1915 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1915:

Events

The United States Navy establishes a lighter-than-air arm, charged with the operation of airships and of kite balloons to be towed behind warships. By the end of World War I on November 11, 1918, four of its battleships and six of its destroyers will have operated balloons.

January

January 6 or 15 - The German submarine U-12 departs Zeebrugge with a Friedrichshafen FF.29 seaplane lashed to her deck in an attempt to use submarines to carry seaplanes within range of England. The seaplane is forced to take off early, reconnoiters the coast of Kent, and has to fly all the way back to Zeebrugge when bad weather makes returning to U-12 impossible. It is the only German attempt to operate an aircraft from a submarine.
January 19 - First Zeppelin raid on the UK by the German Navy.

February

February 2 - The only Imperial Russian Navy seaplane carrier to see service in the Baltic Sea during World War I, Orlitza is commissioned.
February 15 - Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers attack the Vistula-Dobrzhani area of Poland, the first bombing raid by the Ilya Muromets.

March

The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet begins seaplane carrier raids against the Bosporus and the Ottoman Empire's European Black Sea coast. The raids, which continue until May, are history's first in which battleships play a subsidiary role while operating with aviaition ships, foreshadowing the aircraft carrier-battleship task forces of World War II.
March 7 - The first British tactical bombing raids are made in support of ground troops in Menin an Courtai
March 11 - The Royal Navy charters the cargo ship SS Manica for conversion into the first British balloon ship, HMS Manica. The Royal Navt will be the only navy during World War I to operate balloon ships, specialized ships designed to handle observation balloons as their sole function.

April

April 1 - French pilot Lt Roland Garros scores the first kill using a non-synchronised machine gun when he shoots down an Albatros observation plane from his Morane Saulnier Type L.
April 1 - French ace Jean Navarre, with an observer Lt. Robert, score the first kill.
April 16 - The United States Navy conducts the first catapult launch of an aircraft from a floating platform, launching an airplane from Navy Coal Barge No. 214 at Naval Air Station Pensacola at Pensacola, Florida.
April 18 - Roland Garros is shot down and taken captive.
April 19 - During the Gallipoli campaign, the Royal Navy balloon ship Manica lofts her observation balloon operationally for the first time in the first operational use of a balloon ship during World War I. The observer in her balloon directs fire against Ottoman positions for the armored cruiser Bacchante. Manica's work during the campaign impresses the British Admiralty for it to order additional balloon ships
April 26 - 2nd Lt William Rhodes-Moorhouse is the first airman to receive the Victoria Cross (posthumous).

May

May 26 - Oberleutnant Kx¤stner and Lt Georg Langhoff score the first German air-to-air victory of World War I.
May 31 - First Zeppelin raid on London, made by LZ 38. Seven people killed, fourteen wounded.

June

June 1 - US Navy Department awards it's first contract for an airship the DN-1-Class Blimp to the Connecticut Aircraft Company.
June 6 - LZ 37 becomes the first Zeppelin destroyed in air-to-air combat when it is bombed by Flt Sub-Lt Reginald Warneford, RNAS.

July

July 1 - Leutnant Kurt Wintgens achieves the first aerial victory by a true fighter plane in history, flying his Fokker M.5K/MG production prototype of the Fokker Eindecker, downing a Morane-Saulnier two-seat "parasol" observation aircraft.
July 1 - The French Navy seaplane carrier Pas-de-Calais is commissioned. She is the first paddle steamer to serve as an aviation vessel.
July 6 - Lt Oswald Boelcke claims his first victory, a Blériot Parasol, while flying an Albatros C.I two-seater with Lt von Wx¼hlisch as the observer & gunner.
July 25 - Captain Lanoe Hawker of the RFC wins first Victoria Cross for aerial combat, over France.

August

August 1 - Lt Max Immelmann shoots down his first aircraft, beginning his career as an ace and the period that will become known as the "Fokker scourge"
August 12 - Flt Cdr Charles Edmonds becomes the first pilot to attack a ship with an air-launched torpedo. He is flying a Short Type 184 from HMS Ben-my-Chree. His target is a Turkish supply ship.
August 19 - Lt Oswald Boelcke shoots down his first aircraft flying a Fokker E.I fitted with a gun synchronizer.
August 20 - The first sustained aerial bombing offensive is made by Italian Caproni Ca.2s against Austria-Hungary.
August 31 - the first French ace Adolphe Pegoud is killed in combat. He scored 6 victories.

October

The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet raids Varna, Bulgaria, employing a seaplane carrier-battleship force.
October 15 - Orville Wright sells the Wright Company to a group of New York investors. The Wright Company was founded in 1909 by Orville and his late brother Wilbur Wright.

November

November 3 - Flt Sub-Lt Fowler makes the first take-off of an aircraft with a conventional, wheeled undercarriage from a ship when he flies a Bristol Scout from HMS Vindex.
The United States Navy armored cruiser North Carolina becomes the first warship to launch an aircraft by catapult, launching a Curtiss flying boats over her stern.
November 6 - A Curtiss AB-2 piloted by Lieutenant Commander Henry Mustin is catapulted from the deck of the armored cruiser USS North Carolina.

December

Gaston Caudron of the Caudron company is killed in the crash of a Caudron R.4.
December 1 - The United States Army's 2d Aero Squadron is formed.
December 12 - Leutnant Theodor Mallinckrodt makes the initial "hop" of the world's first practical all-metal aircraft, the Junkers J 1.

First flights

April

April 11 - Zeppelin-Staaken R.I

May

SPAD A.2

June

June 1 - Airco DH.2
4 June - Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.1

August

August 14 - Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9

December

Sopwith 1½ Strutter
December 12 - Junkers J 1, the first practical all-metal aircraft
December 15 - Anatra D
December 17 - Handley Page O/400

Entered service

February

February 5 - Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus with No. 5 Squadron RFC

April

Morane-Saulnier Type N

June

Fokker Eindecker

September

Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2 with No. 6 Squadron RFC

1915 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia