In 1915, when the British Empire forces (mostly Indians and Australians) attacked the Turks in Mesopotamia, they needed aircraft. Or wanted them; perhaps it was a matter of national pride, that every modern army ought to have air support. At any rate, the Rajah of Gwalior underwrote the expense of the air contingent – a [...]
On the morning of October, 5, 1914, French Sergeant pilot Joseph Frantz and mechanic Corporal Quenault in their Voisin biplane spotted a German Aviatik flying at about 3500 ft. He closed on until Quenault found the range and opened fire with a light machine gun. The Aviatik dove away, but Frantz followed, Quenault firing intermittently. [...]
The Deperdussin, along with the Bleriot and Morane-Saulnier, was another speedy French monoplane that dominated the air races in the years leading up to World War One. A very small monoplane, designed by MM. Bechereau and Koolhoven for the Deperdussin firm to compete in the James Gordon Bennett race, proved to be the fastest machine [...]
A stream of gasoline burst forth as Gustav Hamel flew over the Thames River on September 20, 1913. The last thing any aviator needed in a wood and cloth monoplane with a barely-covered, hot, sparking, rotary engine a few feet away was gasoline in the cockpit. It was a mortal danger for any pilot, and [...]
Some of the largest machines thus far built are of the Caproni Ca.4 type, fitted with three powerful motors, two of which drive tractor propellers while the third is a pusher and is located between the other two. Two cars are fitted and, on some of the trial flights made in this country, a large [...]
Known to Allied aviators as the German “Spad,” the Albatros D.I, Appearing in 1916, is a high-speed type of machine, technically termed a destroyer and armed with two machine guns. The one shown in Fig. 48 was shot down in the British lines. It is a conglomerate copy of the French Nieuport and Moräne and [...]
The Halberstadt biplane, was used in large numbers by the Germans during 1916, but, as it was almost invariably downed by French and British flyers, it apparently has since been abandoned. A brief review of its salient points shows that it would tend to be unstable to a degree unknown in any of the existing [...]
A characteristic feature of the German policy in aviation has been the adoption of a certain model of machine and its use in large numbers until such time us it is displaced by a later type. The Rumpler biplane, affords a typical instance of this. During the second year of the war it very largely [...]
Introduced in mid-1916. Designed along very similar lines to the Gotha, the Friedrichshafen bomber, is one of the principal heavy bombing machines turned out by the Germans. Its makers have long specialized in the manufacture of seaplanes of the single and the twin-engine type, and the bombing machine resembles the latter, except for the sweep [...]
As far as its wing shape and construction are concerned, the Ago fighting biplane is in a class by itself since it is characterized by features not to be found on aeroplanes of any other make. Top Speed: n.a. Engine: six-cylinder Benz Wingspan: 39 feet 3 inches Weight: n.a. Armament: n.a. Specifications from “Practical Aviation,†[...]