The US airship C-7 flew from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Washington D.C. filled with helium, rather than explosive hydrogen, making it the first airship to use that gas.
I posted these photos the other day on our companion blog, Lex Anteinternet
Gen. Mitchell was checking out aircraft.
Thompson submachine guns made the press
I didn't realize at the time I did this, that these were photographs of the same thing. One Junkers JL12 ground attack aircraft.
It's hard not to view this as anything other than "goofball", but then this was in the early days of aviation and there was a lot of experimentation going on.
The Junkers-Larson 12 was a militarized version of the Junkers F13, the world's first all metal transport aircraft. The origins of the F13 actually extended back to World War One, but its first flight came in 1919, so it came too late to see service in the war. Obviously, it represented a big step forward in aircraft design, so perhaps it isn't too surprising that it was militarized pretty quickly.
If oddly.
The aircraft was equipped with 30 Thompson Submachine Guns. They were operated by single levers in two batteries, with most of them firing straight down.
The Thompson was brand new that year, although its origins also dated back to World War One, for which it had been designed, but which it missed seeing service in as the early variants didn't come out until 1919. 1921 was the first year of real production.
The JL-12 was equipped with a Liberty V 12 engine, which may explain its name.
Did anyone buy them?
Well, I don't know. It was an interesting idea that foreshadowed later aircraft like Douglas AC-47 Spooky and the Lockheed AC-130, so the whole concept wasn't as absurd as it at first might strike us. The problem would have been that Thompson's in .45 ACP wouldn't have really given the advantage of altitude that an aircraft needs. If many were made, it probably wasn't very many.
First crop dusting being conducted.The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio. Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.
Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War. He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948. He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.
On this day in 1921 the legendary Douglas Aircraft Company was founded in Santa Monica, California.
A manufacturer of legendary aircraft, particularly the DC-3, the company merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967. The new McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.
On this day in 1921, Bessie Coleman received a pilots license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, making her the first black person to be a "licensed" pilot. As her grandparents were Cherokee, she was also the first licensed Native American pilot.
The event is a real milestone, but it's somewhat deceiving. The US didn't require pilots licenses at the time and the global requirement was far from universal. Pilots licenses would be introduced in the US in 1927. This is significant here as Coleman's international pilots license was a real license, but one that was not recognized everywhere and, moreover, she was not the first black or female black pilots as is sometimes suggested.
She was a pioneering aviator however and earned her living as a barnstormer after taking up flying. In that career she was also an advocate for African Americans. She tragically died in 1930 at an airshow when her aircraft had catastrophic failure.
Czechoslovakia and Romania signed a treaty aimed at Hungary, which they feared may seek to redraw its borders at their expensive.
Showing both the rapid advance of air travel, as more people were able to fly, and in more comfort, than before, and that aircraft remained very much an unknown in some ways, the deadliest air accident up to that time occurred when a Curtiss Eagle of the U.S. Army's Air Service crashed in a severe thunderstorm at Morgantown, Maryland.
All seven occupants were killed. The plane was serving as an air ambulance.
Australian military aviation goes back to the Great War, but it was largely disbanded with the peace. After the war, it was recreated as part of the Australian Army, and then on this day, it was made a separate service as the Australian Air Force. King George V would approve the "Royal" title later that year.
A photograph taken on this day in 1921. I believe the airplane is a Curtis Jenny.
The Australian Department of Civil Aviation was formed as the Civil Aviation Branch of the Australian Defense Department.
We always reform or ridicule, not the customs of the remote past, but the new customs of the day before yesterday, which are just beginning to grow old. This is true of furniture and parents.
G.K. Chesterton, Chicago Tribune, February 23, 1921.
The United States Postal Service completed a pioneering air mail run in which Jack Knight, taking off on the prior day from San Francisco, landed at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and then took off and flew through the night to Chicago. Ernest M. Allison ten took over and lasted at 4:50 p.m. at Roosevelt Field at Long Island, New York.
The flight demonstrated that air mail was feasible.
While successful, it was also conducted under extreme odds, involving arctic conditions and nighttime fires to light the way. Knight was justifiably regarded as a hero during his lifetime.
