Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 17, 1924 First Around The World Flight Commences

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 17, 1924 Telephones and grim news.: 

Monday, March 17, 1924 Telephones and grim news.

The first around the world flight attempt was commenced by the United States Army Air Service.  The aircraft consisted of four Douglas World Cruisers.

The initial leg of the trip was from Santa Monica, California, to Seattle, which was the actual departure point.

March 29, 1921. Standing by the biplane.

A photograph taken on this day in 1921.  I believe the airplane is a Curtis Jenny.

 

Lex Anteinternet: December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disaster

Lex Anteinternet: December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disa...:

December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disaster.

On this day in 1940, a photo was taken of some new construction benefiting aircraft at a Naval Air Station in Rhode Island.

On the same day, famous aviator August Eddie Schneider was killed in an aviation accident.

Schneider was a well known daring aviator and had won multiple aviation speed records.  He'd also flown for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.  On this day he was training a student when his plane was struck by a Navy aircraft, taking it down and killing him.

And of course the war raged on:

Day 480 December 23, 1940

Today in World War II History—December 23, 1940

On this day in the war, Winston Churchill addressed the Italian people and urged them to rebel against Mussolini and take Italy out of the war.  The overall poor performance of Italian troops in combat was already effectively achieving that result.

Lex Anteinternet: May 7, 1920. Races

Lex Anteinternet: May 7, 1920. Races:

May 7, 1920. Races

Collegiate airplane race activity at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

On this day in 1920 the first ever Collegiate Airplane Race occured in New York.

Collegiate airplane race participants J.T. Trippe (1899-1981) and George Willard Horne, who flew for Yale at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

Collegiate airplane race participants Robert K. Perry and Harry Goodman, who flew for Williams College at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920 

 Collegiate airplane race participants Lansing Colton Holden, Jr. (1896-1938) and Zenos Ramsey Miller (1896-1922), who flew for Princeton at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

collegiate airplane race participants Joseph Ferdinand Lersch and David Amos Royer, who flew for University of Pennsylvania at Mitchel Field, Long Island,

Lex Anteinternet: December 10, 1919. Air First and a Coal Day

Lex Anteinternet: December 10, 1919. Air First and a Coal Day:

December 10, 1919. Air First and a Coal Day

The prize posted by the Australian government of 10,000 Australian pounds (then the unit of currency in Australia) for the first aircraft piloted by Australians to fly from England to the Australia was claimed by the crew of a Vickers Vimy bomber, entered into the contest by Vickers.



The plane was crewed by pilots Cpt. Ross Macpherson Smith and his brother Lt. Keith Macpherson Smith, with mechanics Sgt. W. H. Shiers and J.M. Bennett.  The plane made the trip from Hounslow Heath to Australian starting on November 12, 1919.



Cpt. Smith was killed test piloting a Vickers Viking seaplane in 1922.  Lt. Smith became a Vickers executive and an airline industry figure, dying of natural causes in 1955 at age 64.



Elsewhere, questions began to come up about the nature of diplomatic officer Jenkin's kidnapping even as Republicans continued to press for action of some sort against Mexico.  And as the mine strike ended, kids in Casper were let out of school due to lack of coal for heat.

Blog Mirror: This Day In Aviation History: 10 December 1919

10 December 1919

Lex Anteinternet: November 10, 1919. First flights, births and obse...

Lex Anteinternet: November 10, 1919. First flights, births and obse...:

November 10, 1919. First flights, births and observances.

"Henry Lee Milledge, the 16 month old son of Maj. John Milledge, Air Service, is believed to be the youngest passenger every carried in an Aeroplane. The flight was made at Bolling field in the Curtis "Eagle." The baby was carried in the arms of Maj. Milledge"

It isn't the intent of this blog to be the "100 Years Ago Today Blog", or something like that, but as we close in on the last year that's the central focus of this site, 1920, we continue to note some interesting items that occurred a century ago, as they occurred.  Some are just things that are interesting, like little Henry Lee Milledge's first flight. 

He's crying, and I don't blame him.

Lex Anteinternet: November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died. (Air Mail Item)

Lex Anteinternet: November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.:

November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.

And the Army Air Corps, which was responsible for air mail, had acquired a new twin engine aircraft for that purpose, shown here at Bolling Field outside of Washington, D. C.

Lex Anteinternet: "October 21, 1919" The Great Air Race Commences. ...

Lex Anteinternet: "October 21, 1919" The Great Air Race Commences. ...:

"October 21, 1919" The Great Air Race Commences. At 11.44 a.m. the first of the six aircraft took off from Hounslow, England.

They were bound for Australia, which made sense as the race was sponsored by the Australian Prime Minister and one of the rules of the race was that all the crewmen had to be Australian.

We have already read about the US 1919 Air Derby, which was still ongoing on  this date as following aircraft continued to land. . . and crash (quite frequently with fatal results), and we posted on the 1919 Round the Rim flight, which was still going on, showing the level of air mania in the United States.  But air mania wasn't limited to the United States.  On this day six British Empire aircraft took off in a race of even more epic proportions.



The six aircraft were not all of one type, making this a technological test in addition to being an air race (the aircraft in the Air Derby weren't all of one type either).  These planes were sometimes a heavier, being bombers in part.  They included a Sopwith Wallaby, a Vickers Vimy, an Alliance P.2. A Blackburn Kangaroo, a Martinsyde Type A and an Airco DH.9. Both single engine and twin engine aircraft were in the race.

Curtiss JN-4D, Denver International Airport

I have passed underneath this Curtis Jenny hundreds of times, but I never fail to take note of it.  Surprisingly, for one reason or another, I apparently never took a photograph of it until just the other day, even though I have photographed another biplane that's hanging from the ceiling at the Denver International Airport.

Jennies were surprisingly large, as this photo demonstrated.  Obsolescent at the time of hteir introduction, they none the less formed the backbone of the early American military airborne fleet and saw service in the Border War, as it came to be known to the Army, which of course wasn't a full war but threatened to become one. 

After World War One JN-4s were sold off and they became a common barn stormer aircraft.  There are a surprisingly large number of them left around today, a few of which still fly on rare occasion.

Lt. Austin's attempted flight from the Canal Zone to Washington D. C., October 6, 1919.

Lex Anteinternet: Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Lt. Torrey Webb on the day of the inauguration of air mail between New York City and Philadelphia.  They gave him a Hamilton watch.  Dignitaries showed up. . . including ones from France.

The plane was a Curtis JN-4, a "Jenny".  The Jenny had, fwiw, just been commemorated by way of a postage stamp a few days prior.

Torrey Webb was was in the Army 's air service during the war, but he was studying engineering prior to it and would return to it.  He ended up the vice president of Texas Oil Company (Texaco).

Meanwhile, on the Western Front, these two RAF crewmen were were taking off in their RE8.

All of these air missions, we would note, were incredibly dangerous.

Alaska Aviation Museum

Alaska Aviation Museum

The Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage Alaska, just outside of a seaplane port (and with its own nice tower for viewing the seaplanes) is a really nice museum with an impressive collection of aircraft.  Anyone in the Anchorage area who has a fondness for aircraft, or who might simply wonder about the close connection between modern Alaska and the airplane, ought to pay it a visit. Well worth seeing.

Consolidated PBY Catalina at the Alaska Aviation Museum.

Ford Model T.

Aircraft skis.

Sterman.

UH-1.

F-15.

3/4 size Neuport replica.

Grummon Goose.

Portion of P-40.

Perhaps  because of the size of this entry, which actually is a blog mirror entry on this site, it consistently takes up a whole page on the Areodrome.  I have no idea why really, but its frustrating as it looks like the last page on the blog. 

It isn't.  There are other entries after this one.  I.e., older entries.  If you enjoy this site, don't stop here!