World Aviation in 1915 - Part 1

Part 2

January
The first Russian aircraft designed for aerial combat, the Sikorsky S16 two-seat armed biplane, enters service.

6 January
The Friedrichshafen FF29a seaplane is successfully launched from the deck of a submarine by the German Navy during trials to extend the aircraft's range.

7 January
The Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare is formed.

19-20 January
Two German Navy Zeppelins, LZ24 (L3) and LZ27 (L4), make the first airship raid on Great Britain and a third, LZ31 (L6), returns early due to engine problems.

Bombs from L3 fall on Great Yarmouth, while L4 drops incendiaries and bombs on Sheringham, Thornham, Brancaster, Hunstanton, Heacham, Snettisham and King's Lynn. Several civilians are killed and wounded.

February
The Russian Ilya Mourometz IMV series 4-engined bombers are equipped with machine-guns for use against ground targets.

3 February
Turkish forces attack the Suez Canal area but are repelled by British troops.

15 February
Russian Ilya Mouromets reconnaissance bombers attack targets along the Vistula river in Poland.

17 February
Zeppelin LZ34 (L3) is stranded and destroyed in a gale at Jutland.

20 February
Allan Loughhead is given permission to start an air service during the Panama-Pacific Exhibition at San Francisco, flying 600 passengers across the bay in 50 days.

3 March
The United States National Advisory Committee is established by Congress to investigate the problems of flight and solutions to them. The organisation is a forerunner to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

4 March
$300,000 funding is passed by the United States Congress for the development of army aviation in 1916.

5 March
Zeppelin LZ33 (L8) crashes near Ostend after being hit by gunfire over Nieuport during a mission to attack Britain.

7 March
Paris comes under attack from German Zeppelins.

14 March
Lincoln Beachey dies when the wings break off his monoplane while he attempts a power dive from 3,000 feet at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco.

20 March
The Belgian Aviation Militaire is formed.

27 March
Mancia, a kite balloon ship, sails for the Dardanelles, equipped with a kite balloon for use as an observation platform.

1 April
Lieutenant Roland Garros shoots down a German Albatros two-seater with the Hotchkiss machine-gun fitted to his Morane-Saulnier Type L monoplane. Steel wedge deflectors allow the bullets to pass through the propeller arc without damaging the propeller.

9 April
The first meeting of the Australian Aero Club is held at the Café Francais in Melbourne.

11 April
The prototype German Zeppelin-Staaken VGO1 heavy bomber flies for the first time. This later becomes the Zeppelin-Staaken R1.

16 April
A United States Navy (USN) AB2 flying-boat piloted by Lieutenant P.N.L. Bellinger is catapult-launched from a barge.

19 April
After making a forced landing behind enemy lines Lieutenant Roland Garros is captured by the Germans and the details of the machine-gun deflector arrangement are studied by his captors.

30 April
German Navy Zeppelin L9, commanded by Kapitaltn Mathys, makes an attack on three British submarines, damaging the conning tower of one of them.

May
The first Canadian flying school, the Curtiss Aviation School, opens at Long Branch.

11 May
Continuous airship raids on England are ordered by the German High Command.

14 May
The United States Navy (USN) orders it's first airship from the Connecticut Aircraft Company.

21 May
The Spad A2 biplane fighter undergoes it's first flight tests in France.

26 May
Seventeen French Voisin biplanes of Groupe de Bombardment I conduct an attack on a strategic military target at Ludwigshafen in Germany.

Oberleutnant Kastner and Leutnant Georg Langhoff (observer) attack and shoot down a French Voisin in their Halberstadt C-type at Dournai in France. This is the first intentional attack by a German aeroplane on another armed aeroplane.

27 May
Four days after Italy declares war, an Austrian Lohner L1 flying-boat is captured by the Italians off the Italian coast.

31 May
German Zeppelin LZ38 makes the first bombing raid on London, dropping 3,000 pounds of bombs, killing seven civilians and injuring fourteen.

Spring
The German D-type reconnaissance biplane, produced by various firms, is introduced.

Part 2