Heroic airmen and their exploits

We approach an intensely interesting subject. Indeed, there is the danger that we may be tempted to dwell on thrilling achievements before learning what those achievements reall...

Progress in the construction of aircraft has been rapid of recent years, but there was a long period of experiment and preparation. It is a long flight from the aircraft of to-d...

The efforts of M. Santos Dumont call for special reference. He contributed greatly to the science of aerostation, and may be considered one of the foremost of the flight pioneer...

Progress toward the modern airship has, as we have seen, been by short and laborious flights. The disappointments and disasters have been almost numberless. Endless patience, pe...

It is to the honour of the British nation that one of the first principles of the biplane was proposed and explained by a British subject, Mr. F. H. Wenham, as far back as 1866....

The earliest experiments in the construction of aeroplanes were, as we have seen, to a considerable extent made in France. The United States have also played an active part. Mea...

The keenest interest and curiosity is very naturally felt in the Zeppelin airship. Much has been written concerning its peculiar construction—much that is founded on doubtful ev...

It need scarcely be said that the control of an aeroplane very greatly depends upon the pilot. One pilot will perform marvels with a machine which in the hands of another may pr...

Flight-Commander William Leafe Robinson, V.C., was the first airman to bring down a German airship on British soil, and he enjoyed the distinction of being the first soldier to...

The next raid over England by German airships took place on the night of September 25, 1916. Twelve airships took part, but only ten returned. One was brought down in flames not...

The Zeppelin which came down in the manner described in the foregoing chapter was on view to a party of London Press Representatives on October 8, 1916. The _Times_ representati...

Concerning the raid over England by hostile airships which took place on the night of October 2, 1916, the official report issued by Lord French was to the effect that ten hosti...

To Lieutenant Warneford, V.C., falls the distinction of being one of the first airmen to destroy a Zeppelin. At the time of his heroic deed he was on patrol duty in Belgium, and...

We shall, no doubt, have occasion to return later to the heroic achievements of our airmen in destroying enemy raiders. Meanwhile, our attention is claimed by a subject of great...

At a later date (September 12, 1916) a writer in the _Daily Chronicle_ remarked: ‘All reports, official and unofficial, concur in warm praise of the daring, resourceful, and eff...

The great Somme offensive proved beyond all dispute the claim of England and France to the supremacy of the air. It is not, however, always clearly understood precisely what air...

Few airmen have a finer record than the young British officer, Flight-Commander Albert Ball, who for a while held a commission in the Notts and Derby Regiment, and later was att...

Lieutenant Allan Bott, who has been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in the field, is a member of the editorial staff of the _Daily Chronicle_, and...

We learn from the _Matin_ that the French champion, Flight-Lieutenant Guynemer, once brought down three German aeroplanes in the record time of three minutes, and then himself h...

It has been said that the story of Second-Lieutenant Ridley, a young British flying officer, is as great as the story of Captain Oates. ‘Captain Oates walked into the Antarctic...

An Army Order, signed by General Sarrail, describes how Lieutenant Noël, when hardly convalescent from a grave operation, from the effects of which he was still suffering, effec...

All are conscious of the fact that to our Royal Naval Air Service the highest praise is due. The service is rich in heroic pilots. Few, however, are known by name to the wider p...

Further light is thrown on the work of naval pilots by an observer writing in the _Border Telegraph_. ‘Most of us know,’ he says, ‘what the pilot of an aeroplane does. But have...

Here we shall see afresh that the British Naval Air Service is rich in men who possess to a remarkable degree the qualities named in the foregoing chapters. Flight Sub-Lieutenan...

Official communications are apt to make cold reading, but how much may be ‘read into’ them! Considered in the light of a lively imagination they convey a great deal. Between eac...

_Vive la France!_ To her heroic sons we owe in a great measure the supremacy in the air enjoyed by the Allies. Who can forget the heroic and skilful M. Pégoud? Great is our debt...

The various awards and decorations conferred upon aviators and other men of heroic stamp claim our keenest interest. Mention has already been made of the Victoria Cross and othe...

The _Matin_ has published a most appreciative article on the heroic deeds of British aviators. ‘The English aviators,’ says the writer, ‘are entrusted with the same mission as t...

Here we come into still closer contact with the work of the Royal Flying Corps on the various battle-fronts. On September 3, 1916, the fighting in the air on the Western Front w...

The Russians have been most generous in their praise of the work done by the Allied aviators in France. A correspondent of the _Bourse Gazette_, writing in the _Daily Chronicle_...

Italy has fought many air battles. Her sons are men of the right mettle. Her beautiful cities have suffered from raids, but the enemy has been made to pay the price. Italian air...

In November, 1916, a series of brilliant conquests by British and French aviators had reduced the Germans to a secondary, if not actually a futile, part in the air. But after a...

‘Any unbeliever in the reality of the command of the air being in the hands of Britain and her Allies,’ writes the editor of _Flight_, ‘must indeed be despaired of, after the da...

‘Those who die for their country,’ says the author of _The Wrack of the Storm_, ‘must not be numbered with the dead.... This death, on the field of battle, in the clash of glory...

In November, 1916, the famous French aviator, Lieutenant Guynemer, brought down his twenty-first enemy machine, thus establishing a new world’s record for aerial warfare. The du...