; though ultimately dying of his wounds.  Thanks to the internet, we even have a photo of the wreckage of Dendrino's Elephant.
(respectively from the Washington Times, the Rogue River Courier, the Norwich Bulletin; 18-19 December 1918):

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"Eroberte Kampfflugzeuge durch Bölke" (image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakegoodman/8452763782)

Check out forum member Old Man's 1/72 Martinsyde Elephant 7494, which served far away in the Middle East but was only one serial number away from the Dendrino's plane on the assembly line:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11004.msg202745#msg202745

[PJ Fisher]

American Escapes From Behind Enemy Lines By Staging a 'Maverick: Top Gun' Move
Today's news gives us a proper Hollywood ending courtesy of U.S. Naval Aviator H.J. White, who, while making his fourth attempt to escape Germany, crept along an aerodrome, stole an unguarded enemy airplane, and flew home. A quick web search didn't yield much information on 'H.J. White', though the photograph below was found of a man with that name posing with Charles Lindbergh in 1928.  Other stories attached here include one of another airman being bayoneted while attempting to escape over the lines, and of a lost airman finding himself in the wrong corner of France.
(respectively from the Jamestown Weekly Alert and the Free Lance; 19, 21 December 1918):

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[PJ Fisher]

Sugar Addicts
Save your sugar to serve aviators!
(from the Era-Leader, 20 December 1917):

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[PJ Fisher]

American Earns Ace Status By Capturing a Rumpler Mid Air
Sharp shooting during a dawn patrol enabled Charles Biddle to force land an opposing observation plane behind allied lines. Biddle hailed from one of Philadelphia's founding families (settled in 1630), he was graduated from two of the Ivy League Universities (Princeton and Harvard Law) before the joining the Lafayette Flying Corps in 1917.  More on his flying feat from that morning of 16 August 1918, recounted by the man himself:

"I went after him once more and coming up under his tail, gave him a good burst at short range… this time I did better, for I got the observer in the stomach, shot the band of cartridges on his gun so it would not work, shot the synchronizing gear of the pilot’s gun so that it was put out of commission, and another bullet stopped the motor. [With no defense, a dying observer in the rear cockpit, a wounded pilot and far from his lines, the Rumpler was forced to land on the Allied side. The American pilot circled, then landed nearby to assist in the capture of the crew.] “I walked over to the German machine and they had just taken the observer out of the cockpit and laid him on the ground. He was a fine big strapping fellow, twenty one years old, and looked like a gentleman. It gave me a very odd feeling to stand there and look at that dead boy whom I had never seen before, stretched out with two or three of my bullets through his stomach, his fast-glazing eyes staring wide open.”

(From Boy's Life, December 1918):



More on Biddle, along with an build update on a full-scale flying replica of Biddle's SPAD, can be read this recent issue of Invader Magazine, the Official Publication of the 13th Bob Squadron Association (Vol. 40 No. 1, 2022): https://13thbombsquadron.net/INVADER_Vol_40_Issue_1_2022.pdf

Check out forum member Matti's 1/48th scale Special Hobby build of Biddle's SPAD VII his time in the Lafayette Escadrille:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12147.msg226462#msg226462

[PJ Fisher]

American Aces Propose New Air Force
Charles Biddle headlines the news again today (albeit one year later) alongside F.E. Kindley (the man who ended Lothar von Richtofen's flying career), J.A. Healy (the future technical advisor for the movie 'Wings', which won the first-ever academy award for Best Picture in 1927); and J.A. Meissner, who headlined here back in May. Their joint mission was to convince the U.S. congress to create an air force independent of the army... something that would not happen until after the Second World War in 1947.  A second snippet here notes the U.S. aces still actively serving one year after the armistice.
(From Aerial Age Weekly, 22 December 1919):

[PJ Fisher]

When Elephants Fly
I guess these things really do look like elephants. Something I can now never unsee.
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Check our forum member malaula's award-winning largely scratch-built diorama of a Caquot in action: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=5480.msg97929#msg97929

[PJ Fisher]

Brisfit's Record Height Induces Frostbite
Pilot Rudolph 'Shorty' Schroeder has an interesting backstory.  He learned to fly while working for exhibition fliers between 1910 and 1916, including Katherine Stinson, who was billed as the “Schoolgirl of the Air”.  He was an early enlistee of the U.S. Army Signal Corps aviation section October 1916. He was the chief test pilot at McCook Field, where he insisted on the development of a free-type parachute pack as invented by Floyd Smith and, in 1919, was the first U.S. air service aviator to wear one. He was credited with being the first to fly with a supercharged engine and the first to open a night-flying school. He spent much of his career in commercial aviation, working variously for Ford, Curtiss-Wright, and United. In 1945, Schroeder was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for experiments in high-altitude flying.
(from the Lodi Sentinel, 24 December 1919):

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