This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. For more exhaustive lists, see the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives[1] or the Aviation Safety Network[2] or the Scramble on-line magazine accident database.[3] Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number (c/n), exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames (if any) in quotation marks, flight callsign in italics, and operating units.
1861
21 July
Gen. Irvin McDowell requests that a balloon be brought to the front at the Battle of First Manassas, Centreville, Virginia. Mary Hoehling tells of the sudden appearance of Pennsylvania aeronaut[4]John Wise[5] who demanded that Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe stop his inflating of his balloon "Enterprise" and let him inflate his balloon instead. Wise had legal papers upholding his purported authority. Although Wise's arrival on the scene was tardy, he did inflate his balloon and proceeded toward the battlefield. On the way the balloon became caught in the brush and was permanently disabled. His balloon became lodged in trees, which eventually tore the fabric.[6] This ended Wise's bid for the position, and Lowe was at last unencumbered from taking up the task as Chief Aeronaut of the U.S. Army. "Lowe helped avoid panic after the First Battle of Manassas by ascending to a height of 3 miles and reporting that no Confederate forces were advancing on Washington."[7]
1895
4 July
A large German military balloon burst at the German Army's Balloon Department grounds. Five balloonists were injured.[8]
1907
28 May
Lieuts. Theodore Martin-Leake and William Caulfield of the British Army drown when their balloon crashes in Lyme Bay.[9][10]
2 June
Captain Arnaldo Ulivelli's balloon was hit by lightning while flying above a military parade in Rome. He suffered from broken bones and burns before dying four hours later in a military hospital.[9][11][12]
22 June
A military balloon falls and explodes in Debrecen, Austria-Hungary. Its crew of two French army officers and one Austrian army officer, and ten peasant men on the ground are killed. With thirteen fatalities it was the worst air accident until the 1913 Helgoland Island Air Disaster.[9]
30 November
The French Army's airship, Patrie, is blown away during a storm. It is last sighted near the Hebrides.
1908
20 May
Brazilian Lt. Juventino Fonseca died from injuries sustained when his balloon prematurely took off during military inspection due to a gust of wind. As his balloon was still tethered, it crashed into the ground over Manaos.[9][13]
Wright Model A crash on Fort Myer parade ground. Photo by C.H. Claudy.
17 September
Army Signal CorpsWright Model A, Army Signal Corps serial number 1, piloted by Orville Wright, crashes at Fort Myer, Virginia, killing Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge. During the flight, that had begun just after 0700 hrs., a propeller breaks and severs control wires. The trials continued the following year with a new smaller version of the Wright A which became the first military aircraft when purchased by the US Army. This aircraft served for two years and was retired on 4 May 1911. It is now on display at the Smithsonian InstitutionNational Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., after having been accepted for exhibition on 20 October 1911. Selfridge AFB, Michigan, was later named for the first U.S. military aircrash victim. Wright was hospitalized until 31 October 1908 and spent several more weeks on crutches.[14]
Capt. Louis F. Ferber, (1862–1909), of the French Army, is killed when he drags a wing during a low-altitude turn in a Voisin biplane at a flying meet at Boulogne, France, overturning the machine.[16][17][18] "Capt. Ferber was pinned to the ground."[19]
25 September
French Army airship La République crashes over Avrilly, Allier, killing its crew of four. It was caused by a broken propeller which sheared through the envelope causing rapid leakage. This crash marks the first military airship fatalities.
31 October
Lieut. Pietro Rovetti is killed when struck by an airship propeller during takeoff in Rome.[9][20]
5 November
The United States Army Wright Military Flyer, serial 1, piloted by Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm with 2nd Lieutenant Frederick E. Humphreys as passenger crashes into the ground at College Park Airport, Maryland, while executing a sharp right turn. The aircraft had lost altitude due to engine misfiring and the aircrew had not taken account of their proximity to the ground when banking the aircraft to the right. Both officers were unhurt but the aircraft required repairs.[21] The skids and the right wing had to be replaced.[22]
1910
20 August
Lt. Marquis Vivaldi[17] (also quoted as Lt. Pasqua Vivaldi),[23] of the Italian Army, is killed at Magliano, near Rome, in a Farman biplane. "In descending he lost control."[17] The 28 January 1911 issue of Flight states that the "Motor stopped and machine was smashed; he was killed instantly."[19][24]
3 December
The first multiple fatality airplane accident in history happened at Centocelle, near Rome, when Lt. Enrico Cammarota and Private S. Castellani became the 26th and 27th people to die in a aircraft crash.[25] Their Farman biplane broke during a turn and they died in a military hospital.
30 December
French aviator Lt. Jacques de Caumont, 28,[26] is killed in the 50 hp prototype Nieuport III[27] monoplane, at St. Cyr, this date,[16] when he suffers loss of control.[23]
1911
10 May
First U.S. Army pilot casualty, 2nd Lt. George Edward Maurice Kelly (1878–1911), London-born, and a naturalized United States citizen in 1902, is killed when he banks his Curtiss Type IV (or Curtiss Model D), Army Signal Corps serial number 2, sharply to avoid plowing into an infantry encampment near the present site of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston is renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then Kelly Field on 30 July 1917, and finally Kelly AFB on 29 January 1948.[28] Airframe rebuilt, finally grounded in February 1914, refurbished, and placed on display in the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Due to this crash, the commanding officer of Fort Sam Houston bans further training flights at the base, the flying facilities being moved to College Park Airport, College Park, Maryland in June–July 1911.[29] A replica of this airframe is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.[30]
18 August
The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1 crashes at Farnborough, pilot Lt. Theodore J. Ridge killed. Despite being Assistant Superintendent at the Factory, Ridge was an inexperienced pilot who had only been awarded his pilot's certificate the day before, and was described as "an absolutely indifferent flyer".[31] The combination of an unskilled pilot and a marginally controllable aircraft proved fatal: the S.E.1 stalled in a turn and spun in, killing Ridge.[32]
17 September
Lieutenant Reginald Archibald Cammell of the British Air Battalion was killed conducting a trial flight of an ASL Valkyrie Type B with his own engine fitted. The accident was not considered to be due to faults in the aircraft, but to have been caused by Cammell's lack of experience with the aircraft.[33]
18 November
First British seaplane to leave the water, and the first seaplane to take off from British waters, an Avro Type D, the first of six of the type, piloted by Royal Navy Commander Oliver Schwann, lifts off from Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-Furness, England, briefly, falls back into the water and is damaged.[34] His lack of training betrayed him, and the first take-off was not followed by the first successful landing. The Avro will be repaired.[35]
1912
11 June
Lieutenant Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr. (July 1887 – 11 June 1912) and Arthur L. Welsh (14 August 1881 – 11 June 1912) are killed in crash of Wright Model C, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4,[36] in College Park, Maryland. Hazelhurst was the third U.S. army officer to die in an aeroplane crash.[37][38] Airframe had recently been purchased by the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps.[39] The United States Army Signal Corps had established a series of tests for the aircraft, and Welsh and Hazelhurst were taking the Model C on a climbing test, one of the last in the series required by the Army. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft pitched over while making a turn and fell 30 feet (9.1 m) to the ground, killing both crew members. They had both been ejected from their seats, with Welsh suffering a crushed skull and Hazelhurst a broken neck.[40]The New York Times described Welsh as "one of the most daring professional aviators in America" and his flying partner Hazelhurst as being among the "most promising of the younger aviators of the army".[40] A board of officers was formed by the United States Secretary of WarHenry Lewis Stimson, which concluded that Welsh was at fault in the crash, having risen to 150 feet, with the plan to dive at a 45-degree angle in order to gain momentum for a climb, but had made the dive too soon, with the board's results reported in the June 29, 1912 issue of Scientific American. In a 2003 interview, a cousin of Welsh's reported the family's belief that the tests were run too rapidly and that Welsh was doomed to fail by carrying too much fuel and a passenger, giving a craft that would be unable to make the planned maneuver with the weight it was carrying.[41]
19 June
Capt. Marcel Dubois and Lt. Albert Peignan of the French Army were killed near Douai when their planes collided in mid-air, the first fatal mid-air collision in history.[42]
26 June
2nd Lt. Henry H. Arnold, holder of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate No. 29 and Military Aviator Certificate No. 2, after accepting the Army's first tractor airplane, Burgess Model H, Signal Corps 9, crashes into Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts after takeoff, receiving the scar on his chin that he shows distinctively for the rest of his life.[43]
5 July
Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Captain Eustace Loraine and his observer Staff Sergeant R H V Wilson were flying a Nieuport monoplane out of Larkhill, Wiltshire, England on a routine training flight. They were executing a tight turn when the aircraft fell towards the ground and crashed. Wilson was killed outright and although Loraine was speedily transported to Bulford Hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance, he died of his injuries only a few minutes after arriving at the hospital.[44][45] Loraine and Wilson were the first Flying Corps personnel to die in an aircraft crash while on duty. Later in the day an order was issued which stated "Flying will continue this evening as usual", thus beginning a British military aviation tradition.
31 July
An attempt by the U.S. Navy to catapult launch the Navy's first seaplane, a Curtiss A-3 (AH-3) pusher, at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., fails when a crosswind catches the aircraft halfway along the catapult and tosses it into the Anacostia River. Pilot uninjured.[46] A different source lists the location of the launch attempt as Annapolis, Maryland, the aircraft as the Curtiss A-1 (AH-1), and the pilot as Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, noting that the catapult was powered by compressed air, was fabricated by the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard from a design by Capt. Washington I. Chambers, and that the aircraft, not being secured to the catapult, reared up at mid-stroke where it was caught by the crosswind. This account, from an official U.S. Navy history, may be the more credible of the two versions. An accompanying photo (No. 650864) dated July 1912 showing the A-1 on the catapult at Annapolis supports the latter description. The first successful launch was accomplished on 12 November 1912 at the Washington Navy Yard by Ellyson in the A-3, according to this source, possibly accounting for the confusion.[47]
13 August
During air-ground maneuvers held by the U.S. Army, at Stratford, Connecticut, Pvt. Beckwith Havens of the 1st Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard, suffers engine failure in a Curtiss biplane at about 1000 ft (300 m) over a crowded parade ground, narrowly misses spectators and a cavalry troop as he swoops down, glides down the field and collides with a Burgess-Wright biplane that had just been flown by Lt. Benjamin Foulois, breaking off its tail. No injuries reported, and both aircraft are taken to hangars for repair.[48] Havens, a pilot employed by pioneer aircraft builder Glenn H. Curtiss, had enlisted in the New York National Guard as a private in June 1912. At the National Guard manoeuvers with the Army, he flew an aircraft that his employer had loaned him.[49]
Wright Model B wreckage at College Park Airport.
6 September
Capt. Patrick Hamilton and Lt. Wyness-Stuart of the Royal Flying Corps are killed when their Deperdussin monoplane breaks up in flight, crashing at Graveley, near Welwyn. The 60 hp (45 kW) Anzani-powered aircraft had been taken on strength by the army in January 1912.[14]
10 September
Lts. E. Hotchkiss and C. A. Bettington are killed when their Bristol-Coanda monoplane suffers a structural failure and crashes. This second accident involving a Royal Flying Corps monoplane in five days causes Col. Seely, Secretary of State for War, to issue a ban on monoplanes on 14 September. The ban will be reversed five months later when technical studies show that monoplanes are no more dangerous than biplanes.[14]
28 September
Wright Model B, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, crashes at College Park Airport, Maryland, killing two crew, Lieutenant L. C. Rockwell and Corporal Frank S. Scott. On 20 July 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School is named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in this crash, and Scott Field, Illinois is named for the first enlisted personnel killed in an aviation crash. Scott Air Force Base remains the only U.S. Air Force base named for an enlisted man.
1913
Painting of LZ18 descending in flames after engine fire, 17 October 1913.
February
Vickers E.F.B. 1 Destroyer (Experimental Fighting Biplane), the first of the Gunbus series of designs, contracted for in early 1913 by the Admiralty shortly after creation of the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912, a pusher design, completed and displayed at the 1913 Olympia Aero Show, crashes soon afterwards, possibly on its first flight. No production ordered.[50]
8 February
Russian pilot N. de Sackoff becomes the first pilot shot down in combat when his biplane, possibly a Maurice Farman MF.7, is hit by ground fire following bomb run on the walls of Fort Bizani during the First Balkan War. Flying for the Greeks, he comes down near small town of Preveza, on the coast N of the Aegean island of Levkas, secures local Greek assistance, repairs aircraft and resumes flight back to base.[51]
March
Royal Aircraft Factory B.S.1 (c.f. Blériot Scout, indicating a tractor aeroplane), the first aircraft in the world designed and built from the start as a single-engine, single-seat fighting scout, first flown in March 1913 by Geoffrey de Havilland, crashes later that same month from a flat spin, pilot suffering a broken jaw. Repaired and modified, but no production ordered.[52] Rebuilt as the B.S.2, then redesignated S.E.2 (Scout Experimental), and with enlarged vertical tail surfaces as the S.E.2A, and given serial 609, but still no production ordered.[53]
Lieutenant Desmond Arthur died when his Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 biplane, 205, collapsed without warning while flying over Montrose. This was Scotland's first fatal aircraft accident.
20 June
First fatality in U.S. Naval aviation occurs when flight instructor Ens. W.D. Billingsley, flying from theaviationencampment at Greenbury Point,Maryland, is thrown from pilot seat of the second Wright CH seaplane, B-2, at height of 1,600 feet in turbulent air over Annapolis, Maryland. Passenger Lt. John Henry Towers stays with airplane, sustaining injuries when it hits water. Design was modified conversion of Wright Model B with two pusher propellers driven through chains connected to a 60 hp (45 kW) Wright engine.[55]
23 June
The S-21 Sikorsky Russky Vityaz ("Russian Knight"), designed by Igor Sikorsky and built by the RBVZ, a redesigned variant of the Bolshoi Baltiski, as the first large aircraft intended exclusively as a bomber, first flies on this date, the world's first four-motored aircraft. It is lost in a freak accident during 1913 military trials when the Gnôme rotary on a Moller II pusher biplane (some sources cite a Morane design) tears loose and hits the giant bomber.[14]
17 July
Major Alexander William Hewetson of the 66th Battery Royal Field Artillery was killed flying near Stonehenge in Wiltshire. A stone memorial was erected near the spot. This can be seen by the road between the Stonehenge visitors' centre and the monument by the Fargo Wood.
4 September
U.S. Army 11th Cavalry 1st Lt. Moss Lee Love becomes the 10th fatality in U.S. army aviation history when his Wright Model C biplane crashes near San Diego, California during practice for his Military Aviator Test. On 19 October 1917, the newly-opened Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas is named in his honor.[56] Joe Baugher lists the fatal aircraft accident for this date as being Burgess Model J, Signal Corps 18, which dove into the ground killing its pilot.[57]
9 September
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 1, LZ14, pushed down into the North Sea in a thunderstorm, drowning 14 crew members. This was the first Zeppelin incident in which fatalities occurred.
13 October
Imperial German Air Force-Lt. Koening {Aviator # 166} killed in crash near Neuendorf Aerodrome near Berlin. Lts Soren and Rohstadt are injured while taking a flight between Berlin and Stuttgart[58]
17 October
Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 2, LZ18, destroyed by an exploding engine during a test flight – the entire crew of 28 was killed.[59]
24 November
Lieuts. Eric Lamar Ellington and Hugh M. Kelly of the 1st Aero Squadron, United States Army Aviation Corps, are killed this date in a fall of about eighty feet in a Wright Model C, Signal Corps 14. The accident occurred at ~0758 hrs. across the bay from San Diego, California on the grounds of the army school on North Island. On impact, the engine broke free, crushing the two aviators.[60] These were the eleventh and twelfth Army aviation casualties.[61]Ellington Field, Texas, which opens on 1 November 1917, is named for Lt. Ellington.[62]
U.S. Army Lt. Henry Post exceeds his previous altitude records by reaching 12,140 feet. During descent, the Wright Model C, Signal Corps 10, aircraft sustained damage (wing collapsed) and crashed into San Diego Bay,[57] killing Lt. Post. On 24 February, due to a large number of accidents and deaths, an Army board at the Signal Corps, Aviation School, San Diego, condemned all pusher airplanes. This recommendation basically condemned all Wright aircraft, which were all pushers.[64]
16 February
Lieutenant (jg) James M. Murray, Naval Aviator No. 10, on a flight at Pensacola, Florida, in the Burgess D-1 flying boat, crashes to the water from 200 feet and is drowned.[47] This was the first flying fatality at Pensacola and it came only two weeks after flight operations began there. Flights were suspended for two days out of respect for the lost aviator. Of the first ten Naval aviators, half would die in crashes.
9 March
Lieutenant Alejandro Bello Silva was a Chileanaviator who disappeared during his qualifying flight for certification as a military pilot. In the pre-dawn hours, this date, Lieutenant Silva was in the Lo Espejo aerodrome, where he was to take an examination to earn the designation Military Pilot. Bello and two companions had to complete the circuit from Lo Espejo to Culitrín, to Cartagena, and back to Lo Espejo, in the central region of Chile, in order to pass the exam. On the first attempt, the aviators had to return to base due to near-zero visibility caused by heavy fog. Bello damaged his aircraft during the landing, and switched to an 80 horsepower (60 kW) Sánchez-Besa biplane (tail number 13, nicknamed "Manuel Rodríguez") for the second attempt. He took off together with one companion and the instructor, who had to make an emergency landing for refueling. Nevertheless, Bello continued his route and was lost among the clouds. He was never seen again and many searches over time have failed to find any trace of him or his aircraft.[65][66]
First fatal mid-air between two machines of the Royal Flying Corps kills Capt. Ernest Vincent Anderson and his passenger Air Mechanic Henry Wifred Carter when their Sopwith Tractor Biplane, 324, was accidentally rammed by Lt. C. W. Wilson in another Sopwith, 325, of the same type. Wilson was returning from Brooklands and descending to land at Farnborough when he struck the other plane, which was climbing away from the aerodrome on a familiarization flight. Wilson escapes with bruises and a broken jaw. Both planes crash on the nearby Aldershot Golf Course 10th Green. Both machines and all three airmen were from No. 5 Squadron, RFC.[68]
4 June
First fatal British seaplane accident kills Lt. T. S. Cresswell and Cmdr. A. Rice of the Royal Navy. While ascending from the Calshot Air Station, the Short S.128 they are flying passes over motorboat on Southampton Water where Short's test pilot Gordon Bell and Lt. Spencer Grey are watching flight. At height of just over 200 feet, seaplane appears to break up and plummets into sea, killing both occupants. Some witnesses say that they believed that the seaplane stalled and that the wings folded up as structural limits were exceeded.[14]
20 June
While the Austro-HungarianairshipMilitärluftschiff III (or M.III) hovers over Fischamend testing new camera equipment, an Austro-Hungarian Army pilot tries to loop M.III in a Farmanbiplane. The airplane strikes the top of the airship, tearing a hole and igniting the escaping hydrogen gas. Both aircraft are destroyed, and both men in the airplane and all seven men aboard M.III are killed. It is the end of the Austro-Hungarian airship program.[69]
26 June
The prototype Bristol S.S.A. (for Single-Seat Armoured), c.n. 219, a Henri Coanda single-seat tractor biplane design intended for production France, crashes on landing at Filton when an undercarriage bracing wire fails. Pilot Harry Busteed slightly injured, but airframe is severely damaged. The French authorities however agree to accept delivery of the type at the Breguet factory, where it is rebuilt, and Bristol takes no further part in its development.[70]
26 July
Seventh aircraft erected at Tokorozawa Airfield, Japan, the Kaishiki Converted Type Mo (Maurice Farman Type), 7, crashed at this airfield while piloted by Capt. Tokugawa. When rebuilt, with completion on 19 January 1915, this 7th Type Mo 1913 became known as the Sawada Type No. 7, or more officially because of radical modifications, as the Kaishiki the 3rd Year Model.[71]
12 August
Sole Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4, 628, crashlands at 1145 hrs. while being flown by Lt. Norman Spratt when one of the wheels collapsed, airframe overturning, sustaining such extensive damage that it is abandoned.[72]
First aerial combat kill in history recorded when a Voisin pusher of Escadrille VB24, French Air Service, flown by Sgt. Joseph Frantz and Cpl. Quénault, downed a German two-seater Aviatik B.II, flown by Feldwebel Willhelm Schlichting with Oberleutnant Fritz von Zangen as observer,[73] over Jonchery, Reims, using what is believed to have been a Hotchkiss machine gun.[74]
1915
6 March
First fatal accident involving Japanese Naval aviators occurs when Yokosho Navy Type Mo Large Seaplane (Maurice Farman 1914 Seaplane), serial number 15, crashed at sea with Sub-Lieuts. Tozaburo Adachi and Takao Takerube, and W/O 3/c Hisanojo Yanase on board, all KWF.[75]
1 May
Air Mechanic William Thomas James McCudden of the Royal Flying Corps the elder brother of James McCuddenVC died when his Bleriot had engine trouble and crashed on 1 May 1915 at Fort Grange, Gosport.
8 May
Lieutenant (jg) Melvin L. Stolz, student aviator, is killed in a crash of the AH-9 hydroaeroplane at Pensacola, Florida.[47]
3 August
The German Main Headquarters communique released in Amsterdam this date, and reported by Reuters, states that "A French captive balloon, which was torn from its anchorage during a thunderstorm, was caught by us north-west of Etain."[76]
12 September
A Royal Naval Air Service Short S.38, 65, and a Caudron G.III, 3282, collide at Eastchurch, both pilots killed.[77]
17 November
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ52, L 18, destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refilling.
1916
22 March
Soldato Pilot Amico of 71 Squadriglia, Regio Esercito, was killed when he stalled his Nieuport X, 1452, and crashed near Cascina Farello, Italy.[78]
7 June
Sergente Gefli of 71 Squadriglia, Regio Esercito, was killed when his Nieuport collided with another Nieuport during simulated combat and crashed near Villaverla, Italy.[78]
German ace Max Immelmann (17 victories) is killed at ~2215 hrs. when his Fokker E.III monoplane, 246-16, crashes after breaking up in the air when the interrupter gear malfunctions and he shoots away his own propeller. He had been engaging an F.E.2b piloted by 2nd Lt. G. R. Gubbin with Cpl. J. H. Waller as gunner.[80] Gubbin and Waller were credited with the victory, but another theory posits that Immelmann may have taken hits from friendly AAA, as the propeller failure would not necessarily have caused the complete airframe disintegration that occurred.
Afternoon of 27 June
Fokker's chief designer and test pilot Martin Kreutzer takes a Fokker D.I for a test flight, but when he kicks the rudder hard over, it jams and he is severely injured in the subsequent crash, dying in hospital the next day.[81][82]
3 September
Imperial German Army ZeppelinLZ86, LZ56, crashed when the fore and aft nacelles broke away from the ship's hull after a raid.
Night of 6 September
The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Berlin, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototypeLFG Roland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.[83]
16 September
Two Imperial German Navy Zeppelins destroyed when L 6, LZ31, took fire during refilling of gas in its hangar at Fuhlsbüttel and burnt down together with L 9, LZ36.
21 September
One only prototype Avro 521 fighter, 1811, (a serial that duplicated one assigned to a Bleriot monoplane), assigned to Central Flying School Upavon, crashes killing pilot Lt. W. H. S. Garnett.[84]
26 September
Flying ace LeutnantMax Ritter von Mulzer (ten aerial victories credited), the first Bavarian fighter ace, first Bavarian ace recipient of the Pour le Merite, and first Bavarian knighted for his exploits, on this date sideslips Albatros D.I426/16 into a hard bank, loses control, and crashes at Armee Flug Park 6, Valenciennes, with fatal result.[85]
28 October
Undercarriage of German fighter pilot Erwin Böhme, diving on a British fighter, strikes upper wing of ace Oswald Boelcke's Albatros D.II, also pursuing the same target. Fabric peels loose, aircraft disappears into cloud – when it emerges, the top wing is gone. Boelcke makes relatively "soft" landing, but as he habitually flew without a helmet, and in haste to take off had not properly secured his seatbelt, he was killed on impact. He was 25, and was credited with 40 victories. Jasta 2 is officially named "Jasta Boelcke" on 17 December 1916 in honour of its former commander.
7 November
Imperial German Army ZeppelinLZ90, LZ60, broke loose in the direction of the North Sea in a storm and never seen again.
8 November
Lieutenant Clarence K. Bronson, Naval Aviator No. 15, and Lieutenant Luther Welsh, on an experimental bomb test flight at Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head, Maryland, were instantly killed by the premature explosion of a bomb in their plane.[47]
13 November
Sole prototype of the Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) V1, a single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage and pusher 160 hp (120 kW) Maybach Mb III engine, designed by Dipl-Ing Claudius Dornier, and built by the Abteilung 'Dornier' of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen, attempts initial flight. After a series of ground hops in September by Bruno E. Schröter, this pilot refused to fly the prototype due to pronounced tail-heaviness. Oblt. Haller von Hallerstein, instead undertakes initial flight this date, but the V1 performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot. No further development undertaken of the type.[86]
12 December
Sole prototype of Kishi No.2 Tsurugi-go ("Sword" type) Aeroplane, 'II', single-engine pusher biplane, makes first and last flight when Lt. Inoue lifts off, immediately banks sharply to port, wingtip contacts ground, airframe cartwheels sustaining considerable damage. Cause of accident assumed to be due to the sweptback wing design.[87]
28 December
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ69L 24, crashed into a wall while being "stabled", broke its back, and burned out together with L 17, LZ53.
29 December
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ84L 38, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing (due to heavy snowfall) during an attempted raid on Reval and Saint Petersburg.
1917
Sqn Cdr E. H. Dunning landing aboard HMS Furious in the Scapa Flow, in a Sopwith Pup, believed to have been N6453, 2 August 1917, five days before his fatal third attempt.
1 January
Five Royal Naval Air Service crew en route from Manston, England to Villacoublay, France in a Handley Page 0/100 bomber, run into clouds, lose their direction due to a compass fault, and land to ask directions. Unfortunately, they come down behind German lines at Chalandry, near Lâon, France, and before they can either burn the machine or take off, a German infantry patrol captures them and their intact bomber. An unconfirmed story states that Manfred von Richthofen flew this machine to 10,000 feet before the Kaiser at a later date.[88] Another source cites 2 February as the date of this incident.[89]
21 January
Sergente Menegoni of 71 Squadriglia, Regio Esercito, was killed when his Nieuport 11, 1622, suffered a structural failure of the wing struts and crashed.[78]
28 January
Royal Aircraft Factory test pilot Maj. Frank W. Goodden is killed in the second prototype S.E.5, A4562 at RAE Farnborough, when it breaks up in flight. At the time of his death, Goodden was one of Britain's most experienced pilots. Inspection found that the wings had suffered failure in downward torsion. Plywood webs were added to the compression ribs, curing the trouble and were standardized on all later S.E.5s and 5a's.[90][91]
Flight Sub-Lieutenant Ronald Victor Knight, Royal Naval Air Service, died at RAF Cranwell on 12 March 1917 where he was an assistant flying instructor. The engine of the plane in which he was flying failed and he dived to his death. He is buried in Wells Cemetery, Somerset and his name is shown on the war memorial in Wells.[92]
26 March
Ex-Royal Flying Corps pilot J. B. Fitzsimmons is killed while engaging in some low level aerobatics in a high wind in the sole Nestler Scout (no serial) when the fabric began stripping from the wings. Fitzsimmons crashes into a hangar and the airframe is wrecked. No further development work takes place on the design.[93]
June
During this month, six Russian Anatra D biplanes crash due to poor quality manufacturing, killing their pilots. The Russian aircraft builder was hampered by a shortage of high-quality wood and fabricated each wing spar in two pieces, overlapping at the joint by only 12 inches, held together with glue and tape.[94]
16 June
Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 40, LZ88, damaged beyond repair in a failed landing at Nordholz Airbase.
July
Even though Vickers already had experience in building promising tractor scouts, and the pusher-style Gunbus had been outmoded for two years in the presence of dedicated dogfighters, the company built one prototype Vickers F.B.25, powered by a 150-hp. direct-drive Hispano-Suiza engine in 1917, armed with one 1.59 inch Breech-Loading Vickers Q.F. Gun, Mk II (popularly known as the "Vickers Crayford rocket gun") in the nose as an anti-airship night fighter. A ten-inch searchlight was intended to be fitted in the extreme nose but there is no evidence that this was ever installed. Design underwent trials at Martlesham Heath in late June or early July, but crashed whilst landing in a strong wind, a trials report stating that due to poor controls, the aircraft proved to be "almost unmanageable in a wind over 20 mph". The serial of this aircraft is not known, although a document, traced recently, refers to it as No. "13", and it has been suggested that this may indicate A9813 – formerly a cancelled number intended for a Sopwith Triplane.[95]
Squadron Commander Edwin H. Dunning, RNAS, (17 July 1892 – 7 August 1917) during landing attempt aboard HMS Furious, Pennant number 47, in Sopwith Pup, N6452, decides to go around before touchdown, but Le Rhône rotary engine chokes, Pup stalls and falls into the water off the starboard bow. Pilot stunned, drowns in the 20 minutes before rescuers reach still-floating airframe. Dunning had made two previous successful landings on Furious, the first-ever aboard a moving vessel.[99]
25 August
Sole Vickers F.B.26 Vampire, B1484, piloted by Vickers test pilot Harold Barnwell, crashes at Joyce Green, when he attempts a spin without sufficient altitude for recovery. Pilot KWF.[100]
17 September
A kite balloon from the USS Huntington was hit by a squall and while being hauled down struck the water so hard that the observer, Lieutenant (jg) Henry W. Hoyt, was knocked out of the basket and caught underwater in the balloon rigging. As the balloon was pulled toward the ship, Patrick McGunigal, Ships Fitter First Class, (30 May 1876 – 19 January 1936) jumped overboard, cleared the tangle and put a line around Lieutenant Hoyt so that he could be hauled up on deck. For this act of heroism, McGunigal was later awarded the Medal of Honor,[101] the first of the Great War. The Huntington was convoying six troopships across the Atlantic to France and the balloon observation was being made as it transited the war zone.
19 October
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ50L 16, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing near Brunsbüttel.
29 October
Lt. Heinrich Gontermann, known as the Balloon Strafer, receives fatal injuries when the Fokker Dr.I115/17, of Jasta 15, he is performing aerobatics over his airfield at 1,500 feet in, suffers structural failure as the top wing breaks up, crashes, suffers grievous facial injuries, dies the following day. The Triplane had been delivered to Jasta 15 on 22 October but foul weather kept it grounded until the 28th. Gontermann had scored 21 airplane kills and 18 balloons.[102]
31 October
Fokker Dr.I121/17, flown by Lt. Pastor from Jasta 11, one of the JG.1 units under Manfred von Richthofen, suffers structural failure and crashes. Second such crash in three days causes all Fokker Triplanes to be grounded immediately with affected flight crew reverting temporarily to Albatros D.Va and Pfalz D.III scouts. Accidents are investigated 2 November, reports issued 13 days later. Instructions for manufacturing and assembly improvements are implemented, production and flying resume 28 November.[14]
22 November
A Tellier T.3 seaplane piloted by U.S. Navy Ensign Kenneth R. Smith, with Electrician's Mate Wilkinson and Machinist's Mate Brady on board, was forced down at sea on a flight out of NAS LeCroisic, France, to investigate the reported presence of German submarines south of Belle Isle. Two days later, and only minutes before their damaged aircraft sank, they were rescued by a French destroyer. It was the first armed patrol by a U.S. Naval Aviator in European waters.[101]
December
Second prototype Sopwith Snipe, B9963, tricky to fly as its 230 hp (170 kW) Bentley BR2rotary engine had immense torque that made directional control difficult, as well as being tail heavy while climbing, and nose heavy while diving, crashes, probably at RAE Farnborough, England.[103] This airframe may have been a rebuild of B.R.1-engined prototype.[104]
1 December
A Caproni Ca.4 bomber, c/n 5349,[105] which arrived at Langley Field, Virginia, as part of a shipment of various Italian aircraft in September 1917, but whose erection was delayed by lack of an appropriate hangar, is finally readied for flight on this date. Upon takeoff, one motor fails and unable to maintain airspeed on the remaining two powerplants, the airframe piles up on the edge of the field. No injuries, but the airframe is a total loss.[106]
12 December
North Sea class blimp N.S.5 sets off for RNAS East Fortune, but both engines fail within sight of her destination, and she drifts with the wind for about 10 miles (16 km) before they can be restarted. However, since both engines continue to be troublesome it is decided to make a "free balloon" landing, but the ship is damaged beyond repair during the attempt.
1918
Early 1918
Sole prototype of the Curtiss CB (Curtiss Battleplane), unofficially known as the "Liberty Battler", 34632, an experimental two-seat fighter developed and flown early in this year as a result of difficulties being experienced with the Liberty-engined version of the Bristol F2B, proves to have extremely poor handling characteristics and subsequently crashes early in its test programme.[107] Three additional airframes, 34633-34635, cancelled.[108]
5 January
Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 47, LZ87, destroyed by a giant explosion at the air base in Ahlhorn, along with L 46, LZ94, L 51, LZ97, and L 58, LZ105, and one non-Zeppelin-type airship, stabled in three adjacent hangars. This is supposed to have been an accident, though sabotage could not be ruled out.
7 February
During U.S. Navy tests of a converted Curtiss N-9 biplane as an unpiloted flying bomb, equipped with a Sperry automatic control, Lawrence Sperry takes it up to prove airworthiness of the design, crashes, but pilot unhurt.[109]
Night of 7/8 March
Captain Henry Clifford Stroud (July 1893 – 7 March 1918)[110] of No. 61 Squadron RFC, Rochford Aerodrome, Essex, flying an S.E.5a, B679, and Capt Alexander Bruce Kynoch (5 January 1894 – 7 March 1918) of No. 37 Squadron RFC in a Royal Aircraft Factory BE 12, C3208,[111][112] out of Stow Maries Aerodrome, Essex, are killed in a midair collision over Shotgate about midnight.[113] Kynoch took off at 2329 hrs. while Stroud took off at 2330 hrs., both attempting to intercept a German raider headed for London, but collided on a moonless night, both coming down in Dollymans Farm.[114] Stroud is buried in the churchyard of St. Andrews Church in Rochford. Kynoch is buried in St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery in north London.[112]
10 March
Sole prototype Nieuport B.N.1, C3484, operating out of Sutton's Farm, a home aerodrome, Great Britain, catches fire in the air and is destroyed. No further development undertaken.[115]
28 March
Sole prototype of the Breguet LE (Laboratoire Eiffel), a single-seat fighter monoplane, crashes on its second flight, out of Villacoublay, France, when it dives into the ground at full-throttle, killing pilot Jean Sauclière. Further development suspended.[116]
4 April
Royal Flying CorpsSPAD 12, S.449/B6877, equipped with engine No. 9253, crashes during flight from Martlesham Heath to the Isle of Grain. Records do not indicate any attempts to repair or replace the sole example of this model received by the RFC.[117]
2 May
de Havilland DH.4M, AS-32084,[118] during test flight of the Liberty engine by Major Oscar Brindley, "the Army's most experienced pilot", and Lt. Col. Henry Damm, out of McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, takes off at maximum weight, stalls before clearing "the small maple trees that bordered the field and crashed to the ground before the eyes of horrified witnesses. Maj. Brindley died instantly, and Lt. Col. Damm passed away on the trip to the hospital." The cause was found to be a spark plug that "had jammed itself between the wing's trailing edge and aileron, making it impossible for Brindley to control the craft."[119]
9 May
U.S. Army Maj. Harold Melville Clark accomplishes first three-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands when he and mechanic Sgt. Robert Gray depart from Fort Kamehameha in a Curtiss R-6 of the 6th Aero Squadron, make a stop in Maui, and then continue to the island of Hawaii. Clark encounters fog and darkness over the island, causing him to crash in the jungle near Hilo. Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerge from the Hawaiian jungle unhurt. According to Harold Richards in "The History of Army Aviation in Hawaii", Clark accomplished another "first" on this flight as he had agreed to deliver two letters from Oahu residents to their relatives on Hawaii. After emerging from the jungle, Clark delivers the letters to their intended recipients. Thus, Clark carried the first letters by airmail in the Hawaiian Islands.[120]
19 May
First prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5429, crashes during test program while with No. 65 Squadron when the pilot has to avoid a tender crossing the aerodrome responding to another crash.[121]
3 June
One Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, a four-engined Germanbiplanestrategic bomber, modified as a float-equipped seaplane for the Marine-Fliegerabteilung (Imperial German Naval Air Service), with the designation Type L, serial 1432, using Maybach engines, first flown on 5 September 1917, crashes during testing on this date.[122][123]
8 June
First prototype Handley Page V/1500 bomber, E4104, powered by tandem pairs of Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, first flown on 22 May 1918, crashes on thirteenth flight while piloted by Capt. Vernon E. G. Busby when all four engines quit at 1,000 feet altitude (300 m), possibly due to fuel starvation. Pilot attempts turn back to airfield but stalls and spins in. Four riding in the forward fuselage are killed on impact, two in rear rescued before airframe is consumed by fire, but one dies later of injuries. As aircraft was destroyed by post-crash fire, no determination could be made of cause of accident. Although two V/1500s of 166 Squadron are ready for a mission on 8 November 1918, bad weather cancels raid, and with the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 the type never flies operationally.[124]
19 June
Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register, is killed in the crash of his DH.4M, AS-32098, at Wilbur Wright Field during a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing machine gun and propeller, when a tie rod breaks during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft. Wishing to recognize the contributions of the Patterson family (owners of NCR) the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Wilbur Wright Field, Fairfield Air Depot, and the Huffman Prairie) is renamed Patterson Field on 6 July 1931, in honor of Lt. Patterson.
9 July
The fourth-highest-scoring British ace of the Great War, Maj. James Thomas Byford McCudden, is killed when he side-slips into the ground while trying to return to the airfield at Auxi-le-Château after the engine of his S.E.5a cuts out. McCudden had taken off to fly to his new command, No. 60 Squadron RAF. He had 57 aerial victories.[125]
Between 27 July and 1 August
Third prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5431, crashes in France before a newly-applied disruptive camouflage scheme can be evaluated.[126]
28 July
Royal Air Force Sopwith DolphinE4449 flown by Tone Bayetto crashed in Hampshire, England when the wings folded back and it dived into the ground from 200 feet.[127]
10 August
Lt. Erich Loewenhardt, third-highest-scoring German ace of the Great War, is KWF when the wheels of a Fokker D.VII flown by Lt. Alfred Wentz of Jasta 11 (also spelt Wenz in some sources) collide with the wing of his own Fokker D.VII, causing it to crash. He bails out but his chute fails to open. Lowenhardt, posted to JG.1, and flying with Jasta 10 from July 1917, scored 53 victories before his death. Wentz successfully bails out of his stricken fighter.[128]
First of three crashes of new Fokker E.V. (Eindekker V, or monoplane five), six of which are delivered to Jasta 6 of the Imperial German Air Service on 7 August, to occur in a week, kills Leutnant Emil Rolff when wing fails, and, like the Fokker Triplane before it, the type is grounded for investigation. Problem traced to shoddy workmanship at the Mecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them are discovered. Upon return to service two months later, design is renamed the Fokker D.VIII in an effort to distance type's reputation as a killer. Rolff had scored the first kill in the type on 17 August.[129][130]
"By Associated Press to THE SUN - MATHER FIELD, Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7. - Flying Cadets William G. Wilson, of Berkeley, California, and a son of J. Stitt Wilson, at one time a candidate for the socialist party for governor of California, and James H. Wilson. of Pueblo, Colorado, met death today when their airplanes collided in the air. The accident occurred at the south end of the field. They were not related. Civilians who witnessed the collision said the airplanes came together head on. One of the airplanes tumbled downward and crashed to the earth, while the other seemed to be descending for a landing, witnesses said. William G. Wilson was killed instantly. He suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries. James E. Wilson was removed to the base hospital where he died about 25 minutes after the accident. He suffered internal injuries and his thigh was injured. The bodies of the two cadets were taken to an undertaking establishment in Sacramento where they will remain pending instructions from the relatives. They were draped with American flags. The cadets were flying at an altitude of about 3,500 feet when the airplanes came together. The accident occurred near Walsh station, a short distance from the southern end of the field. The wrecked airplanes fell to earth at points about a half mile apart."[133]Curtiss JN-4Ds AS-3673 and AS-3995 written off in this accident.[134]
11 September
Third prototype Vickers Vimy, B9954, crashes during testing – stalls on takeoff with full load at Martlesham Heath, bomb load explodes, pilot killed.[135]
25 September
Chief Machinist's Mate Francis E. Ormsbee went to the rescue of two men in a aircraft which had crashed in Pensacola Bay, Florida. He pulled out the gunner and held him above water until help arrived, then made repeated dives into the wreckage in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the pilot. For his heroism, Chief Ormsbee was awarded the Medal of Honor.[101]
1919
1 February
Flt. Lt. Frank Lloyd, attached to No. 61 Squadron RAF, left Rochford Aerodrome, Essex, in a Sopwith Camel biplane accompanied by another aircraft. His plane subsequently was flying very low over Westcliff-on-Sea, and just missing house roofs, it hit a trolley standard, then swerved and hit a large tree, removing many branches, turned over and crashed to the ground in allotments by Fairmead Avenue and burst into flames. Various people rushed to rescue Lloyd but he died of multiple injuries. He had been married just two weeks.[136]
4 February
First of three Bristol F.2C Badger prototypes, F3495, suffers crash landing when its 320 hp (240 kW) ABC Dragonfly I nine-cylinder radial engine fails during the type's first take-off due to an air lock in the fuel feed. Pilot Cyril Uwins unhurt.[137] Aircraft is subsequently rebuilt and flown.[138]
A U.S. Army seaplane en route on afternoon flight from Balboa, Panama to France Field, near present-day Colón, Panama, with three aviators on board, suffers engine failure shortly after departure. Pilot Lt. J. R. L. Hitt attempts landing on Miraflores Lake but aircraft falls short and hits the front of the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal at ~1700 hrs. Airframe crumples "like a house of cards", according to account published by the Panama Star & Herald on 3 May. Hitt, Lt. Thomas Cecil Tonkin, and Maj. Harold Melville Clark (4 October 1890 – 2 May 1919) are all thrown from the aircraft into the water of the lock. "Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine. ...Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it's not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned", stated the article. Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but was rescued by bystanders. The Panama Star & Herald reported that a diver was sent to retrieve Clark's body. The Army rules his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by "aeroplane traumatism", according to a War Department report on Clark's death dated 8 May 1919, and awards his mother $10,000. Clark is buried 29 May 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Clark had made the first-ever inter-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands on 15 March 1918, in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron. Fort Stotsenburg, established in the Philippines in 1902, is renamed Clark Air Base with the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.[120]
26 May
Monstrous Royal Air Force three-wing, six-engine Tarrant Tabor bomber, F1765, attempts first flight at Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, noses over on lift-off, forward fuselage crushed back to the wing, both crew, Capts. F. G. Dunn and P. T. Rawlings killed. No second prototype is ever built. The Tarrant Tabor F1765 after its crash
8 June
Biplane bomber, Cierva BCD3 (Barcala-Cierva-Diaz), designed by Juan de la Cierva, reminiscent of the German Gotha, powered by a trio of 220 hp Hispano Suiza engines, called El Cangrejo (The Crab), is destroyed on a test flight when it stalls[141] close to the ground. Pilot, Capt. Julio Rios Argiieso[142][143] (also reported as Angueso),[144] is shaken up but survives. Project is abandoned.
2 July
U.S. Navy blimp C-8 explodes while landing at Camp Holabird, Maryland, injuring ~80 adults and children who were watching it. Windows in homes a mile away are shattered by the blast.[145][146]
15 July
Royal NavyNorth Sea class airship N.S.11 burns over the North Sea off Norfolk, England, killing twelve.[147][148] In the early hours of 15 July on what was officially supposed to be a mine-hunting patrol, she was seen to fly beneath a long "greasy black cloud" off Cley next the Sea on the Norfolk coast and a massive explosion was heard shortly after. A vivid glare lasted for a few minutes as the burning airship descended, and finally plunged into the sea after a second explosion. There were no survivors, and the findings of the official Court of Enquiry were inconclusive, but amongst other possibilities it was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion.[149]
Summer
Sole flying prototype of Curtiss 18-B two-bay biplane version of 18-T triplane trainer, USAAS 40058, 'P-86', crashes early in flight trials at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. Type not ordered into production. One non-flying prototype also delivered for static testing.[150]
1 August
Top World War I Russian ace Aleksandr Kazakov (32 kills, but only 20 officially)[151] is killed in the crash of what was probably a Sopwith Camel. On 1 August 1918 Kazakov became a major in the Royal Air Force and was appointed to be commanding officer in charge of an aviation squadron of the Slavo-British Allied Legion made up of Camels. After the British withdrawal from Russia which left the Russian White Army in a desperate situation, Kazakov died in a aircraft crash during an air show on this date which was performed to boost the morale of the Russian anti-Bolshevik troops. Most witnesses of the incident thought Kazakov committed suicide.[152]
10 August
Lts. Harold G. Peterson, pilot, and Paul H. Davis, observer-gunner, depart from Marfa Field, in the Big Bend area of Texas, on a routine Sunday morning patrol of the U.S.-Mexican border, in Curtiss JN-4D, 24146, based at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas,[153] "Their mission was to patrol along the Rio Grande from Lajitas to Bosque Bonito and then land at Fort Bliss. Coming to the mouth of the Rio Conchos at Ojinaga, Chihuahua (opposite Presidio, Texas), they mistook the Conchos for the Rio Grande and followed it many miles into Mexico before being forced down by engine trouble. Thinking they were still on the Rio Grande, the airmen picked a spot on the "American" side of the river to land. The terrain was rough and the plane was wrecked. Having buried the machine-guns and ammunition to keep it out of the hands of bandits, Peterson and Davis started walking down the river, thinking they would come to the U.S. Cavalry outpost at Candelaria, Texas." It is assumed when they fail to arrive at Fort Bliss that they have either returned to Marfa or had been forced down. A search is begun on 11 August as far south as Chihuahua City, but the flyers, caught in thick brush, are not seen when overflown on 12 August by a plane following the Conchos. Search continues until Sunday, 17 August, when word is received by Capt. Leonard F. ("Two-Gun") Matlack, commanding Troop K, 8th Cavalry, at Candelaria, that the airmen are being held for ransom. "The flyers had been taken prisoner on Wednesday, August 13, by a Villista desperado named Jesus Renteria. The bandit sent the ransom note to a rancher at Candelaria, along with telegrams which he forced the airmen to write to their fathers and the Secretary of War, the Commanding General of the Southern Department, and the Commanding Officer of U.S. forces in the Big Bend District. Renteria demanded $15,000 not later than Monday, August 18, or the two Americans would be killed." The War Department authorizes the payment, and local ranchers subscribe to the full amount so that it can be disbursed from the Marfa National Bank. Negotiations through intermediaries see Captain Matlack crossing the border on Monday night to swap half the money for one American. All goes smoothly and in 45 minutes he returns with Lieutenant Peterson. But en route to the rendezvous with the other half of the ransom, Matlack overhears Renteria's men discussing killing both Americans once they have the money. At the meeting, Matlack pulls a gun, directs the Mexicans to tell Renteria to "go to hell", and, avoiding the ambush, rides back across the border with Lieutenant Davis. On Tuesday, 19 August, Capt. Matlack leads Troops C and K, 8th Cavalry, in pursuit of Renteria and his gang. Air Service planes scout ahead, and 1st Lts. Frank Estill and Russell H. Cooper spot three horsemen in a canyon ~12–15 miles W of Candelaria in late afternoon. When they close for a look, the riders fire on the DH.4. Estill makes a firing pass with his machine guns and Cooper opens up with his Lewis guns, killing one man, reportedly Renteria. The search for the gang continues until 23 August when, with the Mexican government protesting the invasion of its territory, American forces return to the U.S.[154] The loss of JN-4D 24146 was recorded 13 August.[153]
8 October
During the first (and only) transcontinental reliability and endurance test, an air race between Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York and the Presidio of San Francisco, California, Brig. Gen. Lionel Charlton, Royal Air Force, the British Air Attaché, hits a fence during a forced landing near Ithaca, New York in his Bristol F.2 Fighter, 2nd Lt. George C. McDonald hits a ditch when engine trouble in his unspecified type (probably a de Havilland) forces him down at Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and 1st Lt. D. B. Gish's DH-4 catches fire over Livingston County in western New York state, and he makes an emergency landing. Neither he, nor his passenger, Capt. Paul de la Vergne of the French air service and French Air Attaché, are injured, but the aircraft is written-off. A forced landing kills Sgt. W. H. Nevitt when the Liberty L-12 engine of the DH-4B piloted by Col. Gerald C. Brant fails after an oil line breaks. Plane plunges to the ground near Deposit, New York when power is lost on landing, killing Nevitt and injuring Brant. Of entrants flying from the Presidio to New York, one DH-4B crashes attempting to land at Salt Lake City, Utah, killing pilot Maj. Dana H. Crissy, commander of Mather Field, California, and his mechanic, SFC Virgil Thomas.[155] The flying field at the Presidio is subsequently named Crissy Field.
9 October
Continuing the cross-country contest, a DH-4B hits the side of a mountain W of Cheyenne, Wyoming, killing 1st Lt. Edwin V. Vales and badly injuring 2nd Lt. William C. Goldsborough.[155] Lt. A. M. Roberts and his observer survive a close call when, in an effort to make up for lost time, Roberts chooses the direct route, over Lake Erie, between Buffalo and Cleveland. His engine fails, and he has to ditch in the lake. Luckily, a passing freighter sees the crash and picks up the two men.[156]
10 October
On third day of transcontinental contest, an east-bound DH-4B, piloted by Maj. Albert Sneed, almost out of gas, makes fast landing at Buffalo, New York. Passenger Sgt. Worth C. McClure undoes his seatbelt and slides onto the rear fuselage to weight down the tail for a quicker stop. Plane bounces on landing, smashes nose-first into the ground, and McClure is thrown off and killed.[157]
15 October
Two more fatalities are recorded in the transcontinental endurance test when 2nd Lts. French Kirby and Stanley C. Miller die in an emergency landing in their DH-4 near the Wyoming–Utah border when they suffer engine failure near Evanston, Wyoming. During the two-week test, 54 accidents wreck or damage planes. Twenty-nine result from motor trouble, 16 from bad landings, 5 from poor weather, 2 when pilots lose their way, 1 in take-off, and 1 by fire. In 42 cases the accident meant the end of the race for the pilot. Seven fatalities occur during the race, one in a de Havilland DH-4B, the others in DH-4s.[158] Lt. John Owen Donaldson was awarded the Mackay Gold Medal for taking first place in the Army's only transcontinental air race.[159]Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, would be eventually named for the Great War ace (eight credited victories).
Autumn
A Caquot Type R observation balloon, manufactured by Goodyear, being deflated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, explodes, with 24 soldiers handling sand bags on the leeward side of the balloon receiving burns. A dramatic photo exists of men bolting away from the airship as it ignites.[160] Nearly 1,000 were manufactured in 1918–1919. A Type R is displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, thought to be the sole survivor of some manufactured in Great Britain during WW II.[161]
Nieuport 28C-1, U.S. Navy BuNo A5794, crashes on turret on takeoff from USS Arizona, operating in Caribbean waters. Obtained from Army after Armistice.
19 April
Two aircraft written-off in separate accidents at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.[165] The forced landing after engine failure of an SE-5A, serial not recorded, flown by R. S. Haynes, near the U.S. Soldier's Home in northwest Washington, D.C., shows in reports dated 20 April.[166]
19 April
"MODESTO, April 19. - Lieutenant W. M. Randolph of Rockwell Field, driving his German Fokker plane W-7 [actually a Fokker D.VII] from Rockwell Field to the aeronautical show at San Francisco, wrecked the plane here this afternoon when he attempted to make a landing at the edge of the aviation field. The under part of the machine was completely torn away, but the pilot escaped without injury. His engine was stopped when he attempted to alight, and when the wheels struck a ditch he was unable to get the engine started in time to take the air again, and the Fokker, making a leap of about 50 feet, turned turtle and was put out of commission. The dismantled machine will be shipped to San Francisco.[167] Captain William Millican Randolph will die in the crash of a Curtiss AT-4 Hawk on 17 February 1928, and Randolph Field, Texas, will be named in his honor.
22 April
Three more aircraft are wrecked at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.,[155] including Airco DH.4, AS-32562, piloted by Harold A. McGinniss, heavily damaged in a forced landing.[166] Source lists it as a DH-4M, but this is suspect as that model does not appear until 1923.[168]
22 May
Bristol F.2C Badger partial prototype, completed in 1919 for aerodynamic tests, using Armstrong-Siddeley Puma engine, but only the wings and undercarriage of the Badger design (and locally referred to as the Badger X – for experimental) crashes this date. It is entered on the civil register as K110, AFTER it has already been written off.[50]
Dundalk Flying Field, opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1920, is almost immediately renamed Logan Field when, on this date, Army Lt. Patrick H. Logan is fatally injured after his Nieuport 28, F6506,[172] nicknamed the "Red Devil", crashes at the airport's inaugural air show following a stall/spin.[173] In response to the tragedy, the airfield is renamed in his honor, with the announcement of the new name being made at the closing ceremonies of the airshow during which he died.
8 July
Five Mexican military flyers are killed late this date in the crash of a Farman biplane, which falls 1,900 feet and comes down near La Colorada, Mexico. The plane was en route north from Mexico City with seven on board.[174]
12 August
Lt. William Calvin Maxwell, 28, of the 3d Aero Squadron, Camp Stotsenberg in Luzon, Philippines, a native of Atmore, Alabama, is killed in an aviation crash in the Philippines. While on a flight from Camp Stotsenberg to Manila,[175] engine trouble forced Lt. Maxwell to attempt to land his DH-4, AS-23587,[166] in a sugarcane field. Maneuvering to avoid a group of children playing below, he struck a flagpole hidden by the tall sugarcane and was killed instantly. On the recommendation of his former commanding officer, Maj. Roy C. Brown, Montgomery Air Intermediate Depot, Montgomery, Alabama, was renamed Maxwell Field on 8 November 1922.[176]
2 October
U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. William Merrill Corry, Jr. (5 October 1889 – 6 October 1920), of Quincy, Florida, designated Naval Aviator No. 23 in March 1916, while on a flight from Long Island, New York, with another pilot, the aircraft crashes, with Corry earning the Medal of Honor "for heroic service in attempting to rescue a brother officer from a flame-enveloped airplane near Hartford, Connecticut. On 2 October 1920, an airplane in which Lieutenant Commander Corry was a passenger crashed and burst into flames. He was thrown 30 feet clear of the aircraft and, though injured, rushed back to the burning machine and endeavored to release the pilot. In so doing he sustained serious burns, from which he died four days later." [177] In 1923, Corry Field, a new satellite airfield for Naval Air Station Pensacola, is named in his honor. Three U.S. Navy destroyers have been named USS Corry, a Clemson-class in 1921, a Gleaves-class in 1941, and a Gearing-class, in 1945.
1921
23 March
In an all-night training flight, a U.S. Navy free balloon, A-5597, launches from NAS Pensacola, Florida, with five crew and drifts over the Gulf of Mexico. Two messages received by pigeon indicate it first is 20 miles from St. Andrews Bay, then that all ballast had been dropped and that it was at 100 feet and descending. On 8 April 1921, a fishing vessel finds the balloon floating on the sea, with the gondola three and a half fathoms under water.[178]Nothing is ever found of Chief Quartermaster E. W. Wilkinson, enlisted men R. V. Wyland, E. L. Kershaw, and J. P. Elder, and Marine Corps member W. H. Tressey.[179]Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R-38/USN ZR-2 airship, 24 August 1921.
28 May
Seven men, five of the Army and two civilians, were killed in the wreck of an Army Curtiss Eagle ambulance airplane, USAAS 64243,[180] of the 1st Provisional Air Brigade,[181] at Morgantown, Maryland, near Indian Head, 40 miles southeast of Washington, in a terrific wind and electrical storm at 1825 hrs. The dead were: Lieutenant Colonel Archie Miller, U.S.A., M. H., Washington, D.C.; Maurice Connolly of Dubuque, Iowa, formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives; A. G. Batchelder of Washington, chairman of the Board of the American Automobile Association; Lieutenant Stanley M. Ames of Washington, pilot of the wrecked plane; Lieutenant Cleveland M. McDermott, Langley Field, Virginia; Lieutenant John M. Pennewill, Langley Field, Virginia; and Sergeant Mechanic Richard Blumenkranz, Washington. Army Air Service officers said the accident was the worst in the history of aviation in the United States and that it was one of the few in which all of the passengers in a falling aircraft had been killed almost instantly. The ship struck the ground nose first and the impact was so great that the big 400-horsepower Liberty motor in the front end of the craft was torn from its chassis and thrown back into the cockpit on top of the pilot and the passengers. All the bodies were mutilated. The Curtiss-Eagle was returning from a trip to Langley Field, near Newport News, Virginia, where it had departed at 1630 hrs., and had just crossed the Potomac River, when it ran into the storm which had passed over Washington an hour before.[182]
"SAN FRANCISCO, July 7. - An army observation balloon, up in training work, fell 2000 feet into the bay today. The crew was rescued by a tug sent out from Angel island. No one was injured. Overloading is said to have been the cause of the accident."[184]
12 July
Major Sheldon Harley Wheeler is killed in the crash of DH-4B, AS-63525,[185] on take off from Luke Field, Ford Island, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. He was commander of Luke Field at the time of his death. In February 1922 construction began on a new airfield in the Wahiawa District of the Island and on 11 November it was named Wheeler Field in his honour.
19 July
USAAS pilot 1st Lt. Willard S. Clark is killed at Ellington Field, Texas, when his Orenco D enters a spin at low altitude and plunges to the ground. All aircraft manufactured in this batch are grounded.[186]
24 August
During its fourth flight, the British airshipR38 (ZR-2), due to be delivered to the United States Navy as the ZR-2, broke in two on a test flight near Hull, England, the forward half falling into the Humber River whereupon spilt gasoline on the water caught fire, while the stern, not in flames, settled on a sandbar. The ship had been undergoing turning trials, at 63 mph at 2,500 feet, with the rudders worked to their maximum, causing the lightweight structure to fail.[187] 44 died, including British Air CommodoreE.M. Maitland, Leader of Airships, and 16 Americans.[187][188] Maxfield Field at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, named 6 January 1944 in honor of Commander Louis H. Maxfield, Naval Aviator No. 17, who lost his life in the R38 crash.[189]
31 August
U.S. Navy airship D-6, A5972, with a C-type envelope built by Goodyear in 1920 and a special enclosed car built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, is destroyed [190] in the Naval Air Station Rockaway hangar gasoline[191] fire[192] along with two small dirigibles, the C-10 and the Goodyear airship H-1, A5973, the sole H-model, a powered two-seat observation balloon built along the lines of the commercial Goodyear "Pony Blimp",[193] and the kite balloon A-P.
29 September
First Orenco D manufactured by Curtiss, 63281, McCook Project Number 'P163', loses entire leading edge of its upper wing, crashing at McCook Field, Ohio. An investigation by an officer of the flying test section of the USAAS Engineering Division reveals that the Orenco Ds are badly constructed, no fewer than 30 defects and faulty fittings being recorded in the published report, forcing the Air Service to withdraw all Orenco Ds from use (Joe Baugher cites date of 28 September).[186]
28 December
Second Lieutenant Samuel Howard Davis (1896–1921) is killed in the crash of Curtiss JN-6HG-1 (possibly USAAS serial 44796, seen wrecked at Carlstrom AAF, date unknown)[194] in which he was a passenger, at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida. Davis-Monthan Landing Field, later Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, is named in part for him, 1 November 1925. He attended high school in that community.[195]
1922
21 February
U.S. Army semi-rigid (blimp with a keel) Roma, bought from Italy, formerly T34, suffers control box failure at stern in flight, nosed into the ground, struck power lines at Army supply base, Norfolk, Virginia, and burst into flames, killing 34 of 45 on board, including Capt. Dale Mabry, its commander. This would remain the worst American aviation accident until the loss of the USS Akron in 1933.[196]22 February 1922 Langley Field base newspaper extra edition about the Roma Tragedy Accident spurs American lighter-than-air operations to switch to helium, less buoyant than hydrogen, but non-inflammable. Dale Mabry Municipal Airport in Tallahassee, Florida, that city's first airport, was named after Mabry, a Tallahassee native.
Army airmen Lieutenant Robert O. Hanley (also reported as Robert E. Hanley) and Sergeant Arthur Opperman are killed near Louisville, Kentucky, when their DH.4, U.S. Army Air Service serial number not recorded, crashes while making a sharp banking turn. Airframe destroyed by post-crash fire.[199] The men were airborne to photograph the airshow that was to shortly begin.[200] The aircraft was assigned to the 7th Photo Section at Godman Field, Camp Knox, Kentucky.[199]
23 September
A Martin NBS-1 bomber, Air Service 68487, Raymond E. Davis, pilot,[201] nose dived and crashed from an estimated altitude of 500 feet on a residential street near Mitchel Field, Mineola, New York, killing the six military personnel on board. At the time, the aircraft was involved in a night time war game display that was lit by searchlights and watched by an estimated crowd of 25,000 spectators.[202]
October
Hangar fire at Martlesham Heath, Great Britain, destroys a number of captured aircraft from the Great War.
14 October
The Navy-Wright NW-1, BuNo A-6543, a racer designed and built in a mere three months, flew for the first time on 11 October 1922, just days before it was entered in the 14 October 1922 Pulitzer air race at Selfridge Field, Michigan. Entered at the last minute, the press dubbed the new entry, the Mystery Racer. Assigned to the second of three heats, and wearing race number 9, the close-fitting cowling over the Wright T-2 engine retained heat and caused the oil temperature to exceed its operating limit. Streaming smoke around the race course, the pilot was over Lake St. Clair, near Detroit when the red-hot engine failed. "The extreme low position of the lower wing was not conducive to ditching and the "Mystery Racer" flipped over and sank in the mud. The aircraft was written-off but the pilot emerged unscathed."[203]
17 October
U.S. Army's largest blimp, C-2, catches fire shortly after being removed from its hangar at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas for a flight. Seven of eight crew aboard are injured, mostly in jumping from the craft. This accident was made the occasion for official announcement by the Army and the Navy that the use of hydrogen would be abandoned "as speedily as possible."[204] On 14 September 1922, the C-2 had made the first transcontinental airship flight, from Langley Field, Virginia, to Ross Field, Arcadia, California, under the command of Maj H. A. Strauss.[64] The ship arrived at Ross Field on 23 September,[205]
22 October
1st Lt. Harold Ross Harris (1897–1988) becomes the first member of the U.S. Army Air Service to save his life by parachute, when the Loening PW-2A, (probably AS-64388), he is testing out of McCook Field, Ohio, suffers vibration, loses part of left wing or aileron, so he parts company with the airframe, landing safely.[206] Two sources gives the date as 20 October.[64][207] McCook Field personnel create the "Caterpiller Club" for those whose lives are saved by parachute bail-out with Harris the plank-holding member.
"HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 12. - Lieut. John Blaney, army flier, from Mitchel Field, Long Island, was instantly killed this afternoon at Brainard Municipal field here while taking part in an airplane relay in the Hartford aviation meet. His plane struck a tree and crashed when about to land. Lieutenant Blaney was completing the third of the race, and flew close to the ground. He was flying about 140 miles an hour when the plane hit the tree. He was instantly killed."[208] He was flying Airco DH.4B, AS-63626, of the 5th Observation Squadron.
"NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Dec. 6. - Major Guy L. Gearhart, of Leavenworth, Kan., Captain Benton A. Doyle, of St. Louis, and four enlisted men were killed today in a collision between a Martin bomber and a Fokker scout plane, 250 feet above the Hampton Normal School farm, which adjoins Langley field. The machines burst into flames and were destroyed, and several men who attempted to rescue the men pinned beneath the wreckage were severely burned. The bomber, piloted by Captain Doyle, took the air to lead a formation of six planes and was 'banking' when the scout machine, in charge of Major Gearhart, rose swiftly and hit it in the rear. The other machines already in the air maneuvered out of the way and effected safe landings. It was announced tonight that a board of inquiry would investigate the accident."[211]Fokker D.VII, AS-7795, ex-German FF7795/18, hit Martin NBS-1, AS-68491.
7 December
DH-4B, AS-63780, departs Rockwell Field, San Diego, California at 0905 hrs. bound for Fort Huachuca, Arizona, piloted by 1st Lt. Charles L. Webber with Col. Francis C. Marshall, attached to the staff of the chief of cavalry in Washington, D.C., aboard for an inspection trip of cavalry posts and camps.[212] When aircraft never arrives, one of the largest man-hunts in Air Service history is mounted but when search is finally given up on 23 February 1923 nothing had been found. Wreckage is eventually discovered 12 May 1923 by a man hunting stray cattle in the mountains. Flight apparently hit Cuyamaca Peak just a few miles east of San Diego in fog within thirty minutes of departure.[213]
1923
4 March
Martin GMT (Glenn Martin Transatlantic), USAAS 62949, (as identified in a 1972 article in Wings magazine) loses power on one of two Liberty engines while en route to Chanute Field, Illinois, is unable to stay aloft on one only, crashes. Pilot Maj. Bradley escapes injury, but Lt. Stanley Smith is fatally injured. Walt Boynes's account in Wings magazine gives the accident date as 5 March.[214] A period report from the Associated Press states, however,: "NEW YORK, March 4. - Lieut. Stanley Smith, army air service, was killed and Maj. Follett Bradley was probably fatally injured when a giant Martin bomer [sic] in which they had just left Mitchell Field [sic] for Chanute Field, Rantoul, Ills. [sic], was forced down in Brooklyn. Four student mechanics, privates, who also were in the biplane escaped with only slight injuries owing to the skillful manner in which Major Bradley piloted the big bomer [sic] to earth from 5,000 feet. The two officers were pinned under a wing of the machine, which, brought to earth on wheels, overturned when it struck a hillock. The mishap was due to a broken controlling rod."[215] The Aviation Archeology site report matches the accident date, lists the pilot as Major Follett Bradley, Sr., identifies the Martin as AS-62951, and gives the crash site as Miller Street and Heigeman Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. Joe Baugher's serial number website adds that the aircraft had been modified to a Martin GMC with a 37-mm cannon in the nose, and that it carried McCook Field project number P110.
12 April
Capt. Hugh J. Knerr, commanding officer of the 88th Observation Squadron, Wright Field, Ohio, and Sgt. John McKenna, returning to Fairfield Air Depot, Ohio, from a reconnaissance flight, suffer a stuck valve on the Liberty engine of Airco DH.4B, USAAS 64566,[216] while hedge-hopping, duck under powerlines directly ahead, and crash-land in a rough pasture near Richmond, Indiana. Plane takes out ~100 feet of wire fence and strikes a cherry tree, shedding its lower wings and undercarriage, resulting in it being written off. Pilot Knerr suffers a strained neck. Investigation shows that "the accident was unavoidable and through no fault of the pilot."[217] Knerr will medically retire from the U.S. Air Force in 1939 with the rank of major general.
21 April
Capt. Walter Ralls "Tiny" Lawson, Sr.[218] (b. 23 October 1893) is killed along with four other crew when his Martin MB-2 bomber, 64205, of the 20th Bombardment Squadron, 2d Bombardment Group, crashes into the Great Miami River in high winds shortly after take off from McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio,[180] the same aircraft he piloted with the 1st Provisional Air Brigade during bomb tests out of Langley Field that sank the former German battleship SMS Ostfriesland. The Army named the balloon landing facility at Fort Benning, in his home state of Georgia, Lawson Field in his honor in August 1931. After World War II the name of Second Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson was added to his, giving the parsimonious post war Army two memorials for the price of one. The second Lawson was author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a memoir of his experiences as a pilot on the historic World War II raid led by the first Lawson's fellow pilot in the 1st Provisional Air Brigade, Jimmy Doolittle. At the time of his death, the senior Lawson was commanding officer of the 20th Bombardment Squadron.[219] A period account from the Associated Press: "DAYTON, O., April 21. - Four men were almost instantly killed and another probably fatally injured this afternoon when a Martin air service bombing plane nose-dived into the Great Miami river here. The dead are: Capt. W. R. Lawson, pilot, Langley Field, Va., Technical Sergeant Bidwell, Langley Field; Sergeant Wesley H. Rowland, Selfridge Field, Mich., and Civilian U. M. Smith, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. The injured: Technical Sergeant F. B. Shaw, Selfridge Field, Mich. The accident happened as the men were taking off for Langley Field after having been here for several weeks. All the men in the plane had parachutes on their backs but were unable to use them because the plane was only a short distance from the ground when it dived. Brigadier General William Mitchell, assistant chief of the air service, and Major L. W. McIntosh, commandant at McCook Field, were the first air service officers to reach the scene. Shortly after the accident General Mitchell took off for Bolling Field, Washington, D. C. As he passed over the scene of the disaster he dropped flowers into the river."[220]
Major Edward L. Napier, a native of Union Springs, Alabama, is killed in the crash of a Fokker D.VII, AS-5382,[222] at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, He had been a Medical Corps Officer in the Great War and had transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was receiving training as a flight surgeon at the time of his death. The official report states that he was piloting the aircraft himself and there was a structural failure of a wing.[223] In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps will open Napier Field at Dothan, Alabama, named in his honor.
23 September
1st Lts. Robert Stanford Olmsted [175] and John W. Shoptaw enter U.S. Army balloon S-6 in international balloon race from Brussels, despite threatening weather which causes some competitors to drop out. S-6 collides with Belgian balloon, Ville de Bruxelles on launch, tearing that craft's netting and knocking it out of the race. Lightning strikes S-6 over Nistelrode, the Netherlands, killing Olmsted outright, and Shoptaw in the fall. Switzerland's Génève is also hit, burns, killing two on board, as is Spain's Polar, killing one crew immediately, second crewman jumps from 100 feet, breaking both legs. Three other balloons are also forced down.[224][225]Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, was renamed Olmsted AFB on 11 March 1948.[175]
18 November
The first aerial refueling-related fatality occurs during an air show at Kelly Field, Texas, when the fuel hose becomes entangled in the right wings of the refueler and the receiver aircraft. The Army Air Service pilot of the refueler, Lt. P. T. Wagner, is killed in the ensuing crash of DH-4B, 23-444.[64][222]
23 November
First of only three Bristol Jupiter Fighters, essentially adaptations of the Bristol F.2B airframe converted with 425 hp (317 kW) Bristol Jupiter IV engines and oleo-type undercarriage, crashes due to an engine seizure at high altitude. Second conversion was sold to Sweden in May 1924, and third was converted to a dual-control trainer.[226]
30 November
Second of two prototypes of the Short Springbok Mk. I, J6975, crashes near Martlesham when it spins in shortly after take off, killing the pilot. Cause is diagnosed as rudder blanking during spinning and a new wing design is prepared for the Short Springbok Mk. II, of which six examples – later reduced to three – are ordered in 1924.[227]
21 December
The French Navy airship Dixmude, formerly the German LZ114, is lost over the Mediterranean in a storm in early morning with the loss of all 44 of her crew.
1924
16 January
While moored at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, USS Shenandoah's upper tail fin covering is ripped during a gale, and the sudden roll tears out her mooring tube from the Lakehurst mast. Damage to the nose deflates the first gas bag and holes the second. Zeppelin test pilot Anton Heinen rides out the storm and lands safely while the airship is being blown backwards.[228] A period of repair is needed, not returning to service until 24 May 1924 (with reinforcements to the mooring assembly, nose, and fins), and a proposed Arctic expedition is scrapped.
Martin GMB (Glenn Martin Bomber), USAAS 64308, ex-Post Office (possibly 202), ends cross-country flight to Parris Island, South Carolina, noses over when it hits unmarked ditch on the airfield. Pilot 1st Lt. (later Lieutenant General) Harold L. George reported later that "I also remember being told that it (Parris Island) was an exceptional landing field. It was except that the information had failed to inform me that the Marines had dug a trench across the field. This was not indicated by markers, or in any other way. I didn't know the trench was there until we stopped quickly."[214] Airframe had only logged 99 hours when it was written off.
One of the four Douglas World Cruiser aircraft, the "Seattle", 23-1229, c/n 145,[230] attempting an around-the-globe flight in stages, crashes into a mountain in Alaska on this date. The crew, Major Frederick L. Martin and Staff Sergeant Alva L. Harvey, survive and make their way through the wilderness to safety. The wreckage of the "Seattle" is later recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.
2 June
Assisting the U.S. Weather Bureau in research, the USAAS Balloons and Airship School schedules fifteen balloon flights from Scott Field, Illinois, for Dr. C. LeRoy Meisinger, who had gained experience with balloons and meteorology as an Air Service officer during the war. The project ends with the tenth flight, this date, when lightning strikes the balloon, killing both Dr. Meisinger and his pilot, 1st Lt. James M. G. T. Neely.[231][232]
2 August
One of the three surviving Douglas World Cruiser aircraft, the "Boston", 23-1231, c/n 147,[230] loses oil pressure while flying west over the North Atlantic, has to alight on the open sea. Crew is rescued, but during an attempt to tow the float aircraft by the USS Richmond, the aircraft capsizes in rough seas and has to be abandoned near the Faroe Islands.[233]
15 September
A Curtiss N-9 seaplane, equipped with radio control and without a human pilot aboard, was flown on a 40-minute flight at the Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Virginia. Although the aircraft sank from damage sustained while landing, this test demonstrated the practicability of radio control of aircraft.[234]
10 October
U.S. Army blimp TC-2 explodes over Newport News, Virginia, when a bomb it is carrying detonates. Two of five crew killed. "WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 - Lieutenant Bruce Martin of San Francisco was seriously injured with four other army men when the army blimp TC-2 was forced to the ground by the explosion of one of its bombs at Langley Field, Virginia."[235] "NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Oct. 10 - Lieutenant Bruce H. Martin died at midnight as a result of injuries sustained at Langley Field this morning when a bomb carried by the U. S. Army blimp TC2 prematurely exploded, wrecking the craft and injuring the five members of its crew."[236]
10 October
The rear section of USS Shenandoah is damaged while making a landing in windy conditions at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, after completing the second leg of a cross-country flight from Fort Worth, Texas.[237] "Slight damage was done to the Shenandoah when the airship was brought to the ground last night. Officers at North Island this morning stated that one of the rear gondolas struck the ground slightly, but with sufficient force to strain two of the girders in the aft portion. The damage, it was said, is not serious, but on account of the mountains to be flown over on the flight to Camp Lewis, it was deemed best to make thorough tests to avoid any possibility of accident."[238] "The work of repairing the strained girders continued all day yesterday (13 October)."[239]
11 October
"PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 11 - Flying in excess of 150 miles an hour, the United States navy racing seaplane FTW fell 100 feet into the Delaware river [sic] today and was completely wrecked. The pilot, badly injured, extricated himself."[240] This was actually the Wright F2W-2, A7644, which suffered from poor handling characteristics, the tremendous torque of its huge Wright T-3 Tornado liquid-cooled engine flipping the racer onto its back on landing during its first and only flight. [241]
16 October
Emergency use of parachute — Following a mid-air collision over Coronado, California, Gunner William M. Coles, USN, of VF-1, made a successful emergency parachute jump from his Curtiss JN-4.[234]
"LAGUNA BEACH, Nov. 19. - Rescued from rough seas by two men in a rowboat when their seaplane landed 100 yards off of the rocky shores here, Lieutenants Douglas Powell and Charles Haltline of the U. S. S. New Mexico are recovering from exposure and shock. One of the rescuers, who arose from a sick bed to aid the officers, is seriously ill, suffering from a relapse and exposure."[243] The Associated Press reported: "SAN DIEGO, Nov. 18. - Lieutenants Douglas Powell and Charles G. Halpine, naval aviators, were rescued this evening off Laguna Beach, according to telephone messages from that place. The aviators left this city late today to fly to the battleship New Mexico at San Pedro. Off Laguna Beach Lieutenant Powell's machine, just repaired at North Island, developed engine trouble and Powell was forced to descend to the ocean. Lieutenant Halpine came down to aid him and managed to get a tow line to him. Darkness, however, set in and the two officers, not knowing exactly where they were, were forced to stop when they neared the breakers. There they shouted for help and the shout was heard by residents of the beach who assembled a battery of automobiles on a bluff and trained headlights on the aviators while two beach residents went out in a lifeboat and got the officers to shore."[244] They were probably flying Vought UO-1 observation planes, which replaced other types aboard catapult equipped cruisers and battleships from 1923.
^Murphy, Justin D., "Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: Ann Illustrated History of Their Impact", ABC-CLIO, Inc.,, 2005, Santa Barbara, California, Library of Congress control number 2005003596, ISBN 1-85109-493-8, page 10.
^"Centennial of flight". Centennialofflight.gov. 6 October 1973. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
^Murphy, Justin D., "Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: Ann Illustrated History of Their Impact", ABC-CLIO, Inc.,, 2005, Santa Barbara, California, Library of Congress control number 2005003596, ISBN 1-85109-493-8, page 12.
^Murphy, Justin D., "Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: Ann Illustrated History of Their Impact", ABC-CLIO, Inc.,, 2005, Santa Barbara, California, Library of Congress control number 2005003596, ISBN 1-85109-493-8, page 11.
^ abcdefBaker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 32.
^Gunston, Bill, OBE, "90 Years of UK Powered Flight", Air International, Stamford, Lincs, UK, November 1998, Volume 55, Number 5, page 306.
^ abJane, Fred T., "Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1913", Sampson, Low, Marston & Company, Ltd., London, 1913, Aerial Who's Who, page 3D.
^ abcNew York City, New York, "Taft Sends Condolences", New York Times, 22 May 1909.
^"L'estrange", "The Use of Accidents", Flight, Great Britain, 28 January 1911, Number 109, Volume III, Number 4, page 69.
^Henry Villard, Contact! The Story of the Early Aviators (Courier Dover Publications, 2002) p241; "The Fatalities of Flight", by Victor Lougheed, Popular Mechanics (August 1911) p173
^ abMueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 267.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 49.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 53.
^Hobbs, David, "Wait and See – The Origins of British Naval Aviation", Air Enthusiast, Stamford, Lincs., UK, Number 131, September–October 2007, page 4.
^"Lieut. Hazelhurst and Al Welsh, Professional Aviator, Victims of Airship Test". New York Times. 12 June 1912. Retrieved 4 September 2009. Lieut. Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr., of the Seventeenth Infantry, one of the most promising of the younger aviators of the army, and Al Welsh, one of the most daring professional aviators in America, were instantly killed in a flight at the Army Aviation School at College Park, Maryland, at 6:30 o'clock this evening.((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ ab"Lieut. Hazelhurst and Al Welsh, Professional Aviator, Victims of Airship Test". The New York Times. 12 June 1912. Retrieved 4 September 2009. Lieut. Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr., of the Seventeenth Infantry, one of the most promising of the younger aviators of the army, and Al Welsh, one of the most daring professional aviators in America, were instantly killed in a flight at the Army Aviation School at College Park, Maryland, at 6:30 o'clock this evening.((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^Daso, Dik A., Major, USAF, "Architects of American Air Supremacy: Gen Hap Arnold and Dr. Theodore von Kármán", Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, September 1997, Library of Congress card number 97-26768, ISBN 1-58566-042-6, page 12.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 58.
^National News Wire, "Bad Aero Mishap in Camp – Two Army Planes Smashed: President Taft is Coming", Bridgeport Post, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 13 August 1912, page 1.
^ abMason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, pages 15–16.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 61.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 14.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, pages 21–22.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 62.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 63.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 67.
^Phythyon, John R., Jr., Great War at Sea: Zeppelins, Virginia Beach, Virginia: Avalanche Press, Inc., 2007, p. 44.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 28.
^Mikesh, Robert C., and Abe, Shorzoe, "Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1990, ISBN 1-55750-563-2, pages 49–50.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Two", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1968, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 72.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 72.
^Whitford, Ray, "Fundamentals of Fighter Design, Part 12 – Armament & Tactics 1", Air International, Stamford, Lincs, UK, January 1998, Volume 54, Number 1, page 49.
^Mikesh, Robert C., and Abe, Shorzoe, "Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1990, ISBN 1-55750-563-2, page 265.
^London, Great Britain, "Many German Attacks Repulsed – The German Report", The Times, Wednesday 4 August 1915, Issue 40924, page 6, column C.
^ abcCaliaro, Luigino. "Defenders of the Mountain Fronts". Aeroplane. No. October 2013. Cudham: Kelsey Publishing. pp. 92–96. ISSN0143-7240.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 84.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 86.
^Westburg, Peter, "Deadly D-VIII", Wings, Granada Hills, California, April 1979, Volume 9, Number 2, page 43.
^Postma, Thijs, "Fokker – Aircraft Builders to the World", Jane's Incorporated, New York, 1980, ISBN 0-7106-0059-3, page 32, translation from Dutch, "Fokker bouwer aan de wereldluchtvaart", Uniebock bv Bussum, 1979.
^Abbott, Dan S., and Grosz, Peter M. "The Benighted Rolands", Air Enthusiast Quarterly, Bromley, Kent., UK, Volume 3, 1976, pages 39–40.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume One", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1965, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 38.
^Early German Aces of World War I. Greg VanWyngarden, Harry Dempsey. Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-84176-997-5, ISBN 978-1-84176-997-4, pages 82–83.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, April 1978, Volume 14, Number 4, page 201.
^Mikesh, Robert C., and Abe, Shorzoe, "Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1990, ISBN 1-55750-563-2, page 80.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 92.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Two", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1968, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 78.
^London, UK: Aeroplane, Maynard, John, "Think of the Risks...", March 2006, Volume 34, Number 3, No. 395, page 31.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, pages 99–100.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 97.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 108.
^Moulin, Jacques (2009). "Le Journal de l'Aérophile!". Liste Alphabétique des pilotes aviateurs brevetés en France avant le 2 août 1914. Retrieved 25 December 2010. ((cite web)): Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Three", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1969, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, pages 127–128.
^ abc"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 22 December 2010. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 103.
^Connors, John F., "The 11th Hour Sopwiths", Wings, Granada Hills, California, February 1976, Volume 6, Number 1, pages13-14.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Three", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1969, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 21.
^Curtis, Robert I., Mitchell, John, and Copp, Martin, "Langley Field, The Early Years 1916–1946", Office of History, 4500th Air Base Wing, Langley AFB, Virginia, 1977, page 27.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, January 1976, Volume 10, Number 1, pages 33–34.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 108.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume One", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1965, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 171.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, September 1974, Volume 7, Number 3, page 152.
^Bruce, Jack M., "Spad Story", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, May 1976, Volume 10, Number 5, page 242.
^Rosenberg, Barry, and Macaulay, Catherine, "Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail", William Morrow - An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 2006, Library of Congress Number 2005056143, ISBN 9780060529499, pages 1-2.
^Thompson, Jim, "Flight of the Atlantic", Air Classics, April 2007, Volume 43, Number 4, page 43.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 113.
^Bruce, Jack M., "The First British Armoured Brigade", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, April 1979, Volume 16, Number 4, page 186.
^"66 Squadron". 66squadron.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 115.
^Connors, John F., "Fokker's Flying Razors", Wings, Granada Hills, California, August 1974, Volume 4, Number 4, pages 45, 48.
^Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War I, Military Press, New York, 1990, page 148, ISBN 0-517-03376-3.
^Associated Press, "William G. Wilson. a Son of J. Stitt Wilson, Is Killed in Accident on Mather Field", San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 8 September 1918, Volume XLIV, Number 7, page 1.
^Kightly, James, "Aeroplane examines the... Vickers Vimy", Aeroplane, London, UK, Number 434, Volume 37, Number 6, page 68.
^"The Southend Standard" Newspaper, 6 February 1919 – "Airman's Tragic Death at Westcliff – Fatal Flying Accident" at Southend-on-Sea, Central Library.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 146.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, December 1974, Volume 7, Number 6, page 302.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 116.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume One", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1965, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 110.
^Whittle, Richard. "The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey", New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN 1-4165-6295-8, page 11.
^Charnov, Dr. Bruce H., Ph.D, J.D., "Autogiro to Gyroplane: 1923 – 2003", Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Maurer, Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1987, Library of Congress card number 87-12257, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, pages 103–105.
^ abcdMaurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 31.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 32.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 34.
^The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. XXIV, p. 226.
^Swann, Dr. W. F., "Causes and Preventions of Fires in Balloons", Scientific American Supplement No. 2285, 8 November 1919, page 258.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 109.
^Associated Press, "American Ace Killed While Preparing For Pershing's Reception", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Monday 2 February 1920, Volume XLVI, Number 155, page 1.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 23.
^Associated Press, "Aviator Wrecks Ship In Landing On Field", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 20 April 1920, Volume XLVII, Number 51, page 1.
^Munson, Kenneth and Swanborough, Gordon, "Boeing: an aircraft album No. 4", Arco Publishing Company, Inc. New York, 1972, Library of Congress card number 70-179696, ISBN 0-668-02582-4, page 26.
^Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, pages 573–574.
^Editors, "Three Balloons Lost in Fire", The News of the Week, Aerial Age Weekly, Aerial Age Company, Inc., New York City, 2 August 1920, Volume XI, Number 21, page 706.
^Special, "5 Mexican Fliers Killed as Plane Falls 1,900 Feet", Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Saturday 19 July 1920, Volume LXXIX, Number 165, page 1.
^ abc"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2010. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Vaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 13.
^Johnson, David E., "Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the U.S. Army, 1917–1945", Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, hdbk 1998, ppbk 2003, ISBN 0-8014-8847-8, page 83
^ abPelletier, Alain J., "Made in America – Thomas-Morse MB-3 And Boeing MB-3A", Air Enthusiast, Stamford, Lincs, UK, Number 131, September–October 2007, page 50.
^ abVaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, pages 22–23.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 139.
^Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, page 574.
^Vaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 20.
^Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, page 575.
^Mueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 97.
^Vaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 112.
^Larkins, William T., "U.S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914–1959", Orion Books, New York, 1988, Library of Congress card no. 88-17753, ISBN 0-517-56920-5, page 9.
^Wixey, Ken, "Flying Boats of the RAF: 1920s 'One-offs' ", FlyPast No. 106, Stamford, Lincs., UK, May 1990, page 68.
^Jones, Lloyd S., "U. S. Naval Fighters: Navy/Marine Corps 1922 to 1980s", Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, California, 1977, Library of Congress card number 77-20693, ISBN 0-8168-9254-7, pages 25–26.
^Roseberry, C. R., The Challenging Skies – The Colorful Story of Aviation's Most Exciting Years, 1919–1939, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1966, Library of Congress card number 66-20929, page 347.
^Staff, "Blimp Sighted In This County", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 24 September 1922, Volume L, Number 208, page 1.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 163.
^Baker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 145.
^Associated Press, "Army Flier Killed When Airplane Strikes Tree", The San Bernardino Daily SUn, San Bernardino, California, Monday 13 November 1922, Volume L, Number 258, page 2.
^Linder, Bruce, "Tidewater's Navy", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, Library of Congress card number 2005019790, ISBN 1-59114-465-5, page 154.
^Associated Press, "Six Are Killed In Crash In Air", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday 7 December 1922, Volume L, Number 282, page 2.
^Associated Press, "Aviators Lost On Desert - Fear Felt For Two Officers Arizona Bound - Pilot Experienced - Plane Is Not Sighted at Nogales; Scouts Will Go Out Today", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday 8 December 1922, Volume L, Number 283, page 1.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 108.
^ abBoyne, Walt, "Martin's Marvels", Wings, Granada Hills, California, October 1972, Volume 2, Number 5, page 60.
^Associated Press, "Flier Killed in Forced Landing of Giant Plane", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Monday 5 March 1923, Volume LI, Number 76, page 1.
^Copp, DeWitt S., "A Few Great Captains: The Men and Events That Shaped the Development of U.S. Air Power", The Air Force Historical Foundation, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, Library of Congress catalog card number 78-22310, ISBN 0-385-13310-3, page 273.
^Associated Press, "Four Killed In Fall Of Plane", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 22 April 1923, Volume LI, Number 124, page 1.
^London, UK: Aeroplane, Jarrett, Philip, "Lost & Found: Mistaken Identity", October 2006, Volume 34, Number 10, No. 402, page 12.
^Maurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 174.
^Vaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 17-18.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", Air International, Bromley, Kent, UK, January 1975, Volume 8, Number 1, page 46.
^Mason, Francis K., "The British Fighter since 1912", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1992, Library of Congress card number 92-63026, ISBN 1-55750-082-7, page 160.
^Maurer, Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1987, Library of Congress card number 87-12257, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 160.
^ ab"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2013. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^United Press, "Five Injured By Army Bomb", Madera Daily Tribune, Madera County, California, Friday 10 October 1924, Volume XXXIV, page 1.
^Associated Press, "Bomb Explodes; Kills Lieut. Bruce Martin", The Madera Mercury, Madera, California, Saturday 11 October 1924, Volume 38, page 1.
^United Press, "Big Dirigible Is Detained By Accident: Shenandoah's Tail Is Smashed Landing In Heavy Wind", Madera Daily Tribune, Madera County, California, Saturday 11 October 1924, Volume XXXIV, page 1.
^Associated Press, "Flight of Dirigible Is Delayed On Coast", The Madera Mercury, Madera, California, Sunday 12 October 1924, Volume 38, page 1.
^United Press, "Bad Weather Delays Trip Big Aircraft [sic]: Reports of Storms in North Holds Ship San Diego [sic] - Repair Work Being Rushed", Madera Daily Tribune, Madera County, California, Tuesday 14 October 1924, Volume XXXIV, page 1.
^United Press, "Naval Racing Plane Lost", Madera Daily Tribune, Madera County, California, Saturday 11 October 1924, Volume XXXIV, page 1.
^Jones, Lloyd S., "U.S. Naval Fighters", Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, California, 1977, Library of Congress card number 77-20693, ISBN 0-8168-9254-7, page 30.
^"Database Vickers Virginia". Aeroplane. No. September 2012. Peterborough: Kelsey Publishing. pp. 69–84. ISSN0143-7240.
^United Press, "Two Birdmen Are Rescued", Madera Daily Tribune, Madera County, California, Wednesday 19 November 1924, Volume XXXV, page 1.
^Associated Press, "Aviators Are Rescued Off Shore at Laguna", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 19 November 1924, Volume LV, Number 80, page 1.
Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Units 1911–1919Air-Britain, 1992. ISBN 0-85130-191-6
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