Here is a photograph from Scribner's October 1889 issue. Two Army aviators are telegraphing by wire from a balloon It is noteworthy to point out here that balloons were hardly new at this time. In 1782, the Montgolfier brothers built a hot air balloon, and in 1783 Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis D'Arlandes flew over Paris and alighted safely.
Above is pictured a German experimenter with his three-by-four-yards, motorless sailing triplane.
Here we have a photograph of a multi-winged glider, intended to be pedaled like a bicycle.
Above is a reproduction of the front of a photo postcard with Ollie Lee Anderson and Tyrie Williams gliding over Pablo Beach at Jacksonville, Florida. Tyrie was the Advertising Manager for the Rhodes, Futch & Collins Furniture Company in 1915.
In the 1916 photo above, we see pioneer aviator Ruth Law.
This photograph, courtesy of the Curtiss Aeroplane Co., shows the old "Pusher" with several prominent airmen.
It may sound fantastic but “The first pitched battle has recently been fought between ships of the sea and of the air, resulting in the annihilation of a British submarine by a Zeppelin bomb,” stated an article titled “A Submarine Sunk by a Zeppelin,” in the June 12, 1915 issue of Scientific American. “A submarine flotilla's numerous high angle guns are not so much smaller than those of a battleship,” added the writer, “yet the target offered by the single submarine is so hopelessly tiny that the Zeppelin's escape after sinking one of her foes with a bomb appears nothing short of marvelous, if we recall the difficulty of dropping bombs with precision and the accuracy of high angle fire so far experienced.”
Various acoustic devices were used to aim the brilliant carbon arc searchlights against invading aircraft at night, for anti-aircraft artillery spotters.
Acoustic location is the art and science of using sound to determine the distance and direction of something. Location can be done actively or passively, and can take place in gases (such as the atmosphere), liquids (such as water), and in solids (such as in the earth).
Although less effective against Zeppelins than louder airplanes, acoustic location in air was used from mid-World War I to the early years of World War II for the passive detection of aircraft by picking up the noise of the engines. It was rendered obsolete before and during World War II by the introduction of radar, which was far more effective. Acoustics has the advantage that it can see around corners and over hills.
On May 16 to 31, 1919, Lt. Commander A. C. Read, U. S. Navy, in the flying boat N-C-4, made the first transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Plymouth, England by way of the Azores and Portugal.
On June 14, 1919, John Alcock and A. W. Brown, English pilots, made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Clifton, Ireland, in 16 hours and 12 minutes, thereby winning the Daily Mail's $50,000 prize.
This is a picture of an old British biplane being fueled at an airport, and we have an old mobile nourishment below.
This U. S. Army Air Service photo was taken on June 27, 1923 and shows Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performing the first aerial refueling on 27 June 1923. The DH-4B biplane remained aloft over the skies of Rockwell Field in San Diego, California, for 37 hours. The airfield's logo is visible on the aircraft.
Above is an old crop duster near Montgomery, Alabama; and below we see it’s method of refueling.
Above is a picture of a fold-up-wing "Redwing" two-seater biplane, which could be stored in a 10-feet-wide shed
WOW!! A good-looking lady-biplane pilot! Above we see Marvel Crosson seated atop the airplane she piloted in the 1920’s.
Afro-American flyers also rose to great heights in the Golden Age of Aviation.
This biplane is flying 3,500 feet over the snowfall on the Mt. Moorfoot Hills, Scotland.
Here we have U.S. Army engineers testing two-way telephone communication with an aircraft in 1917.
Here is a picture of an old, post WW I-era airplane with a radio in the cockpit. I have a cute little story to post about these type of control sticks when I can find time. Be sure to "Bookmark" this page or put it on your "Favorites" list, and check back once in awhile. By the way, if you want to see views of the cockpits of some more modern aircraft, click this link.
Before World War I, the US Post Office Department made serious efforts to establish airmail in areas where it would be more economical to deliver mail by air than other means. If this effort had succeeded, it probably would have encouraged airplane development. But Congress did consent, and no funds were made available for an airmail service at that time.
Here we see some famous pioneer airmail pilots. I scanned this page from an article enitled "Aces of the Air Mail"—in the September 1925 issue of Everybody's Magazine. After the United States entered World War I, the Army decided that a very good way to train pilots in cross-country flying and to test the planes under all kinds of flight conditions would be to establish a schedule of flights to carry mail. On 15 May 1918, a line was opened to carry mail between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. This was the beginning of continuously scheduled airmail service for the public. Army pilots, then, became the first flying mailmen. Every day some of these young men piloted their Curtiss “Jennies” over the 238-mile stretch.
The military demonstration in 1918 proved that a scheduled airmail service was feasible. On 12 August 1918, the Post Office Department took over the service, employing its own pilots.
The plane purchased by the Post Office Department was the Standard JR-1B—the first plane specifically designed for carrying mail. This biplane was powered by a 185-horsepower engine and carried the pilot and about 200 pounds of mail at 90 miles an hour.
Later other types of planes were used.
In 1925, a bill was introduced in Congress to transfer the mail routes to private contractors. This was put into effect the following year. Those airmail contracts may have been the key to the survival of many of the struggling young air transport companies.
Airmail contracts were what gave these companies steady work and permitted them to earn something for their services. Without earnings of some kind, they could never have expanded and finally become the great commercial airlines of today.
Here we have Sergeant A. M. Ogden, aide to Lieutenant Leigh Wade, working on an airplane for the U. S. Army round-the-world flyers at Brough, England in 1924. From April 6 to September 28, 1924, United States Army Aviators, in four Douglas transport planes, left Seattle, Washington on the first round-the-world flight by way of Alaska, Japan, India, Austria, England, Greenland, and Newfoundland. Two completed the distance of 27,553 miles safely. Actual flying time was 371 hours and 11 minutes—over a period of 175 days.
Above are two flyers with their feline mascot.
These two biplanes are flying over the Rocky Mountains, the type of biplanes used on the first transcontinental mail route.
Below we see a picture of the first airplane to fly to the North Pole. Richard E. Byrd, U. S. N. and pilot Floyd G. Bennett accomplished the feat on May 9, 1926, after a 15 1/2 hour trip.
They left Spitzbergen at 1:50 A. M. and returned in the afternoon of the same day. TheJosephine Ford, a three-engined monoplane of 600 horsepower, allowed them to make the celebrated flight. In 1027, Commander Byrd and three others crossed from New York to Ver-sur-Mer, France, 3,200 miles in 40 hours.
Above, we see the Blue Bird, a 1000 horse-power Farman biplane with its two motors arranged in tandem, which Maurice Drouhin, a commercial pilot and holder of many records, was putting through its daily paces above Villacoublay Air Field on 7 May 1927. The flying exercise proved unfruitful. The French air ace did not complete his Paris to New York non-stop flight—due to bad weather.
Later in the month, Charles Lindbergh left the U. S. and his arrival in France is illustrated on the old postcard above. From May 20th through the 21st 1927, Colonel Lindbergh, in The Spirit of St. Louis, made the first non-stop flight from the United States to Europe by flying from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,610 miles, in 33½ hours.
This American flyer won the $25,000 Raymond Orteig prize in the Spirit of St. Louis instead.
This photograph shows Charles Lindbergh sitting up front, Fred E. Weick in the rear, and Tom Hamilton standing in front of a research aircraft on June 1, 1927, at Langley Research Center.
And this is a photograph of Colonel and Mrs. Charles Lindbergh in front of an airplane on September 18, 1929.
From August 27 to September 14, 1927, W. S. Brock and E. F. Schlee of the United States, inThe Pride of Detroit, flew from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, across the Atlantic, then in various stages to Kasaminguara, Japan, 12,300 miles.
Here we see an early twentieth-century photograph of an "Autogiro" rising steeply in a steady sustained vertical climb. The "windmill" above the plane is not connected with the motor, but rotates with the motion of the machine, thus supporting the plane in flight and permitting ascent at a steep angle and almost vertical descent, according to The Story in Transportation.
