PHOTO OF THE WEEK
LWF model V
LWF model V (c/n – , ´4´ of the Czechoslovak Legion), exhibited in the National Technical Museum, Prague, April 2025. In December of 1915, Edward Lowe Jr., Charles F. Willard, and Robert G. Fowler founded […]
WWI
AVIATION HISTORY
9 May 1888 – Francesco Baracca is born
On 9th May 1888, Count Francesco Baracca, the best Italian air ace of the Great War, was born. Francesco Luigi Giuseppe Baracca was born in Lugo (commonly referred to as Lugo di Romagna or Lugo […]
AVIATION HISTORY
2 May 1891 – Pierre van Ryneveld is born
On 2nd May 1891, the founding commander of the South African Air Force, General Sir Helperus Andreas van Ryneveld – commonly known as Pierre van Ryneveld – was born in Senekal, in the then Orange […]
SHORT AVIATION STORIES
John Trollope
John Lightfoot Trollope, a British air ace of the Great War, was born on 30 May 1897 in Wallington, Surrey. Trollope was attending college when the war broke out, but he managed to enlist at […]
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Sopwith Triplane
Sopwith Triplane (c/n N5486), exhibited at the Central Air Force Museum (Центральный музей Военно-воздушных сил РФ) in Monino, July 2017. In the middle of the Great War, the Sopwith aviation company developed a single-seat biplane […]
SHORT AVIATION STORIES
Roland Garros
Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros, the French aviation pioneer and fighter pilot, was born on 6th October 1888, in Saint-Denis, Réunion island. In 1909, Garros bought his first aircraft, an old Demoiselle, and began learning […]
SHORT AVIATION STORIES
AVIATION HISTORY
Forgotten pioneers – German flight endurance records of 1914
During the year 1914, German aviation pioneers set several flight endurance world records, successively increasing the time they spent in the air, without refuelling. Although the last record in that series remained unbroken for more […]
AVIATION HISTORY FRIDAY
18 March 1916 – Ernst Udet scores his first aerial victory
On 18th March 1916, Ernst Udet achieved his first of 62 air victories in the Great War, shooting down a French Farman F.40 aircraft. Ernst Udet, born on 26th April 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, […]
AVIATION HISTORY FRIDAY
30 July 1921 – François Durafour lands at Dôme du Goûter
François Durafour, a Swiss aviation pioneer, was born on 27th November 1888 in Geneva. After completing his mechanical studies, Durafour initially worked at Ateliers Sécherons and then in 1910 he was employed as Hanriot aeroplane […]