Should the early history of military aviation not appear to
contain much promise for an interesting coffee break please
read on because it might just surprise you. You might even
find yourself drawn to going to see some early aeroplanes.
Military aviation began with balloons. In 1794 during the
French Revolutionary Wars the French brought the Siege
of Manburg to an abrupt end when they sent up a balloon
to expose the enemy positions. This so unnerved the
Austrian and Dutch besiegers that they simply gave up and
went home. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin made his first
balloon ascent in 1863 in America as an observer for the
Union troops during the American Civil War.
Von Zeppelin became a military hero in the 1870-71
Franco-Prussian War and later served as a Commander
of the Uhlans – the famed and dashing light cavalry who
carried sabres and lances trailing colourful pennants.
Following a less successful stint in the Prussian Cavalry
and aged 52 von Zeppelin retired to devote himself to
dirigibles. After many experiments he partnered up with
Daimler and flew his first successful rigid airship – the
Zeppelin LZ1 in July of 1900. By the way, just so you
know, if it’s not rigid, that is to say it has no internal
framework, it’s not a dirigible, it’s a blimp.
Zut Alors!
Just three years later, in 1903, at the giddy height of ten
feet, the Wright brothers made the world’s first controlled,
powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight at Dayton
Ohio and just three years after that The Daily Mail, led by
Lord Northcliffe, started putting up cash prizes for
achievements in aviation. When Louis Bleriot scooped
the £1000 jackpot in 1909 for flying across the English
Channel Northcliffe was a tad disappointed having hoped
that Wilbur Wright would accept the challenge. Bleriot’s
aeroplane was displayed in the window of Selfridges on
Oxford Street drawing huge clouds. HG Wells’ recently
published novel
The War in the Air
reflected the growing
public interest in and fear of aerial conflict and following
Bleriot’s success Wells wrote in the Daily Mail that
Britain was no longer an inaccessible island. Zut alors!
A Frenchman had flown onto our shores!
In 1912 an aeroplane was first used in war when Italy
seized Tripoli from the Ottoman Empire and established
Libya as an Italian colony. The Italians flew Farman
Pushers (pushed by the propeller placed not on the nose
but behind the cockpit) using them primarily for infantry
reconnaissance but in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 they
became offensive weapons as Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia
and Montenegro went up against the Ottoman Empire
taking Macedonia and Thrace from the Turks before
fighting among themselves over the spoils. As the rumbles
of discontent and conflict that would end in world war
grew and multiplied Lord Northcliffe wrote editorials
about the growing threat of attack from the air. He was
castigated for being sensationalist.
A Tearing Hurry
Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith CBE was born in
the year of the infamous Ripper murders and, remarkably
for a pioneer in a field so fraught with mortal danger, he
lived for a mighty 101 years until 1989. Sopwith’s first
flight was in a Farman at the Brooklands motor course
The Cavalry of the Clouds & The Zeppelins
