1918 in aviation

Years in aviation: 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years: 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1918:

Events

January

  • Gunner-observer Captain John H. Hedley is thrown from the cockpit of his Bristol F2B Fighter without a parachute during a dogfight when his pilot, Captain Reginald "Jimmy" Makepeace, puts the plane into a steep dive. After he falls several hundred feet, Hedley and the aircraft come back together and he manages to grab the fighter's after fuselage and crawl back into his cockpit unharmed.
  • The British Army convenes an inquiry to look into the failure of the British offensive in the Battle of Cambrai in November–December 1917. The inquiry finds that the German use of massed aircraft for close air support of German ground troops subjected British ground troops to so much machine-gun fire that they felt helpless and became demoralized, allowing a successful German counterattack.
  • January 3 – With its owner, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, concerned about declining support for the war effort by the British public and believing that news about the successes of living British pilots by name would create popular heroes and improve public morale, the British newspaper the Daily Mail publishes an editorial strongly criticizing the British Army's policy of not disclosing the names of successful Royal Flying Corps pilots unless they are killed, a policy instituted because of a belief by the British Army's leadership that such publicity would harm the esprit de corps of their fellow aviators. Other British newspapers quickly take up the cause, prompting the British Army to begin identifying pilots by name. France and Germany had identified their pilots to the press since early in World War I.
  • January 5 – A rapid series of explosions and quickly spreading fires at the Imperial German Navy airship base at Tondern destroys four hangars and five airships in five minutes, killing four civilian workers and 10 naval personnel and injuring 134 naval personnel.
  • January 7 – After the British Army drops its policy of not disclosing the names of successful Royal Flying Corps pilots unless they are killed, the Daily Mail publishes "Our Wonderful Airmen – Their Names At Last," the first article in the British press identifying living RFC pilots by name. The article discusses the exploits of Captains Philip Fuller and James McCudden.
  • January 9 – In a dogfight over Moorslede, Belgium with three RFC aircraft including a No. 21 Squadron R.E.8 and two No. 60 Squadron S.E.5as, Max Ritter von Müller's Albatros D.Va is set on fire and he jumps to his death. Von Müller's 36 victories make him the highest-scoring Bavarian ace of World War I.
  • January 12 – A decree issued by the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Republic puts all Russian aircraft manufacturing companies under state control.
  • January 28–29 (overnight) – The first German bombing raid against the United Kingdom of the new year is carried out by 13 Gotha Grossflugzeug and two Riesenflugzeug bombers. Six Gothas turn back due to poor visibility, but the other bombers attack targets in England, resulting in the deaths of 67 people and injuries to 166, including 14 killed and 14 injured in stampedes when "maroons" warning rockets are fired to warn of an imminent attack. Another 11 are injured by shrapnel from British antiaircraft shells. Most of the casualties are from a single 300 kg (660 lb) bomb that hits Odhams Press in Long Acre, London, where people are sheltering. British aircraft fly over a hundred defensive sorties, and two Sopwith Camels of the Royal Flying Corps's No. 40 Squadron shoot down a Gotha, the first victory over a heavier-than-air bomber over the United Kingdom for British night fighters. Both pilots, Second Lieutenants Charles C. Banks and George Hackwill will receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.
  • January 29–30 (overnight) – For the first time, German Riesenflugzeug bombers attack the United Kingdom without Gotha bombers accompanying them; the four bombers are from Riesenflugzeug Abteilung ("Giant Airplane Detachment") 501 (Rfa 501). One bomber turns back. The other three bomb England, inflicting only light damage and casualties. British aircraft fly 80 defensive sorties; five of them bring one of the German bombers under attack but succeed only in disabling one of its engines, and it returns safely to base. Unfamiliar with the great size of the bombers, many of the British pilots underestimate their size and fire at them from too great a range.
  • January 30 – Second Lieutenant Carl Mather is killed in an aircraft collision at Ellington Field, Texas. The future Mather Air Force Base, later Sacramento Mather Airport, at Rancho Cordova, California, will be named for him.

February

  • February 2 – The Imperial German Army's air service, the Luftstreitkräfte, forms its second and third Jagdgeschwader (fighter wings), bringing together four Jagdstaffeln (fighter squadrons) – Jagstaffeln ("Jastas") 12, 13, 15, and 19 – to form Jagdgeschwader II, with Adolf Ritter von Tutschek as its first commanding officer, and four other JagdstaffelnJasta 2 "Boelcke" and Jastas 26, 27, and 36 – to form Jagdgeschwader III, with Bruno Loerzer as its first commanding officer.
  • February 5 – Second Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson achieves the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
  • February 8 – The United States replaces the (US Roundel 1917-1918 (different proportions from 1919 version).svg) national insignia for its military aircraft adopted in 1917 with a roundel with an outer red ring, then a blue ring, and a white center US Army Air Roundel.svg. The roundel will remain in use until the United States reverts to its former markings in August 1919.
  • February 16–17 (overnight) – Four Riesenflugzeug bombers of the German Luftstreitkräfte's Riesenflugzeug Abteilung ("Giant Airplane Detachment") 501 (Rfa 501) raid England. One of them carries a single 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bomb which aims at London Victoria station, but it lands .5 mi (0.8 km) away on the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
  • February 17–18 (overnight) – A single German Riesenflugzeug bomber attacks England, hitting St Pancras station in London, killing 21 people and injuring 32.
  • February 18 – The Lafayette Escadrille, the American volunteer squadron serving in the French Army, is transferred to the United States Army and redesignated the 103rd Aero Squadron.
  • February 20 – The German high command issues a memorandum governing the employment of German ground-attack squadrons in the upcoming spring offensive on the Western Front, Operation Michael. It lays out the role of the squadrons as "flying ahead of and carrying the infantry along with them, keeping down the fire of the enemy's infantry and barrage batteries," adding that the appearance of ground-attack aircraft over the battlefield "affords visible proof to heavily engaged troops that the Higher Command is in close touch with the front, and is employing every means to support the fighting troops." It also directs the squadrons to "dislocate traffic and inflict appreciable loss on reinforcements hastening up to the battlefield."

March

April

May

  • May 9 – French ace René Fonck shoots down six German aircraft in a day.
  • May 9–10 (overnight) – The German Riesenflugzeug Abteilung ("Giant Airplane Detachment) 501 (Rfa 501) attempts the first heavier-than-air raid on England since March, sending four Riesenfluzeuge bombers to bomb Dover. They encounter high winds over the North Sea and are recalled; when they return home, they find their bases shrouded in fog. One lands safely, but the other three are destroyed in crashes, with only one entire crew surviving and only crew member surviving from each of the other two bombers.
  • May 10 – The German Navy Zeppelin L 62 explodes, breaks in half, and crashes in flames over the North Sea with the loss of all hands under mysterious circumstances. The German Naval Airship Service blames her loss on an accident, while the Royal Air Force claims that one of its Felixstowe F.2a flying boats shot her down.
  • May 13 – The United States issues its first air mail stamps to the public. They bear a picture depicting a Curtiss JN-4H "Jenny". One sheet comprises the "Inverted Jenny" error.
  • May 15
  • May 16 - The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.
  • May 19
  • May 19–20 (overnight) - Germany launches the largest heavier-than-air raid against the United Kingdom of World War I, with 38 Gotha and three Riesenfkugzeug bombers participating. Bombs fall on London for the last time in World War I during the raid. The bombers drop 1,236 kg (2,725 lb) of bombs according to British estimates or 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) according to the Germans, killing 49 people, injuring 177, and inflicting £117,317 in damage. British fighters and antiaircraft guns shoot down six Gothas, and after a protracted engagement a Bristol F.2B Fighter of the Royal Air Force's No. 141 Squadron forces a seventh Gotha to land substantially intact in England; the Bristol Fighter's two-man crew, Lieutenants Edward Eric Turner and Henry Balfour Barwise, each will receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for their achievement. The Germans launch no further heavier-than-air bomber attacks against the United Kingdom during World War I; in the 27 heavier-than-air raids, German bombers have dropped 111,935 kg (246,774 lb) of bombs, killing 835 people, injuring 1,972, and inflicting £1,418,272 of damage in exchange for the loss of 62 bombers either shot down over England or destroyed in crashes while attempting to return to base.
  • May 21 - President Woodrow Wilson creates a Bureau of Aircraft Production responsible for aeronautical equipment.
  • May 23 – The United States Government approves the temporary assignment of United States Army Air Service cadets undergoing training by the Royal Italian Army's Military Aviation Corps to complete their tactical training with assignments to Italian bomber squadrons during combat operations, but reserves the right to transfer them to U.S. Army Air Service units at any time.
  • May 24
  • May 31 - Douglas Campbell scores his fifth victory, becoming the first American pilot to become an ace while flying for an American-trained unit.

June

July

August

  • A large petroleum barge on the Volga River in Russia is equipped with a flight deck and elevators (lifts) to carry up to nine Grigorovich M.9 flying boats and three Nieuport fighters. Named Kommuna and towed by a sidewheel paddle tug, she and her aircraft actively support operations of the Bolshevik Volga River Flotilla during the Russian Civil War.
  • August 1
    • In the North Russia Campaign during the Russian Civil War, probably the first fully combined air, sea, and land military operation in history takes place, as Fairey Campania seaplanes from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier HMS Nairana join Allied ground forces and ships in driving Bolsheviks out of their fortifications on Modyugski Island at the mouth of the Northern Dvina in Russia, then scout ahead of the Allied force as it proceeds up the channel to Arkhangelsk. The appearance of one of the Campanias over Arkhangelsk induces the Bolshevik leaders there to panic and flee.
    • French ace Lieutenant Gabriel Guérin is killed in action. His 23 victories will tie him with Lieutenant René Dorme for ninth-highest-scoring French ace of World War I.
  • August 5–6 (overnight) – Five Imperial German Navy Zeppelins attempt to bomb the United Kingdom in the fourth and final such raid of 1918. All of their bombs fall through clouds into the North Sea, and the commander of the Naval Airship Division, Fregattenkapitän Peter Strasser, is killed in action when a Royal Air Force Airco DH.4 piloted by Major Egbert Cadbury and crewed by Captain Robert Leckie shoots down in flames the Zeppelin in which he is flying as an observer, L70, over the coast of England. After Strasser's death, Germany attempts no more airship raids against the United Kingdom. During their 1915-1918 bombing campaign, German airships have made 208 raids against England, dropped 5,907 bombs, killed 528 people, and injured 1,156.
  • August 9 – Eight Italian Ansaldo SVA biplanes of the 87 Squadriglia "Serenimissa", led by Gabriele d'Annunzio, fly over Vienna for 30 minutes without interference from Austro-Hungarian forces, taking photographs and dropping leaflets before returning to base without loss.
  • August 10
    • During a dogfight, the Fokker D.VII fighter of the German fighter ace Oberleutnant Erich Löwenhardt collides with another D.VII flown by Leutnant Alfred Wenz near Chaulnes, France. Both men bail out; Wenz survives, but Löwenhardt's parachute fails and he falls to his death from 12,000 feet (3,660 meters). Löwenhardt's score of 53 kills will make him the third-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.
    • After shooting down two enemy aircraft earlier in the day, the German ace Rudolf Berthold collides with an enemy plane during a dogfight with Sopwith Camels. His Fokker D.VII crashes into a house, injuring him; although he survives, he never flies another combat mission. His total of 44 kills will make him the sixth-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.
  • August 11
    • After taking off in a Sopwith Camel from a barge towed behind the destroyer HMS Redoubt, Royal Air Force Flight Sub-Lieutenant Stuart Culley shoots down the Imperial German Navy Zeppelin L 53, which had been flying a scouting mission over the North Sea. It is the first successful interception of an enemy aircraft by a shipborne fighter. German airships never conduct another scouting mission. L 53's sole survivor is a crewman who parachutes from the Zeppelin at an altitude of 19,000 feet (5,791 m), almost certainly a record at the time. L 53 is the last German airship destroyed during World War I.
    • The first use of a parachute from an airplane in combat occurs when a German pilot escapes his burning Pfalz D.III after being attacked by a pilot from the Royal Air Force's No. 19 Squadron.
  • August 13 – North of Roye, France, United States Army Air Service First Lieutenant Field Eugene Kindley shoots down the Fokker D.VII of Lothar von Richthofen, the brother the late Manfred von Richthofen. Lothar von Richthofen, an ace with 40 confirmed air-to-air victories, suffers serious wounds and never flies in combat again. It is the fourth of Kindley's 12 kills.
  • August 14 – The French ace René Fonck shoots down three German aircraft in ten seconds in a head-on attack. All three crash within 100 meters (328 feet) of one another near Roye, France.
  • August 19 – A U.S. Navy Curtiss 18-T-1 triplane sets a new world speed record of 163 mph (262 km/h).
  • August 21 – A flight of five United States Navy Macchi M.5 flying-boat fighters based at Porto Corsini, Italy, escorting a lone bomber across the Adriatic Sea to attack the Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Pola, Austria-Hungary, encounters four Austro-Hungarian Phönix D.I fighters. In the ensuing dogfight, the M.5s become separated, and Ensign George Ludlow is forced to land his damaged fighter on the sea 9 km (5.6 mi) from Pola. Charles Hammann lands his own M.5 and rescues Ludlow, who straddles the fuselage of Hammann's plane for the 111 km (69 mi) flight back to Porto Corsini. Hammann will die in a crash in June 1919, but will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1920, retroactively becoming the first U.S. aviator ever to receive the award.
  • August 22 – Lieutenant Frigyes Hefty of the Austro-Hungarian Air Corps successfully parachutes from his burning fighter after a dogfight with Italian aircraft. He is the first person to survive a combat parachute jump.
  • August 24 – American ace Louis Bennett Jr., flying an SE.5a with the Royal Air Force's No. 40 Squadron, is shot down by German antiaircraft fire while attacking a German observation balloon. He dies in a German field hospital in Wavrin, France, shortly after he is pulled from the wreckage. Including two balloons downed on his final flight, he has scored 11½ kills in a career spanning only 25 sorties. Nine of his victories have been balloons, and at the end of the war he will stand as the second most successful U.S. balloon buster, behind only Frank Luke′s score of 14 balloons.
  • August 25 – Flying a Sopwith Dolphin, Jerry Pentland of the Royal Air Force's No. 87 Squadron downs two German aircraft – a DFW two-seater and a Fokker D.VII fighter – before being shot down himself and wounded in the foot. They are his last victories, but he emerges from World War I as Australia′s fifth-highest-scoring ace with 23 kills.
  • August 27 – The first Director of the U.S. Army Air Service is appointed.

September

October

  • The Royal Air Force establishes the Marine Aircraft Experimental Station at Isle of Grain, Kent, to design, test, and evaluate seaplanes, flying boats, and other aircraft connected with naval operations. In March 1924 it will become the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.
  • October 3
  • October 5 – The famed French pilot Lieutenant Roland Garros, who in 1915 had become the first man to shoot down another aircraft by firing a machine gun through a tractor propeller, is shot down and killed in combat near Vouziers, France. He has four victories at the time of his death.
  • October 11 – The Imperial German Navy's air command proposes that merchant ships be converted into Germany's first aircraft carriers with flight decks.
  • October 12 – The Imperial German Navy's Naval Airship Division flies its last combat mission.
  • October 14
    • Baron Willy Coppens, the highest-scoring Belgian ace, shoots down a German observation balloon near Praatbos, Belgium. It is the last of his 37 victories, 34 of them observation balloons. Attacking another German balloon later in the same flight, he is badly wounded near Torhout, Belgium, forcing him to crash-land. World War I ends four weeks later with him as its top-scoring "balloon buster."
    • The first all-U.S. Marine Corps air combat action in history takes place, when five Airco DH.4s and three Airco DH.9s bomb Pitthem, Belgium. On the return flight, German Fokker D.VII and Pfalz D.III fighters attack the bombers. Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot (pilot) and Gunnery Sergeant Robert Guy Robinson (gunner) become separated from the formation after their DH.4 loses power, then encounter 12 German fighters. Although Robinson is terribly wounded during the resulting dogfight, they hold off the Germans and Talbot lands at a Belgian hospital, where Robinson is treated. For this action, they will become the first U.S. Marine Corps aviators to receive the Medal of Honor during a ceremony on November 11, 1920.
  • October 24 – The Battle of Vittorio Veneto begins. During the 11-day battle, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare ("Military Aviation Corps") fields 400 aircraft with which to oppose at least 470 enemy aircraft.
  • October 25 – U.S. Marine Corps Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot dies in a crash during a test flight 11 days after the action for which he will receive a posthumous Medal of Honor in 1920.
  • October 27 – Italian ace Pier Ruggero Piccio is shot down by enemy ground fire and captured by Austro-Hungarian troops. He finishes the war with 24 victories, the third-highest-scoring Italian ace of World War I.
  • October 28
  • October 29 – The Danish airline Det Danske Luftfartselskab, trading in the English-speaking world as Danish Air Lines – the oldest airline that still exists – is founded. It will begin flight operations in August 1920.
  • October 30 – Flying a SPAD XIII fighter, Eddie Rickenbacker shoots down a German observation balloon near Remonville, France, for his 26th and final aerial victory. His 26 victories (22 airplanes and four balloons) will make him the top-scoring American ace of World War I.

November

  • November 1
    • The French fighter pilot René Fonck scores his 75th and final aerial victory. He ends the war as the highest-scoring Allied ace and second-highest scoring ace overall of World War I.
    • The French Navy, which when World War I began in August 1914 had an aviation force of only eight seaplanes, has expanded its air arm to 37 airships, 1,264 airplanes, and over 11,000 men.
  • November 4
  • November 11
    • The Armistice with Germany brings World War I to an end. After the signing of the Armistice, all Allied aircraft flying over withdrawing German forces fly streamers attached to their wings to indicate that they have no hostile intent.
    • The Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and Royal Air Force have suffered 16,623 casualties and the French Aéronautique Militaire approximately 8,500 casualties during World War I, while the German Air Service has suffered in excess of 15,000.
    • Italy′s Corpo Aeronautico Militare ("Militaty Aviation Corps") finishes the war with a strength of 2,725 aircraft. During the war, 105 Italian factories have manufactured airframes, aero engines, and aviation propellers, producing 11,986 airplanes, almost half under license and only 2,208 made entirely of Italian components.
    • Since the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, the United States Marine Corps' aviation force has grown from seven officers and 43 enlisted men to 282 officers and 2,180 enlisted men.
    • The Felixstowe Fury (Porte Super-Baby), largest seaplane in the world and first to incorporate servo-assisted controls, makes its first flight from the Seaplane Experimental Station in England.
  • November 15 – Surviving United States Army Air Service pilots serving with bomber squadrons of the Royal Italian Army's Military Aviation Corps on the Italian Front assemble at San Pelagio Airfield outside Padua, Italy, to receive the Italian War Merit Cross. A month later, all will have departed Italy for the United States. During World War I, about 100 U.S. Army Air Service aviators have served with the Italians, accumulating more than 500 combat hours – mostly in Caproni Ca.3 bombers – while taking part in 65 bombing missions.
  • November 21 – The Estonian Army begins to organize an aviation service. It is considered the beginning of the history of the Estonian Air Force.

December

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Entered service

January

February

March

April

June

August

October

November


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