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

[KiwiZac]

Hot Scoops
Clearly these topics are ranked in order of increasing newsworthiness.
(from the Snowflake Herald, 21 December 1917):

As a reformed journalist this is amusing and feels very pointed! 

[PJ Fisher]

As a reformed journalist this is amusing and feels very pointed! 

hahahaha

[PJ Fisher]

Bound for the Front
Another grainy photo... anyone recognize this aircraft or the location?
(from the Evening Star, 23 December 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Imperial Air Routes
With war wound up, a race begins to link by air Europe's colonies not properly serviced by railways.  One of Britain's leading proponents was Air Chief Marshal Sir William Geoffrey Hanson Salmond, KCB, KCMG, DS.   Born way back in 1878, Salmond was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate no. 421 on 18 February 1913.  He served as a senior commander in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War and he held appointments in the Middle East, Great Britain and India.

"While holding the command of the Middle East, he had laid out an airway from Cairo to South Africa, clearing a chain of aerodromes in Central Africa. His idea was to send a demonstration flight or flights of RAF aircraft across Africa, thus providing the link of which Cecil Rhodes had dreamed in a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Salmond contemplated flights by both landplane and flying-boat. He was not destined to put his idea into execution, though his airway was used by Sir Pierre van Ryneveld and Sir Christopher Brand on their first flight to South Africa. In 1918, he flew the route from Cairo to Delhi in under two days. He was appointed a Grand Officer of the Egyptian Order of the Nile on 9 November 1918, a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 New Year Honours, and a Grand Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer on 5 April 1919. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George on 3 June 1919 and mentioned in despatches on account of his services in the Middle East on 28 June 1919." (via wikipedia)

Fun fact: Though Salmond was born 146 years ago, his daughter Anne Baker, who was born before the outbreak of WW1, is sill alive. A supercentenarian, she was fundraising for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children as recently as 2019 - 100 years following the publication of today's article.  She wrote a biography of her father in 2003.
(from the Farmer and Settler, 24 December 1919):

[PJ Fisher]

Season's Greetings

[PJ Fisher]

Ready to Raid
The oft-seen image shows a line-up of seventeen Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a's.
(from The Herald, 26 December 1918):



Here's a look back at a 1/144th-scale S.E.5a scratch-built by forum member ondra: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=8583.msg157996#msg157996

[PJ Fisher]

Back to Business
An Albatros crew of two graces the cover page with this staged shot depicting the dropping of a carbonit fliegerbombe.
(from Unsere Krieger Bilder aus Groszer Zeit Heft, 1915):



Here's a recent rendering of some carbonit variants I've been tinkering with.  Prints are in 1/32:

[Brad Cancian]

Loving the posts as always

Is it me or does it look like that bomb is about to be dropped through the lower wing...? 

Cheers

BC

[Borsos]

Brad, luckily there  is a huge rectangular cut-out in the lower wing of the Albatros B.

Here's a recent rendering of some carbonit variants I've been tinkering with.  Prints are in 1/32:

I would love to include that lovely chair in my order 

[PJ Fisher]

Brad - Even with that wing cut-out... little room for error!

Borsos - The bistro chair and refectory table are test prints from a group of 'aerodrome furniture' we're brainstorming.  The table is entirely my creation, derived from a period carpentry book.  The chair design I sourced online for free and simply scaled down to 1/32.  If you'd like one with your order you can have at no extra charge.  PM me if you like.

[PJ Fisher]

Neue Albatros
And other fun stats about the Luftstreitkr?fte from the dawn of the first winter of the first air war.  Perhaps the Albatros type mentioned was a W.2?
(from the Cambria Daily News, 28 December 1914):

[Borsos]

P.M. sent 

[PJ Fisher]

Famous Face?
Upon first glance I thought this photo depicted the well-known portrait of pilot Miodrag Tomić of the Serbian Army in his Bleriot XI-2 (who headlined here in June 2023: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg255783#msg255783).  Rather, it purports to portray a 'Lieut. Castien' - a name I couldn't chase down despite the magic of the internet. Can anyone here identify this aircrew?
(from the Sydney Mail, 29 December 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Pilota Finito
Luigo Olivari first headlined here last May after scoring his sixth aerial victory over a Lohner T.1 near Grado (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14363.msg265799#msg265799).  The Italian ace would achieve two more confirmed kills two weeks following.  His final confirmed win was over a Hansa-Brandenburg C.I - possibly the carcass pictured below.  But that is not the subject of today's news.  Alas, our 'hero and martyr' has been killed in a non-combat crash- his SPAD VII stalled during take-off on the morning of 13 October.  Today the Ghedi Air Base is named in his honor.
(from L'Italia, 30 December 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Marooned in the Maldives
The Hilfskreuzer SMS Wolf has been at sea for nearly a year now.  With aid from her Friedrichshafen FF.33e seaplane Wolfschen (which headlined here last March: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg263796#msg263796), the Q-ship is on track to sink fourteen ships totalling 38,391 gross register tonnage.  The 450 mines aboard this notorious commerce raider will sink another thirteen ships, grossing a further 75,888 GRT.  Sixteen of these victims are sailing under the British flag.

Naturally the havoc caused by this single ship is of great strategic concern to the British Admiralty.  So the seaplane-carrier HMS Raven II has been dispatched to the Indian Ocean to hunt down the Wolf.  Ironically both vessels are wartime conversions of German merchant freighters.  For this mission Raven II has brought a Sopwith Baby and two Short Admiralty Type 184s. And this brings us to today's news that highlights a series of adventures experienced by the two-man crew of one of the Shorts, which inspired Rudyard Kipling's story A Flight of Fact.

"On a late afternoon on 21st April 1917, two pilots, 29-year-old Captain Abbott Mead, and 22-year-old co-pilot Smith were on a search mission from Male to Ari Atoll.  The crew ran into a storm and were driven off course and lost all radio contacts with the naval ship. Eventually, they were forced to land near one of the remote islands as darkness approached. The seaplane was stuck at first due to low tide but managed to move around once the tide began to rise. They taxied around in search of a channel with no luck and eventually decided to taxi at high speed over the reef and into the calm waters inside the lagoon.

'There was nothing but the lightning to help us beach the machine beneath a bank of white coral sand crowned with coconut trees, which grew right down to the water's edge. We roped her to one of them. Then as the storm increased in violence, we spend a miserable night lying along the lower plane in an attempt to get some little shelter from the driving rain' - Captain Mead"

There was no food or water available on the island. The following morning with the rising sun the crew departed again in search of the mainland running very low on fuel. Eventually, they ran out of fuel and landed near the Filitheyo island. The wind and tides then pushed the seaplane to a reef nearby. Exhausted from trying to keep the seaplane off the reef and with night approaching, the two pilots decided to swim towards the island in hopes of receiving assistance...  They reached the island after a mile and a half long swim. Once ashore they managed to find three huts with coconuts inside and drifted off to sleep. Late in the night, they were awakened by sound of locals" (via aviatorsmaldives.com)

What happened to the Short seaplane?  How did the crew manage to meet the Sultan?  Did the Raven and the Wolf ever duel?
Read the full account here: https://www.aviatorsmaldives.com/post/the-story-of-how-a-british-seaplane-was-stranded-on-a-remote-island-in-faafu-atoll-in-1917.  And more here: https://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_flightfact1_p.htm
(from the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 30 December 1917):


(image via aviatorsmaldives.com)

Hare's a look back at forum member IanB's build of a Short 184 in 1/72 scale by Aeroclub:
 https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=5132.0