World Aviation in 1916 - Part 2

Part 1

2 September
German Schutte-Lanz airship SL11 is destroyed to the north of London by a BE2c flown by Lieutenant W. Leefe-Robinson. Leefe-Robinson wins a Victoria Cross for the feat, while attacking airship crews suffer serious demoralisation.

12 September
A Hewitt-Sperry radio-controlled flying bomb is tested in America. Powered by a 29kW (10 horse-power) engine it carries a payload of 140 kilos (308 pounds) of explosives up to 80 kilometres (50 miles).

15 September
Austrian Lohner flying-boat sinks the French submarine Foucault.

16 September
Zeppelins LZ31 (L6) and LZ36 (L9) are destroyed by fire in their shed at Fuhlsbuttel.

17 September
The German Albatros DI fighter enters service on the Western Front.

17 September
Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen, flying an Albatros DII, is credited with his first combat victory, a British Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b of No.11 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps (RFC).

24 September
A German LVG biplane becomes the first victim of a Sopwith Pup fighter.

26 September
Hauptmann Rudolf Berthold, one of Germany's highest-rated fighter pilots during the First World War One, receives the Pour le Mérite. He achieves 44 air victories before being injured in 1918, when his Fokker DVII collides with an enemy aircraft and crashes into a house.

2 October
Zeppelin LZ72 (L31) is shot down over Potter's Bar, killing Heinrich Mathy, Germany's foremost airship captain.

14 October
A forced landing wrecks Zeppelin LZ39.

28 October
German ace, Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke is killed when his Albatros fighter collides with another, flown by his comrade, Leutnant Boehme.

November - February 1918
The German cruiser 'Wolf' carries a Friedrichshafen 33e floatplane named 'Wolfschen' (Wolf Cub) on operations in the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

November
German Leutnants Falk and Schultheis, flying a Rumpler biplane, drop bombs on Cairo railway station in support of Turkish forces.

3 November
Victor Carlstrom completes the first flight from Chicago to New York in a Curtiss R. biplane. Carrying airmail, the flight lasts 8 hours 28 minutes and en route, Carlstrom sets United States records for non-stop distance (452 miles) and speed (134 mph) flying.

20 November
The Uruguayan Escuela Militar de Aeoronautica is founded.

27 November
Zeppelin LZ78 (L34) is shot down off Hartlepool in England.

28 November
Zeppelin LZ61 (L21) is shot down off Lowestoft in England by defending fighter aircraft.

28 November
Bombs are dropped near Victoria Station by an LVG CII aircraft, piloted by Deck Offizier R. Brandt.

4 December
The United States National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics recommends that the Post Office establish airmail routes.

20 December
The United States Army Balloon School is founded.

28 December
Zeppelins LZ53 (L17) and LZ69 (L24) are destroyed in a fire at their shed at Tondem. In a separate incident Schutte-Lanz SL12 (E5) is also wrecked.

29 December
In Russia, Zeppelin LZ84 (L38) makes a forced landing.

Part 1