On this Day (WWI aviation news)

[PJ Fisher]

In Memoriam

Nine million combat personnel died during the Great War.  Five million civilians died from military operations, occupation, hunger, and disease.  Those events directly shaped this world we now share, and the model aircraft we build are miniature mementos of our collective human experience from part of that conflict.  Today the United States honors its fallen veterans by celebrating Memorial Day.  This simple two-sentence article offers a fitting parallel, as it tells of soldiers using an airplane's remnants to mark the final resting place of a lost comrade - a memorial happening in real time.  His name is unknown, but he is remembered.

(from the Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 29 May 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

French Penguins Learn to Fly
(from Popular Science, June 1918):


 

p.s. Here's a shout-out to forum member 'lone modeller', who shared his 1/72 build of a Bleriot 'penguin' back in 2014: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=3216.msg53954#msg53954

[PJ Fisher]

When Penguins Become Hawks
(from Popular Science, June 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Fighting in the French Fashion
(from the Twin City Star, 1918)

[PJ Fisher]

Count Baracca 'Drops' Thirty-Two Planes

From 3 June 1918 regarding Italy's Ace of Aces and the man who inspired Ferrari's famous logo.  In the mere sixteen days he has left to live he will down two more enemy planes.  A memorial still stands on the site where his body, reportedly with his pistol unholstered and a bullet in his brain, was found a few yards from his wrecked plane. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Baracca
(from the Portsmouth Daily Times):



p.s. Here's a shout-out to forum member 'Andolio64' and his 1/32 scale build of Baracca's Nieuport Ni17 from 2015: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4255.msg93488#msg93488

[PJ Fisher]

Blackout in the City that Never Sleeps
(from the Seattle Star, 4 June 1918)

[PJ Fisher]

Spotlight: Roy Brown, "Von Richtofen's Vanquisher"...

...or so he was credited officially by the Royal Air Force, despite his own combat report calling the confrontation 'indecisive'.  Y'all know the rest. At the time of this publication, Brown had been recently released from hospital having recovering from influenza and nervous exhaustion. He will be assigned aerial instruction duties at Maerske Aerodrome until mid July when an airplane crash will return him to the hospital for another five months.
(from the Calgary Daily Herald, June 1918):



p.s. It turns out that, in 2016, Roy Brown's cremated remains were reinterred in the Toronto Necropolis; just seven blocks from my apartment.  I recently strolled over and found his new headstone near the main entrance.


p.p.s. Check out forum member squiffy's 2014 build of Roy Brown's Camel B7270: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=645.msg83990#msg83990

[PJ Fisher]

Spotlight: George McCubbin, "Vanquisher of Immelmann"...

Here's a short photo-story on the 18-year-old boy who felled one of the great pioneers of aerial combat, taken while McCubbin was on furlough in South Africa nearly a year after the incident which earned him a DSO (though his name would be censored initially).  More on Immelmann's demise to appear in the near future.  Has anyone here built a model of McCubbin's plane?

(from the Sydney Mail, 6 June 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Talk of Italian Trimotor
Interesting short read on what must be the Caproni Ca.2/Ca.3.  The storyline credits the original article as having been penned over a week prior, but this version was published on this day, 7 June 1915, by the Evening Star.



p.s. Bringing this old tale to life is the 1/72 scale diorama shared by forum member 'maulaula' in 2015, which shows not one but two Ca.3's at roost:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=5177.msg91458#msg91458

[Rookie]

Let's not forget Ron Kootje's beautiful scratch build!

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=533.0

Willem

[PJ Fisher]

Let's not forget Ron Kootje's beautiful scratch build!

Willem

Masterpiece

[PJ Fisher]

ATTACK OF THE EINDEKKERS
News of Germany's supremacy in tactics and technology over the front spread around the world while the 'Fokker Scourge' was happening.  Interesting to read here the mention of 'inherent stability'.  It was a goal of early aeroplane design theory, and a particular triumph of de Havilland's BE.2 series of planes that entered service way back in 1912.  Its very success in being a stable platform for reconnaissance became the BE's downfall by mid 1915... and the British kept them flying long after that.

(from the Oxnard Daily Courier, 8 June 1916):



p.s. For a trip down memory lane, here's a link to the 2012 thread featuring everyone's eindekker builds: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=646.0

[PJ Fisher]

Extraordinary Ordnance
Anyone know which plane might have dropped this bomb?  Gotha?
(from the Spokesman-Review, 9 June 1918):



p.s. For anyone interested, here's a recent report on how they are still discovering finding unexploded bombs in France over100 years later: https://youtu.be/YNIBE64CAgs

[PJ Fisher]

Fallen German Fliers
Here's a interesting inventory of top German aces and their kill counts.  I wonder how these match up with the officially credited victories today?
(from the Spokesman-Review, 10 June 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Risk Lives.  No Rules.
(from the Washington Herald, 11 June 1916):