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

[PJ Fisher]

"Recovered"? Is that another term for "Scrounged"...?

Dutch

ha!

[PJ Fisher]

Party Like it's 1918!
Grab a copilot and have fun tonight, everyone!
(from the Birmingham Age-Herald, 16 December 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Glückliches Neujahr

[Dutch522]

OK, the horseshoe I get, but maple seed pods (as a kid we called them "maple helicopters")? And a mushroom...?

And I'm pretty sure that's what my cats were up to last night, just BTW.

Dutch

[PJ Fisher]

OK, the horseshoe I get, but maple seed pods (as a kid we called them "maple helicopters")? And a mushroom...?

And I'm pretty sure that's what my cats were up to last night, just BTW.

Dutch

...clearly it was the mushroom that enabled them to concoct this hallucination! As for the maple helicopter... they were simply copying the French

[KiwiZac]

OK, the horseshoe I get, but maple seed pods (as a kid we called them "maple helicopters")? And a mushroom...?

...clearly it was the mushroom that enabled them to concoct this hallucination! As for the maple helicopter... they were simply copying the French

Okay, I'm going to need to see more info on this!!

[Dutch522]

Ah, yes, the dreaded Gyroptère! I was just doing some research on this after seeing it in a back issue of WWI Aero I recently aquired. Not sure what you've got, PJ, but this Wikipedia article gives at least a brief overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocopter

Astonishingly, in best Monty Python style, it "fell over and sank into the swamp" before it was able to take to the skies...

Dutch

[PJ Fisher]

Astonishingly, in best Monty Python style, it "fell over and sank into the swamp" before it was able to take to the skies...

hahahaahah

[PJ Fisher]

Start of Something New
On New Year's Day, 1914, Antony Habersack Jannus became the world's first commercial airline pilot when the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line was inaugurated.  Their fleet comprised two Benoist air boats and roundtrip fare was the equivalent of about $300 today. "The airline continued to make flights until May 5, 1914, five weeks after contract termination. From start to finish, the airline covered over 7,000 miles, 172 flights, and 1,205 passengers" (via wikipedia)
(from the Tampa Bay Times {commemorative issue}):





Here's a good read on the subject:  https://www.tampapix.com/jannus.htm.  Tony Jannus headlined in November 2022, with news of his final fatal in Russia during the war: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg249584#msg249584

[PJ Fisher]

Alighting in the Holy Land
It's unintentional but these articles really do seem to provide weekly themes by presenting themselves in pairs.  Partnered with our post on a German plane landing in Palestine four days back, today news notes the very first plane ever to visit Jerusalem.  French pilot Marc Bonnier and mechanic Joseph Barnier arrived in a Nieuport IV monoplane.  Their December 31 touchdown was a waypoint in a challenge organized by the Parisian newspaper Le Matin and the Air National League to fly from Paris to Cairo.  These photos of the moment show some of the 'bewildered populace'!
(from the Sydney Morning Herald, 2 January 1914):






Here's a fun build of another Nieuport from a different pre-war aerial competition by forum member Lone Modeller: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13818.0

[PJ Fisher]

Crippled Caudron
There's a lot going on in this picture.  Even the dog is curious as to how this Caudron survived!
(from Aircraft in War and Peace; Robson, William A.; Macmillan, London, 1916):



There are a number of brilliant Caudron builds here on the forum.  Here's one by xan:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=8102.msg150977#msg150977

[PJ Fisher]

Double TKO
No identities given in today's report of a double knockout in the sky.  Just a good reminder as to how dangerous flying in what must have felt like infinite space could be.  I've paired this unrelated but evocative period painting the story just for fun.
(respectively from the Daytona Daily News, 5 January 1916, and the Pictorial History of the Great War 1919):


(image: artist unknown)

[KiwiZac]

Ah, yes, the dreaded Gyroptère! I was just doing some research on this after seeing it in a back issue of WWI Aero I recently aquired. Not sure what you've got, PJ, but this Wikipedia article gives at least a brief overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocopter

Astonishingly, in best Monty Python style, it "fell over and sank into the swamp" before it was able to take to the skies...

Dutch

I wonder if Stephen aka "lone modeller" is at all interested in tackling this one in 1/72...

[PJ Fisher]

Boelcke Bags a B.E.
Twenty-four-year-old Oswald Boelcke scores his first victory of the year.  Victims are the crew of a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c (serial #1734)over Harnes.  Boelcke will continue his well-documented rush of over thirty victories that ended with his death nine months later.
(from the The West Virginian, 6 January 1916):


(image via flickr.com)

Here's a model of B.E.2c #1741; just a few serial numbers away from today's subject plane, which I built circa 2002.  That old 1/72 VeeDay kit was a bear.  I recall the build, my second WW1 plane as an adult, being a fun challenge though I was trying several new techniques simultaneously and the outcome not as convincing as some of my other works from that time.  I think all of the details: weathering, woodgrain, ribtape, strut tape, shading... were all just drawn on with pencils.  Still happy with some of the elements, such as the cockpit interior, in retrospect.

[Dutch522]

P.J., that's a stunner, your workmanship reminds me of Brad's... it's got the same beautifully clean appearance.

But RE: the pride & joy of the Royal Aircraft Factory, I just read The Pilot's Psalm last night in Arthur Lee's No Parachute, one of my favorite Great War flying memoirs:

The B.E.2c is my bus; therefore I shall want.
He maketh me to come down in green pastures.
He leadeth me where I wish not to go.
He maketh me to be sick; he leadeth me astray on all cross-country flights.
Yea, though I fly o'er No-Man-'s Land where mine enemies would compass me about, I fear much evil, for thou art with me; thy joystick and thy prop discomfort me.
Thou preparest a crash for me in the presence of mine enemies; thy R.A.F. annointeth my head with oil, thy tank leaketh badly.
Surely to goodness thou shall not follow me all the days of my life, else I shall dwell in the House of Colney Hatch forever.

It sounds a lot better if you recite it after several gin & Frenches, of course

Dutch