On this Day (WWI aviation news)

[PJ Fisher]

Fighting Big Guns with Wireless
(from Popular Science, September 1917):


Click here for the full article: https://books.google.com/books?id=gikDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA443&lpg=PA443&dq=%22hugh+battleplane%22&source=bl&ots=22Yv24_hEW&sig=ACfU3U0wANcY9KSnzIkn8ckYOuUknCkGUw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZ9sjhq7H6AhXtFFkFHSIVBcMQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22hugh%20battleplane%22&f=false

[Thumbs up]

I would love to see a photo of Hugh Battleplane!

[PJ Fisher]

I would love to see a photo of Hugh Battleplane!

Me too!  I did search for that on flyingmachines.ru but no luck.  Another aviation mystery waiting to be solved.

[PJ Fisher]

Canadian Killed Fighting Zeppelin
(respectively from the Ottawa Journal and the Ottawa Citizen, 26 September 1917):

(image c/o Canadian Virtual War Memorial)

[PJ Fisher]

Italian Ace Tours America in Caproni Bomber
(from the St. Petersburg Daily, 27 September 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Kurt Wintgens Killed
Credited as the first fighter to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a synchronized gun, the Blue-Max recipient recalled the event in a letter excerpted in Cross & Cockade (Summer 1985):

"I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.  After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do — he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose."

Wintgens is believed to have been shot down into no-man's land by French ace Alfred Heurteaux flying an early SPAD S.VII.
(respectively from the St. Joseph News-Press and the Glasgow Herald [somewhat blurred]; 28, 29 September 1916):

.

(image via wikipedia)

[PJ Fisher]

German Giant Tricked into Trap at 20,00ft.
The plane in question is described as a Rumpler, but I wonder if this was a Friedrichshafen G.III?
(from the Saskatoon Phoenix, 29 September 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Inside a Death Chamber
(from the Fulton County News, 30 September 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Lucky Charms
(from The Day, 1 October 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Building Warplanes 'Brings Out Good Qualities' in Kids
(respectively from the Oxnard Daily Courier and Popular Mechanics, October 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Werner Voss Vanquished
Attacked by eight aces. Hits every oppponent.  An overview of his final patrol from wikipedia:

"Flying a silver-blue Fokker Dr.1, he singly fought James McCudden, Keith Muspratt, Harold A. Hamersley, Arthur Rhys Davids, Robert L. Chidlaw-Roberts, Geoffrey Hilton Bowman, Reginald Hoidge, and Richard Maybery. After he fell in solo opposition to those eight British aces after a dazzling display of aerobatics and gunnery that put bullets in his every opponent, he was described by his preeminent foe, Victoria Cross winner James McCudden, as "the bravest German airman". The pilot who actually killed Voss, Arthur Rhys-Davids, wished he had brought him down alive."

(from the Bisbee Daily News, 3 October 1917):

..

p.s. Check out forum member crouthaj's 1/32nd scale build of the Fokker flown in Voss' final combat, alongside a signed Sanke card: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11271.msg209283#msg209283

[PJ Fisher]

'Speed Scouts' Exceed 175mph?
Maybe misconverted metrics, but a nice little spotlight on Nieuports.
(from Popular Mechanics, October 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Splendid Gotha Design
(from Popular Mechanics, October 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Ace Loewenhardt Confirmed Dead
Loewenhardt's loss was referenced in a recent article on German aces.  This article was published two months after he was reported missing.
(from the St. Petersburg Daily News, 6 October 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

World-Famous Aviator, Grahame-White, in 'Supreme Charge' of Aviation Strategy
Claude Grahame-White was a major influence in early British Aviation.  Trained to fly by Louis Bleriot himself, Grahame-White became the 6th aviator to be certified by the Royal Aero Club.  He won several early aero races and, during a 1910 trip to the US, landed his plane unannounced on the White House lawn.  Grahame-White established a flying school and airplane manufactory (now part of the RAF Museum) at Hendon outside London; the aerodrome was commandeered by the War Office in 1916.  In the first weeks of the conflict he flew the first night patrol mission against German raiders.  His private life, tinged with occasional scandal, was also regularly reported on.
(from the Telegraph Herald, 7 October 1914):