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Part 1
June
Rene Paul Fonck joins Escadrille C47 and flies Caudron GIV bombing and
reconnaissance aircraft, eventually becoming the highest scoring Allied
pilot of the First World War.
1 June
The United States Navy (USN) order their first airship, the A1 (DN1),
from the Connnecticut Aircraft Company.
1 July
German Fokker E1 monoplane fighters, the first aeroplanes to be fitted
with synchronised machine-guns, enabling them to be fired through the
propeller arc, are introduced on the Eastern Front.
1 July
The Office of Naval Aeronautics is formed to oversee United States naval
air operations.
1 July
A French Morane-Saulnier monoplane is destroyed by Leutnant Kurt Wintgens,
flying a Fokker M5K with synchronised machine-gun equipment.
5 July
German Army airship Schutte-Lanz SL5 is wrecked after it is forced to
land during a gale.
18 July
Katherine Stinson becomes the first woman to loop-the-loop while performing
aerobatics at Chicago.
19 July
Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer scores his first victory while flying
a Morane-Saulnier Parasol 2-seat monoplane, eventually he becomes the
highest scoring French pilot in the First World War.
30 July
Leutnant Max Immelman flies a Fokker M8 in preparation for his first flight
in an armed E1 fighter the next day.
1 August
Leutnant Max Immelman shoots down his first enemy aircraft in his Fokker
E1 monoplane, equipped with a single synchronised LMG 08 machine gun.
6 August
German Naval Zeppelin LZ28 (L5) is hit by Russian ground fire and forced
to land.
10 August
During a raid on England, German Naval Zeppelin LZ43 (L12) is damaged
and is accidentally destroyed while being towed back to Ostend.
20 August
The first sustained bombing offensive is made against Austria-Hungary
by Italian Caproni Ca2 3-engined biplanes.
25 August
62 French bombers make a mass bombing raid against blast furnaces in the
Dillingen area of Germany.
3 September
German Zeppelin LZ40 (L10) is destroyed when struck by lightning off Neuwerk
Island.
14 September
German pilot Ernst Udet loses part of the upper wing of his Aviatik B
aeroplane during a bombing mission, but returns safely.
Autumn-Winter
The 'Fokker Sourge' begins as large numbers of Allied aircraft are shot
down by Fokker monoplane fighters fitted with synchronised machine-guns.
October
The Bulgarian Army Aviation Corps is reformed, after being disbanded following
the Balkan War, 1912-1913.
1 October
German passenger airship LZ11 'Viktoria Luise' is wrecked while docking.
13 October
The Wright airplane company is bought by Harry Payne Whitney, T. Frank
Manville and William B. Thompson, with Orville Wright remaining as consultant.
6 November
The first aeroplane to be catapult-launched from an moving ship is a Curtiss
AB2 flying-boat piloted by Lieutenant Commander Henry Mustin, launched
from the battleship USS North Carolina at Pensacola Bay in Florida.
17 November
The German Zeppelin LZ52 (L18) accidentally burns at Tondem.
18 November
German Navy Schutte-Lanz airship SL6 (D1) explodes in the air, killing
all of its crew.
1 December
The first United States Navy (USN) flying school is established at Pensacola
in Florida.
11 December
German Navy Schutte-Lanz airship SL4 (C2) is wrecked in a storm while
still in its shed.
12 December
The
German Junkers J1 Blechesel 'Tin Donkey', the world's first all-metal
reconnaissance and close-support monoplane, flies for the first time at
Dessau in Germany.
21 December
Claudius Dornier attempts to flight test the giant German Zeppelin-Lindau
RsI hydroplane on Lake Constance in Germany, but it fails to reach enough
speed to take-off.
Winter 1915-1916
The first Russian Fighter Aviation Detachments are formed.
Also this year...
The following air services are established:
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