THE WORLD’S AIRMEN
A list of pilots compiled in 1911 by Claude Grahame-White, in alphabetical order:
A.
ABOUKAIA, Mlle. — Mlle Aboukaia was one of the first women in France to take up aviation. She began experiments with a Demoiselle monoplane, soon after M. Santos Dumont had introduced this machine. Subsequently, going to Chalons, she learned [...]
The Sopwith ‘Pup’ was fast, agile, and easy-to-fly, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was developed from the personal aircraft of Harry Hawker, Sopwith Aviation’s test pilot.
Entering service in late summer of 1916, the Sopwith “Scout” (as it was officially termed) was one of the first British tractor biplanes with a synchonized machine gun. [...]
Fielded in 1916, the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I was a transitional aircraft of German design but Austrian manufacture. Its stability and visibility were so bad that the pilots called it ‘The Coffin.’ Altogether, about 200 were produced by Phönix and UFAG.
From its unusual appearance, Allied pilots called it the “Star Strutter.”
Top Speed: 116 m.p.h.
Manufacturer: [...]
While it resembled, both in appearance and in specifications, the D.H.2, J. Kenworth’s F.E.8 was considerably less successful. But problems with the aircraft’s stability and engine development delayed its deployment at the front until August, 1916, and by then the new German Albatros D.I and D.II wholly outclassed the British pusher biplanes like the F.E.8.. [...]
Arriving at the front in February 1916, the Airco D.H.2 was fairly late in the British series of fighter pusher biplanes. A single-seater, it was considerably faster and more agile than the Vickers Gun-bus, and enjoyed some successes against the Fokkers in early 1916. But improved German models soon surpassed it. About 450 were built.
The [...]
Visitors to Britain’s Olympia Air Show in March, 1913 had the chance to see the world’s first fighter plane; called a “Destroyer,” the Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane (E.F.B.) was the first aircraft specifically designed to shoot down other airplanes.
As their engineers had not yet figured out how to fire a machine gun though the [...]
