On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2

[PJ Fisher]

Falling Leaves
In another aviation first, Paris burned (a little bit) from an aerial raid this week.  Bombs and propaganda leaflets were dropped upon the city from a sole German Taube monoplane... though apparently not quite according to plan.  Though the material impact was negligible the event made for great headlines: 'Gay Capital is in Terror', 'New War Menace'. 'Europe a Cauldron of Fighting Demons', 'Possibilities of Greater Menace',  Here's a summary on the events of today's news from psywarrior.com (full story here: https://www.psywarrior.com/GermanWWIPSYOP.html):

"...in late August 1914 the German First Army was about to cross the River Marne on its way to Paris. The Army has as one of its assets the 11th Military Group of Aeroplanes stationed at nearby St. Quentin. Flight officer Lieutenant Hiddessen was apparently an ardent nationalist with a strong belief in Germany's eventual victory. He was ordered to bomb Paris on 30 August.  As the flight crew prepared his Taube reconnaissance aircraft, they placed a rubber bag full of sand (to add weight) and printed leaflets in the cockpit. Hiddessen dropped the first bomb to be dropped on Paris at exactly 12:45 p.m. He dropped four bombs, and then threw the leaflet bag from his cockpit. It had a six-foot long forked banner in the German national colors trailing behind. Pedestrians found the bag on the ground and immediately took it to the local Prefecture of Police where it was labeled: 'Corrupt information thrown on to the streets by strangers in an aeroplane...'.

When opened, the pouch was found to contain a number of printed three-line leaflets. The text was: 'The German Army is at the gates of Paris; it only remains for you to surrender. (Signed) Lieutenant von Hiddessen.' ...Hiddessen misunderstood his mission.  He should have taken them from the pouch and thrown them overboard at convenient intervals so that the German note was spread far and wide over Paris, and then finally drop the bag overboard as a final gesture of German supremacy and arrogance.

After a few days, by 6 September, these visits of enemy aeroplanes became, for a week or two, quite a matter of course, and although on several occasions not only did they do damage to buildings, but even killed some unfortunate children and old men. The people of Paris were determined not to be frightened. As a matter of fact, Parisians gradually acquired the habit of regarding the visits of German aircraft as a form of entertainment, and particularly amusing was the literature, which the tactless, foolish Germans thought, would be good policy to drop upon Paris from their machines. It is inconceivable to imagine that any sane people could have expected to seduce the patriotism of the Parisian by dropping upon him, accompanied perhaps by a bomb, a printed appeal... "


(from the Public Ledger, the Albuquerque Morning Journal, the Grand Forks Daily Herald, and the Harrisburg Telegraph; 31 August 1914):


(images respectively from psywarrior.com, geographicalimaginations.com, and fly.historicwings.com/)

And here's further reading on Lt. von Hiddessen: http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/08/you-can-do-nothing-but-surrender/.  Check out this build of a Copperstate Taube kit by forum member andyw: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4317.msg74473#msg74473

[PJ Fisher]

Barlow's Bomb
I'm guessing a simple game of pub darts inspired the shape of this 'ideal aerial bomb' invented by American Lester Pence Barlow.  A 1916 NY Times report declared that researchers had "found a bomb of high explosive power which was said to excel in destructiveness any similar weapon known here or in Europe". 

(respectively from Popular Science, September 1917; and the New Britain Herald, 12 September 1917):



(images respectively via ivanpwheaton.blogspot.com and the Handbook of Aircraft Armament, Bureau of Aircraft Production, Air Service, U.S. Army, 1918)

More details via globalsecurity.org:
"Barlow offered its exclusive use to the United States Government. Experts estimated that the bomb has a fatal destructive radius of at least 100 yards. With the use of minimum explosive charges, at elevations of 200 to 2,000 feet, the tests were said to be most satisfactory. The Barlow bomb was six feet in length, and five inches in diameter, and shaped like a torpedo. In addition to a charge of TNT, it contained a new and secret combination of gas. Subsequently, the term "Barlow Bomb" was applied to a mixture of liquid oxygen with a fuel. 

The Barlow bomb was destined never to cut any figure in our fighting in France. The production was slow, because of the necessity of constant experimentation to simplify a firing mechanism which was regarded as too complicated by the experts of the War Department. Finally, in June 1918, [some time from the 8th to the 15th of June 1918] when 9,000 of these bombs and 250 sets of release mechanisms had been produced, a cablegram came from the American Expeditionary Forces canceling the entire contract. The reason assigned for abandoning the bomb was that certain British bombs, the 25-lb Cooper bomb, was regarded as better, because of cheaper construction and the hazard of the missle (sic) functioning was regarded as less by the officers on the other side."

[PJ Fisher]

Air Armada
Though this illustration is rather fantastical, the strategic aerial formation it envisions more or less did evolve between the end of the Great War and WWII... not including the long columns of highly flammable dirigibles.
(from the Illustrated War News, 2 September 1914):

[PJ Fisher]

Funeral for RFC's First Recon Flyer
It has been a little over a week since Gilbert William Mapplebeck DSO spun out of control to his death while piloting a French Morane-Saulnier Type N monoplane for No 2 Reserve Air Squadron over Joyce Green Airfield on the Thames east of London.  Excerpts from the official record of the incident in the House of Commons:

The accident appears to have been due to the machine "spinning" on a heavily-banked turn, the pilot not having sufficient speed and height to regain control before hitting the earth. It is the fact that the French have largely, but not entirely, discarded this type of machine, as also have we. Both they and we continued to use a few as single seaters.  Conclusion.—The accident was due to an unfortunate error of judgment on the pilot's part. There is no evidence as to the alleged faulty attachment of the belt. Nor in the opinion of the Committee did such faulty attachment, assuming it existed in anyway, contribute to the accident. It may be mentioned in passing that many pilots prefer not to use a safety belt. Tins type of machine was not one fit to be used by an inexpert flier, and had Captain Mapplebeck not been a pilot of experience the Committee would have considered it negligence to allow him to fly it." (via aviation-safety.net)

The previous August Mapplebeck was in the air over France flying the Royal Flying Corps' first wartime reconnaissance mission for No. 4 Squadron.  During the year bookended by these events, the 22-year-old pilot was reportedly involved in Britain's first night-time airplane raid, was shot down over the lines, and survived on the lamb disguised as a French peasant until escaping to freedom and ultimately rejoining the fight.  All good stories for another day.
(respectively from the Abergavenny Chronicle and the Evening Star, 3/15 September 1915):


(portrait via greatwarlondon.wordpress.com; aerial view of Joyce Green via military-history.fandom.com)

Here's a great build of a Morane-Saulnier Type N in RFC service (still on strength a year after this event) by forum member lcarroll: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12313.msg230328#msg230328

[PJ Fisher]

Flying 'War Car'
Here's a photo spotlight on the world's first four-engine airplane - Igor Sikorsky's 'Russky Vityaz' (previously named the 'Bolshoi Baltisky' in its two-engine form.  Sikorsky was Chief Engineer of the aircraft division for the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works (Russko-Baltiisky Vagonny Zavod or R-BVZ) in Saint Petersburg.  Though described as 'new', this giant plane, which sort of did resemble a railroad car, first flew over a year before this article's publication.  In fact, it had already long been destroyed... and in the most unusual of ways: "While parked on the runway on 23 June 1913, the aircraft was crushed by an engine that fell off a single-seat Morane-Saulnier aircraft during a landing. Sikorsky decided not to repair the seriously damaged Russky Vityaz and began working on his next brainchild — the Ilya Muromets" (quote via wikipedia).   
(from the Day Book, 4 September 1914):



Here's a stunning 3D rendering of this plane by a modeller named Yasutoshi Mori (more images here: https://rafalec.artstation.com/projects/w8Bxd9):


Sikorsky was last reported here fleeing Russia during the revolution: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg245490;topicseen#msg245490

[PJ Fisher]

Homage to an Enemy
This trio of 'flowers for the fallen' articles varies only in their attention-getting headlines.  Stories such as this certainly occurred during the war's early years, though I suspect they occurred less frequently (if at all) as the war progressed and the bloodiness only increased.
(respectively from the Brownsville Herald, the Ogden Standard, and the Rock Island Argus; 5 September 1916):


(image: artist's conception from the Illustrated London News)

[Dutch522]

Great stuff, PJ, as always... RE: No. 167—the "Aerial Fleet"—I was interested to see that the illustration was by Norman Wilkinson (later OBE/CBE), one of my favorite 20th century marine painters, and the official originator of dazzle camouflage in the Great War. A few other people claimed to have come up with it, but the British courts legally declared Wilkinson to have developed it, working out of a workshop in the basement of the Royal Academy. He also painted a mural in the first-class smoking lounge of Titanic, and a different one in that of her sister-ship Olympic.

Dutch

[PJ Fisher]

Great stuff, PJ, as always... RE: No. 167—the "Aerial Fleet"—I was interested to see that the illustration was by Norman Wilkinson (later OBE/CBE), one of my favorite 20th century marine painters, and the official originator of dazzle camouflage in the Great War. A few other people claimed to have come up with it, but the British courts legally declared Wilkinson to have developed it, working out of a workshop in the basement of the Royal Academy. He also painted a mural in the first-class smoking lounge of Titanic, and a different one in that of her sister-ship Olympic.

Dutch

Hey Dutch, thanks for sharing all this backstory!  I wasn't familiar with this artist... now I'll have to read up and hunt for any old articles on 'dazzle' camo!  I wonder if this painting still exists and if it is in color.

[Dutch522]

He did a lot of marine historical paintings, some from life—among others he witnessed and sketched the D-Day landings from a Royal Navy ship not far offshore. A wonderful site is ArtUK, which has some neat Great War paintings if you poke around a bit. They have 158 pieces by Wilkinson here:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:wilkinson-norman-18781971/page/9

... if you scroll down about halfway through them they have Olympic's mural, it's called "Approach to the New World (Olympic)", also some paintings he did of the Dardanelles and a few other WWI subjects (including one of a "Balloon Ship", apparently a ship that could deploy a kite balloon, which is a new one on me).

Dutch

[PJ Fisher]

So many good ones!  This particular WWII composition is killer:


Glad to see the painting of HMS Hector...  it'll come in handy for a pending news article on that balloon the RNAS brought to the Dardanelles.  From what I've read it provided more effective service than the gaggle of airplanes they initially had on the Ark Royal, which were a everlong struggle to keep airworthy.

[Dutch522]

That is a nice one! If you're a painter there's a lot to learn from studying his work. He also did one of Ben-my-Chree in the Dardanelles, but unfortunately it doesn't show any of the seaplanes...

dv

[PJ Fisher]

Fast Fiat
Turin-based Società Italiana Aviazione SpA was a subsidiary of the Fiat group that specialized in the construction of military aircraft during the second half of the Great War.  In 1918 it evolved into Fiat Aviazione.  The Fiat 'BR' made its first flight by the end of that year, being powered by Fiat's massive A.14 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled 700 hp engine; though it did not see service before the armistice.  The BR was one of a handful of machines claiming the unofficial world airspeed record during the war era, including the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4, the Curtiss Wasp, and the Nieuport-Delage NiD 29V, among others.
(from the Daily Ardmoreite, 6 September 1919):



Interestingly, during this period Fiat also held the unofficial land-speed record with their S76 "Beast of Turin".  This machine, which literally breathed fire, managed 132.37 mph... faster than most airplanes of the era.  Take a virtual ride in this recently-restored beast here: https://youtu.be/bsdWgmp4TaQ?si=4KzC9PHw4epD9r20.

[PJ Fisher]

Barker's Elbow
(from the Evening Star, 7 September 1919):



(images respectively via wikipedia and flickr)

The second image above depicts Barker alongside fellow Canadian super-ace Billy Bishop, who was just in the news last week: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg258457;topicseen#msg258457.  Barker headlined here last November in an article recounting his epic final battle: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg249546;topicseen#msg249546.  Here's a link to forum member Mike Norris' build of Barker's Sopwith Camel: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=645.msg225611#msg225611

[PJ Fisher]

Greek Aviation
I'm always looking for stories from or about different nations to round out what's interesting to read, particularly when aero rarities are involved.  Today's news offers a spotlight on the Kingdom of Greece's military with the last paragraph mentioning their progress in aviation.  Having made tenuous territorial gains in the recent Balkan War, Greece remained neutral during the first half of the Great War even during allied operations in the Dardanelles.  However, politics within the kingdom were deeply fractured and "...by September 1916 the country was effectively a battleground in the war.  The Bulgarians occupied eastern Macedonia, while relations with the Allies were marked by deep hostility and mistrust." 

As noted below, Greece's Royal Hellenic Navy was furnished with a few planes by the Sopwith Aviation Company- namely their Admiralty Type 806 (variously known as the 'Pusher Seaplane', the 'Gunbus', the 'S PG N', and the Greek Pusher), which emulated Geoffrey De Havilland's F.E.2 design for the Royal Aircraft Factory.
(from the Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 8 September 1916):


(images via kingstonaviation.org)

Here's a scratch-built land version of this plane, along with a much fuller backstory, from the forum's lone modeller: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2837.msg47042#msg47042

[PJ Fisher]

One-Man Air Force
He may not be universally remembered in the century since his pioneering achievements, but Benjmamin Delahauf Foulois was an achiever of many aviation firsts.

Foulois became the US military's first dirigible pilot. After the death of his fellow US Signal Corps Aeronautical Division aviator Thomas Selfrige (the first person ever to die in an airplane accident) in September 1908, Foulois claimed to have become "the entire United States Air Force".  In July 1909 he completed the first military acceptance test of an airplane (a Wright 'Model A' Flyer), which is believed to be the first ever filmed in flight (viewable here: https://youtu.be/e14Yk0bimYg?si=p9P_xAS2zjPeJQl3).  On his first blip as navigator to Orville Wright, Foulois set three world records: 10-mile cross-country distance, top speed of 42.5mph, and highest altitude: 400ft.  After crashing on his fourth flight that day, Foulois was inspired to have the first safety harness installed on an airplane.  Reportedly he also inspired the installation of the first wheels on an airplane (rather than catapult skids), and the first wireless.  Foulois was the US Military's third solo pilot and first pilot instructor.  A monument erected at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas records the ‘Birth of Military Flight’, when Foulois piloted the US Army’s first aircraft in active military service.

This pioneer aviator was also involved in the US military's first use of airplanes in action...which headlined here last April: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg253946#msg253946.  Fast forward to this day in 1917 and we have a report that Foulois has been assigned senior command of the US Army's aviation force.
(from the Bisbee Daily Review, 9 September 1917):

[
(portrait by Robert E. Cuningnham, US Air Force Art Collection; images via picryl.com)

Evidently Foulois’ stong-headedness put him at odds with his fellow pioneers, pariculalry Billy Mitchell.  His future decades in service with the militart were not without conflict and scandal.   In 1963, Foulois appeared on the television quiz show I've Got a Secret, where he gave a fascinating account of his early carreer.  Watch it here: https://youtu.be/r17UvTxYNqo?si=JgFpwJGqDZL5zGwh.  Have a look back at forum member Chris Johson's build of the 1/32nd-scale WNW Salmson 2.A2 in US Army Air Service: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4638.msg81301#msg81301