On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 3

[PJ Fisher]

'Terror of the Taubes'
I swear these old articles really do resurface in pairs.  Following yesterday's news about the man who made Mexico's inaugural airmail service, today's article is about the man who piloted Australia's first airmail run.  As we know from a recent headline here (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14363.msg266013#msg266013), the French pioneer pilot Maurice Guillaux was making aviation news in Australia just before the outbreak of the Great War.  After piloting the first seaplane flight in that country, Guillaux made 'the longest air mail flight anywhere in the world' when he flew from Melbourne to Sydney in July 1914. Fast forward one year and and we learn that he is now back in France and in the cockpit of a Morane-Saulnier monoplane, which is featured in today's photo story.  Ironically, Guillaux would die piloting a Morane-Saulnier prototype in May 1917.
(from the Daily Telegraph, 8 July 1915):



(image via slsa.sa.gov.au)

[PJ Fisher]

Forbidden First
Another unusual headline today reports the aerial bombardment of the Chinese Forbidden City (紫禁城) in Peking (now Beijing).  While Europe remains entangled in total war, and Russia mired in revolution, China is currently in the middle of its short-lived Manchu Restoration.  This royalist coup was an attempt to restore the Qing Dynasty by loyalist General Chang Hsun (Zhang Xun; 張勳), whose army seized the capital and briefly reinstalled the last emperor, Puyi. 

One dramatic development was the aerial bombardment of the Imperial Palace at 10:30 in the morning of Saturday the 7th.  "...a Caudron Type D aircraft, piloted by Pan Shizhong (潘世忠) with bombardier Du Yuyuan (杜裕源) was dispatched from Nanyuan Airbase to drop three bombs over the Forbidden City, causing the death of a eunuch, but otherwise causing minor damage; other sources state that the Caudron aircraft was piloted by the principal of the Nanyuan Aviation School, Qin Guoyong (秦國鏞). This was the first recorded instance of aerial bombardment deployed by the early-republican era Chinese Air Force". (via wikipedia).   

"One {bomb} exploded outside the Gate of Heavenly Purity, injured a palace guard and a sedan bearer and killed a dog. The second one exploded in the Imperial Garden and injured a eunuch. The third one landed in a water drum in front of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and thus did not explode. It is said that the Emperor was frightened into disease, and the elderly Palace concubines were so frightened by the incident that yesterday they were unable to eat any food” (via beijing-postcards.com).  The Caudron, which was equipped with a six-cylinder Anzani radial was one of three delivered to China in 1912. As noted, the failed coup led to Chang Hsun's resignation.  He retreated to civilian life and died in 1923.
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 9 July 1917):




(image via beijing-postcards.com)

[PJ Fisher]

Death on the Nile
(from the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 1919):

[PJ Fisher]

"Sails Through Fire"
During the cover of night, piloting British-designed Sopwith 1A2s, Frenchmen from the Aéronautique Militaire's Escadrille Sop 111 make a seven-hour foray into Germany's industrial heartland.  Nocturnal fog would disperse the group, but one flyer will make it to his target - Essen. "Brilliant pilot who, during these last months, carried out a great many bombing raids in an attack sector. On the night of July 6 and 7, 1917, alone on board and despite unfavorable atmospheric circumstances, carried out a bombing raid of more than 750 kilometers, hitting enemy industry in the heart. Holding the air for more than seven consecutive hours, demonstrated, during this magnificent feat, extraordinary courage and endurance." (translated from the French citation of 14 July 1917)
(from The Sun, 10 July 1917):



(image via reims1418.wordpress.com)

Check out forum member coyotemagic's build of a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter in French service:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=7575.msg139192#msg139192

[PJ Fisher]

"Auf und Ab"
Here's a fun photo of an apparently bustling aerodrome from the Eastern Front.  Author Ole Nikolajsen, writing in Ottoman Aviation 1911 - 1919, p. 203, cites the image as 'A Rumpler C.I and Pfalz E.I (Lt Henckel) flying over Beersheba Airfield, April 1916', which actually was over a year earlier than today's publication.   More information on the Central Powers' aerial presence in the Middle East can be found here: https://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1111256
(from The Aeroplane, 12 July 1917):



Here's a Rumpler C type built by forum member MS406: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4735.0

[PJ Fisher]

Ancient Aeronaut
Ever wonder who was the earliest-born person to pilot an airplane?  I bet this fellow could be a contender.  Nicknamed the 'Dean of Aeronauts', Captain John Berry of the United States was born c.1848 and ranked among the most experienced balloonists at the turn of the last century.  In front of a crowd of 40,000 people Berry won the very first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - in a hot-air balloon.  He learned how to fly at age 67.  Berry clearly survived today's bruising in East St. Louis and lived until 1931.
(from the Washington Times, 13 July 1917):



(image via indymotorspeedway.com)

Fun fact: John Berry's son, Captain Albert Berry is credited made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane in the US on 1 March 1912.

[PJ Fisher]

Pirate Pursuit
(from the World's News, 14 July 1917)

[PJ Fisher]

B.E. Entangled
Bad luck or poor piloting ended this particular flight for this pole-pitched plane.  Though today's photo story was published after the war it must date to a couple years earlier.  The location is reputed to be RNAS Cranwell, as evidenced by an original photograph of this incident that was part of an album that resurfaced and was auctioned a hundred years later: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3513666/World-War-One-photographs-not-magnificent-flying-machines-trainee-RAF-pilots-came-cropper.html
(from the Sydney Mail, 16 July 1919)

[PJ Fisher]

Buk Bridge Bombed
Here's an interesting quote from a post over at greatwarforum.org about this incident as told by an ancestor of the pilot who bombed it in 1916:  "The Buk Bridge, mentioned in the Report, was one of several bridges on the Salonika to Constantinople railway line, part of which was a vital logistic route for the Bulgarian Army, which the RNAS spent much of the war bombing and the Bulgarians and Turks rebuilding.  My Great Uncle who flew with "A" Squadron from Thasos and Stavros had a crack at the various bridges on several occasions, quite successfully too. The accompanying photo shows Buk Railway Bridge being bombed but it is NOT on the 22nd Sept 1918 but earlier in 1916. Buk is now in Greece and called PARANESTI.  A bridge still carries the railway line today but much rebuilt!"
(from the Sydney Sun, 17 July 1919):



I believe the RNAS employed two types of 100lb. bombs in 1916.  One being a Hale's Patent variant, the other being a Royal Laboratory high-explosive. Here are two digital renderings  I've made in 1/32nd scale depicting each:

[PJ Fisher]

Mademoiselles Mécanique
Looks like these two ladies are posing by the tail end of a Maurice Farman MF.11 Shorthorn.
(from the Illustrated War News, 18 July 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

'Large America'
Here's a factory photo of the Curtiss Model H-12; cousin to Britain's Felixstowe series of long-range flying boats. Nearly five hundred were built.
(from the Columbus Commercial, 19 July 1917):



The H-12 also headlined here back in February 2023: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg252696#msg252696

[PJ Fisher]

Cumulus Combat
While no specifics are shared about this overcast encounter between German and French airmen it still offers insight to the thrill of the chase and one's frustrations when the enemy gets away to fight another day.
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 20 July 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Coming and Going
Here are two views of what looks to be an Franco-British Aviation Type H flying boat in it's natural element.  Nearly 2,000 of these craft were produced for eleven countries.
(from the Australasian, 21 July 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Cayat's Calamity
Lucienne Cayat de Castella ranked among the world's first female parachutists.  Alongside her husband and fellow pioneer aviator, Georges Cayat, she made news in May 1914 with a public demonstration at Nevers in central France.  Alas, just six days before the outbreak of war, during a demonstration at Stockel race track in Brussels her parachute failed and she fell to her demise.  It certainly took daring to have been perched in such a precarious position; "...testing one of the examples made by her husband Georges Cayat, attached by three leather straps under the tail of her robe, the parachute being fixed under a wing and connected by another harness to her armpits, with her hands surrounded by rags so as not to be injured by the cables that she was clinging to. Her husband, inventor of an opening system assisted by compressed air, detached her at an altitude of 800 meters, while her face was barely 50 centimeters from the propeller". (via fr.wikipedia.org)
(from the Daily Capital Journal, 22 July 1914):




Fun fact: The town of Nevers still maintains a parachuting school today: https://paraparisnevers.fr/

[PJ Fisher]

Death Roll
Here's the who, how, when and where of aviation's first three-hundred fatalities.  Click twice to expand image size.
(from the New York Times, 23 July 1913)