Aircraft Ownership Is The Time Right

Observation Balloon ... Historically, observation balloons were filled with hydrogen. The French colonel Charles Renard developed a mobile system with a trailer in 1880...

Strategic Bombing During World War I ... The advent of air raid warnings, sirens and shelters can be dated to World War I, as can the design of dedicated anti-aircraft artillery and the role of interceptor aircraft... Many of the advocates of strategic bombing during the interwar period, such as Italy's Giulio Douhet, America's Billy Mitchell, and Britain's Hugh Trenchard, had commanded aircraft during World War I... The improvements in aircraft technology during and after the war convinced many that "the bomber will always get through", which affected planning for strategic bombing in World War II...

Aerial Victory Standards Of World War I ... Allies of World War I Belgium Enemy aircraft had to fall within friendly lines in a nation partially occupied by the enemy, or be seen by friendly ground troops falling within German lines, to be counted...

Anti-aircraft Warfare ... However, in some countries, such as Britain and Germany in World War II, the Soviet Union and NATO's European Command, ground based air defence and air defence aircraft have been under integrated command and control...

List Of World War I Flying Aces ... Historically, a flying ace was defined as a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat... The term was first used by French newspapers, describing Adolphe Pégoud as l'as (the ace), after he downed five German aircraft... An enemy aircraft that crashed in enemy held territory obviously could not be verified by the victor's ground troops...

Zeppelin ... The advantage of this design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships (which relied on a slight overpressure within the single gasbag to maintain their shape) because the light-alloy used for the structure, (usually Magnesium or Aluminium alloys), enabling Zeppelins to lift heavier loads and be fitted with more engines and/or more powerful engines...

History Of Ballooning ... There is also some speculation, from a demonstration led by British modern hot air balloonist Julian Nott in the late 1970s and again in 2003, that hot air balloons could have been used by people of the Nazca culture of Peru some 1500 to 2000 years ago, as a tool for designing the famous Nazca ground figures and lines. The first documented balloon flight in Europe was by the brazilian priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão...

Bloody April ... There were initially only five German Jastas (fighter squadrons) in the region, but this rose to eight as the battle progressed (some 80 or so operational fighter aircraft in total)...

Auto Racing ... Sixty-nine cars started the 50 km (31 mi) selection event that would show which entrants would be allowed to start the main event, the 127 km (79 mi) race from Paris to Rouen. The entrants ranged from serious manufacturers like Peugeot, Panhard or De Dion to amateur owners, and only 25 were selected for the main race...

Aircraft ... Although rockets and missiles also travel through the atmosphere, most are not considered aircraft because they do not have wings and rely on rocket thrust as the primary means of lift... Consequently the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras: Pioneers of flight, from the earliest experiments to 1913... When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, it adds up to the same weight as the air that the craft displaces...

Interrupter Gear ... Introduced during the First World War, the gun synchronizer was a significant development in the history of aerial warfare and remained in operational use until the Korean War, after which the universal adoption of propeller-less jet aircraft rendered such gears unnecessary... The other, true interrupter gear stops the firing of the machine gun when some part of the aircraft is in the way...

Fokker Scourge ... Its main advantage was that the pilot was now able to take aim by pointing his aircraft at his target, a very simple and intuitive procedure, especially for the pilot of a single seat aircraft... This aircraft and its successors - also commonly known as the Eindecker (German for "Monoplane") for the first time supplied an equivalent to Allied fighters...

History Of Aviation ... The first form of man-made flying objects were kites. The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC in China, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region...

Alberto Santos-Dumont ... Designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), the flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft witnessed by the European press and French aviation authorities to take off and successfully fly...