Timeline of military aviation
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
- 1794 - French Aerostatic Corps use a tethered balloon at the Battle of Fleurus as a vantage point.
- 1849 - The Austrian ship Vulcano launches a manned hot air balloon to bomb Venice; this is the first aerial attack in history.
- 1861 - The Union Army Balloon Corps is established during the American Civil War.
- 1878 - The British Army Balloon Equipment Store is established at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich by the Royal Engineers.
- 1885 - Balloons are deployed by the British Army to Bechuanaland and Suakin.
- 1888 - The British Army School of Ballooning is established.
- 1907 - The first military air organization, the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, is formed 1 August
- 1907 - British Colonel John Capper flies the military airship Nulli Secundus from Farnborough to Crystal Palace in London.[1]
- 1909 - Heavier-than-air military aviation is born with the US Army's purchase of Signal Corps Aeroplane No. 1.
- 1910 - The first experimental take-off of a heavier-than-air craft from the deck of a US Navy vessel, the cruiser USS Birmingham
- 1910 - The Aviation Militaire of the French Army is formed 22 October.
- 1911 - The Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers is formed, the first British heavier-than-air unit.
- 1911 - Heavier-than-air aircraft are used in war for the first time during the Italo-Turkish War.[2]
- 1912 - The Royal Flying Corps is formed. A few months later the Dominion of Australia also formed the Australian Flying Corps.
- 1914 - The Royal Naval Air Service is formed by splitting airship squadrons away from the Royal Flying Corps.
- 1914 - In August, Russian Staff-Captain Pyotr Nesterov becomes the first pilot to ram his plane into an enemy spotter aircraft.
- 1914 - In October, a plane[who?] is shot down by another aircraft[who?] with a handgun over Rheims, France.
- 1914 - The first conventional air-to-air kill occurs on October 5 when a gunner on a French Voisin machine-guns a German Aviatik reconnaissance aircraft in World War I.[3]
- 1918 - The Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air force is formed.
- 1918 - HMS Argus (I49) became "the world's first carrier capable of launching and landing naval aircraft".[4]
- 1940 - The Battle of Britain, the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, was fought.
- 1958 - The first ever air-to-air kill with a missile, when a Chinese Nationalist North American F-86 Sabre kills a Chinese PLAAF Mikoyan-Guryevich MiG-15 during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis[5]
- 1980 - The only confirmed air-to-air helicopter battles occur during the Iran–Iraq War.
See also
References
- ↑ Colonel Templer and the birth of aviation at Farnborough, RAeS, May 2007
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Geoffrey Till, "Adopting the Aircraft Carrier: The British, Japanese, and American Case Studies" in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
