The famed American volunteers of the French Lafayette Escadrille were flying the SPAD VII in February 1918 at the time they transferred to the U.S. Army Air Service, becoming the 103rd Aero Squadron. Several other U.S. units also used the SPAD VII, although most American Expeditionary Force (AEF) fighter squadrons were equipped with the improved version, [...]
A woefully underpowered machine, the H.F. 20 Series planes could only be used on observation flights in France. It also served as a trainer, and in secondary theaters, notably in German East Africa where an H.F.22 variant participated in the hunt for the Konigsberg. Top Speed: 65 m.p.h. Manufacturer: Farman Freres Year: 1914 Engine: 80 [...]
An attempt was made to cross the Atlantic in a Sopwith Atlantic biplane by Com. Mackenzie Grieve and Maj. Harry Hawker on 18 May 1919. This plane generally followed the design of Sopwith warplanes, and had a 46 feet wingspan and was 31 feet long, weighing 6000 pounds fully equipped for flight. It was supposed [...]
The British dirigible R-34 left East Fortune, near Edinburgh, Scotland, at 2 A.M., July 2, 1919 and proceeded via Newfoundland to Mineóla, New York, arriving at Roosevelt Field at 9 A.M., Sunday, July 6. To show that this was not merely good fortune, a return trip even more successful was made, leaving New York at [...]
The first non-stop flight from America to Europe was accomplished in 1919 by the Vickers “Vimy” Bomber, a bi-motored Rolls-Royce airplane, piloted by Captain John Alcock and navigated by Lieut. Arthur W. Brown. The trip started at St. Johns, Newfoundland, at 12.13 P.M., New York time, on Saturday, June 14, 1919 and 16 hours and [...]
The year 1919 was memorable in the history of aviation for the first successful flight across the Atlantic, achieved by aviators of the United States Navy using NC flying boats, jointly developed by the United States Navy and the Curtiss Engineering Corporation, the N in the designation standing for navy and the C for Curtiss. [...]
In 1920, the Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 29 was the fastest airplane in the world. Designed by the Nieuport firm for the French Aviation Militaire in 1918, the Ni-D 29 appeared too late for combat in WWI. Following its record-breaking performance in the 1920 Gordon Bennett Trophy race, when it flew 168 miles per hour, it was [...]
How do you fire a machine gun through the arc of a spinning propeller? Early in 1915, aviators engaged in the First World War wanted to solve that problem. Obviously, the bullets of the machine gun would smash a propeller to bits. So far in the war, German, French, and British airmen had fired at [...]
This late variant of Nieuport’s biplanes was used mainly by American pilots, notably Eddie Rickenbacker, the French having switched over to Spads. The Type 28 looked quite different from the earlier Nieuports: it had a longer, rounded fuselage; it dispensed with the sesquiplane configuration (and the associated V struts); and it had rounded, not angular [...]
The most successful of the Nieuport biplanes of WWI, flown by the French, British, Americans, Italians, and Russians. Often referred to in contemporary sources as the “15 meter” Nieuport (based on its total wing surface). During the summer of 1916, many months after the appearance of the Fokker, the French produced the Nieuport 17, armed [...]