German And Austrian Aviation of World War I

Aviation had come a long way in a technical sense during the few short years between the Wright Brothers s first powered flight of 17 December 1903 and the outbreak of World War I on 3 August 1914, but was still very much in its infancy in industrial terms. The war changed that state of affairs very quickly. With the onset of war, aviation became a tool of the military, who, seeing its potential as an "eye in the sky', gave what had been little more than a cottage industry not just a sense of focus, but, by previous standards, vast injections of cash. Thus, the business of designing and building aircraft was, within the span of less than two years, transformed into a substantial industry in its own right. However, the military, having taken effective control of the industry, did far more than simply inject cash, they infused the business of aircraft manufacture with a sense of direction and discipline, from which flowed such useful practices as methodical crash investigation and the whole culture of flight safety as applicable to both design and operations. Meanwhile, as the war progressed, the military was, itself, learning and becoming more organised and, in the process, discovering an ever broader range of requirements for which aircraft could be adopted. To cite two important examples, while the Italians had dropped the first bomb from an aeroplane as early as 1911, the problems of organised aerial bombing were only addressed once war was declared. Similarly, while a number of nations had experimented with fitting guns to aircraft prior to the war, the emergence of the dedicated fighter aircraft only really came about in the early months of 1915, as a counter to the highly effective intrusiveness of enemy reconnaissance overflights.

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Boeing Aircraft since 1916

In 1916, very few aircraft manufacturers had systematic designation systems, and Boeing was no exception. The first Boeing aeroplane design was called the B & W, for Boeing and Westervelt, the designers. The second and third were both Model C, and the fourth was the EA. In 1925 a numerical designation system was adopted starting with Model 40 and is the system used throughout this book regardless of secondary manufacturer designation or military designation used. The new system was applied retroactively to the earlier models. The basic C design became Models 2 and 3 while subsequent C-variants became Model 5. So well had the C designation become established, however, that it has been retained for official historical reference to that model. Once firmly established, the numerical designation system was applied to all designs as soon as they went down on paper, with the result that there are sometimes great numerical gaps between two consecutive Boeing designs that enter service. These gaps have been further increased by assigning Boeing model numbers to other than aircraft designs. In 1930, numbers 104 to 199 were reserved for Boeing-designed aerofoils. The 500 series was originally assigned to the Boeing gas-turbine engine in 1947 and later to the Industrial Products (later Turbine) Division, and the 600 range was assigned to the missiles of the Pilotless Aircraft Division.

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Air Pictorial 1956 06

WORLD events of the past two years have produced a radical change in Britain's air transport requirements. The staging points on the "All-Red Route" to the East—that pioneered by Imperial Airways—are becoming untenable one by one. The ideally situated Canal Zone has gone, Cyprus is in turmoil and even distant Aden now appears to be on the verge of revolt. Nairobi, it would seem, is the nearest securely British outpost—and even that has to be approached across North Africa where the whole accent is upon removing European influence. Beyond Nairobi, with Ceylon's defection possible, Australia is far away, with only the dubious security of Singapore as a refuelling point. This political, and consequent strategic, change has a profound effect upon the type of transport aeroplane required by Great Britain. Whereas, a few years ago the Atlantic route (3,500 miles with huge reserves) was B.O.A.C.'s odd man out, it now becomes the pattern for Transport Command and the independent trooping contractor's aeroplanes. True, Gibraltar and Malta remain loyal, but their usability in time of war, because of their small size and isolation, is debatable and their existence has to be ignored when planning new transports.

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A History of Chinese Aviation - Encyclopedia of Aircraft and Aviation in China until 1949

Leaving balloons and kites out of the account, it seems that the first aviators in China were the Americans Thomas Baldwin. Todd Schriver and James McBride. who arrived with their aircraft in Hong Kong on board the SS "Asia" on 31 December 1910. They were unable to get a permission to fly in the colony, however, and left for Manila in February 1911. Belgian pilot Captain Charles Van den Born of the Far East Aviation Company was making exhibition flights in Asia and in December 1910 he was sent to Saigon, French Indochina, with three Farman biplanes. In February 1911 he arrived in Hong Kong on board SS "Donai" and the Hong Kong authorities, which some months earlier had refused the American aviators' applications, permitted him to fly there. On 18 March 1911 the first flight ever in Hong Kong was made with Farman II 'Wanda". After making several other flights Van den Born continued to Canton with his aircraft. He flew there on 18 April, but had to leave in a hurry when a general, who had been watching his display. was assassinated and "Wanda" was burnt.

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