1914 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1914.

The outbreak of World War I accelerates all aspects of aviation which in turn changes war in a twofold way. The aeroplane turns the sky into a new battle field and eliminates the distinction between frontline and hinterland, with the civilian population far behind the frontline also becoming a target. The war results in the deaths of approximately 20,000 flyers, most of them trained pilots.

Events

January

1 January - The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line starts services between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, becoming the first airline to provide regular services with heavier-than-air aircraft, with Anthony Jannus conveying passengers in a Benoist XIV flying boat. A.C. Pheil is the first airline passenger.

February

The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets sets a load-to-altitude record, lifting 16 people to 2,000 metres (6,562 ft).
8-10 February - Berliner, Haase and Nikolai fly 3,053 km (1,896 statute miles) in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record stands until 1950.

March

April

20 April - Three US Navy aircraft depart Pensacola on board the USS Mississippi in support of troops at Vera Cruz, Mexico. They will fly reconnaissance missions until 12 May.
20 April - Howard Pixton wins the Schneider Trophy at Monaco. Pixton averages 139.66 km/h (86.78 mph) over the course in a Sopwith Schneider

May

The Royal Navy purchases the incomplete merchant ship Ark Royal for a complete redesign as the United Kingdom's first aviation ship designed as such. She will become the seaplane carrier Ark Royal.
8 May - A civilian pilot, René Caudron, makes the first French shipboard takeoff in an airplane from a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, using a Caudron G.3 amphibian floatplane.

June

9 June - Using a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, French Navy Lieutenant de Vaisseau Jean de Laborde attempts France's second airplane takeoff from a ship and the first by a French naval aviator, but crashes.

July

Royal Naval Air Service Squadron Commander Arthur M. Longmore successfully releases a torpedo from a Short floatplane. It may be the first successful air-launch of a torpedo, although Captain Alessandro Guidoni's of Italy drops of a dummy torpedo from the experimental Pateras Pescara monoplane in "mid-1914" may have been x«arlier.
1 July - The United States Navy establishes its first air department, the Bureau of Aeronautics.
10-11 July - German Reinhold Bx¶hm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 minutes without refueling and nonstop. This one-man-flight record lasts until 1927.
22 July - The Austro-Hungarian Navy battleships Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, Radetzky, and SMS Zrx­nyi each transport one flying boat from Pola to the Gulf of Cattaro. The following day they carry out a reconnaissance of the border with Montenegro. These are the first operational flights by naval aircraft.
28 July - World War I begins.
30 July - Norwegian Tryggve Gran flying a Blériot monoplane makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane.

August

3 August - The Imperial German Navy leases the cargo-passenger ship Answald for conversion into Germany's first seaplane carrier, SMS Answald, designated Flugzeugmutterschiff I (Airplane Mothership I).
8 August - A French aerial observer is injured by small-arms fire, becoming that nation's first casualty of air war.
12 August - Lieutenant Robin R. Skene and mechanic R. Barlow crash their Blériot monoplane on the way to Dover, they become the first members of the Royal Flying Corps to die on active duty.
13 August - A Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 becomes the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.
14 August - The first true bomber, the French Voisin III, is used in combat for the first time in an attack on German airship hangars at Metz-Frascaty, Germany.
17 August - The Imperial Japanese Navy's first aviation ship, Wakamiya, is recommissioned as a seaplane carrier.
22 August - An Avro 504 on patrol over Belgium is shot down by German rifle fire, the first Royal Flying Corps aircraft destroyed in action.
22 August - An early attempt to get a Lewis gun into action in air-to-air combat fails when a Royal Flying Corps Farman armed with one scrambles to intercept a German Albatros and takes 30 minutes to climb to 1,000 feet (305 meters) because of the gun's weight. On landing, the pilot is ordered to remove the Lewis gun and carry a rifle on future missions.
25 August - The first German aircraft of the war is forced down.
30 August - Paris is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time - an Etrich Taube flown by Lt Ferdinand von Hiddessen.

September

1 September - The Wakamiya arrives off Kiaochow Bay, China, to participate in operations during the Siege of Tsingtao. It is the first combat deployment of an aviation ship by any country.
5 September - During the Siege of Tsingtao, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out its first air combat mission. A three-seat Farman seaplane from the Wakamiya bombs German fortifications at Tsingtao, China, and conducts a reconnaissance of Kiaochow Bay.
16 September - The Canadian Aviation Corps is formed.
22 September - British BE.2 aircraft attack German airship hangars at Cologne and Dx¼sseldorf, Germany, but fail to inflict damage due to bad weather and the failure of bombs to explode.
27 September - The first French bomber group is formed.
30 September - The Wakamiya is damaged by a naval mine and forced to retire from the Siege of Tsingtao, ending the first combat deployment of an aviation ship in history.

October

The Imperial Japanese Navy auxiliary cruiser Chikezen Maru carries two floatplanes during an unsuccessful search for the Imperial German Navy armed merchant raider Wolf in the Indian Ocean.
5 October - Sgt Joseph Frantz and Cpl Louis Quenault of Escadrille VB24 score the first air-to-air kill of the war (and the first aircraft in history to shoot down another aircraft), shooting down a German Aviatik B.II with machine gun fire from their Voisin III over Jonchery, Reims.
8 October - Wing Cdr Charles Samson, RNAS plans the first strategic air raid on Germany. Two Sopwith Tabloids set out to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Dx¼sseldorf. One of the aircraft attacks the Cologne railway station, but the other, piloted by Flt Lt "Reggie" Marix finds his target and destroys a shed holding the Zeppelin Z.IX (LZ25).
13 October - The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts air-to-air combat for the first time, as a naval airplane joins three Imperial Japanese Army airplanes in an attempt to attack a German reconnaissance plane during the Siege of Tsingtao. The German aircraft escapes.

November

The first Imperial German Navy shipboard air operations take place, when the armored cruiser Friedrich Karl embarks two seaplanes with which to scout Russian ports in the Baltic Sea. One is still aboard when Friedrich Karl strikes a mine and sinks on November 17.
27 November - The first air-sea battle in history occurs when Imperial Japanese Navy Farman seaplanes make an unsuccessful attempt to bomb German and Austro-Hungarian ships in Kiaochow Bay during the Siege of Tsingtao.

December

Upon the conclusion of the Siege of Tsingtao, the Wakamiya returns Japanese naval seaplanes deployed at Tsingtao to Japan. The Japanese naval air arm sees no further combat during World War I.
10 December - Ark Royal is completed. She is the first ship with an internal hangar enclosed by her hull, and the first with specially designed internal spaces to accommodate aviation fuel, lubricants, ordnance, and spares and machinery required for aircraft maintenance.
16 December - SMS Glyndwr is the first Imperial German Navy aviation ship to be commissioned. She serves initially as a seaplane pilot training ship.
21 December - The United Kingdom is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time. A Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.
25 December - HMS Empress, HMS Engadine and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.

Undated

The Austro-Hungarian Navy formally creates an air arm.
Fiat establishes its Societx  Italiana Aviazione subsidiary, beginning its involvement in the manufacture of aircraft.
The Yokosuka Naval Arsenal begins to produce seaplanes, the first manufacture of naval aircraft in Japan.

First flights

January

Sikorsky Ilya Muromets

February

23 February - Bristol Scout

July

Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus

Entered service

Chant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, ISBN 0-7607-2012-6
Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, ISBN 13579108642
Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6
Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9

1914 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia