So, who was behind the drop of propaganda leaflets on the striking workers at Coventry in December 1917? Most of the press accounts in fact avoid identifying the aeroplanes involved or who was flying them. At least one, however, says they were ‘military pilots’ and this seems likely. While civilian flying didn’t stop entirely during […]
This photo purportedly shows a British military aeroplane dropping leaflets on the streets of Coventry in early December 1917. I suspect it’s a fake, a composite, or else it’s a bit odd that nobody seems to have noticed all that horsepower roaring just overhead.1 But the event it shows did happen. According to the Daily
Above is a pair of stereo photos kindly sent to me by Tim Lees, who found them in his father’s collection. There’s a slight mystery as to the occasion. The label at the top reads ‘Hendon – July ’28’, which suggests they were taken at the RAF Display at Hendon in 1928, but that year
In an earlier series of posts I discussed Australia’s first airship, the White Australia, which flew in 1914. It turns out that there was an earlier Australian airship, of a sort: the Airem Scarem. Indeed, according to a 1907 newspaper advertisement it was the ‘First Airship below the line’ (equator, presumably). From the above photo,
I recently learned that Adelaide has a suburb called Hendon. Naturally, I wondered if there was a connection to the Hendon, the most important site for aerial theatre in Britain both before and after the First World War. And the answer is: yes!
What could be more American than football, cheerleaders, and country music? According to Hank Williams Jr in 1989 [edit: more like 1996 — thanks, Robert Farley], only football, cheerleaders, country music, and air strikes on US national monuments (which magically transform them into symbols associated with football):
In the rather enjoyable Falling Upwards, Richard Holmes spends most of his time discussing the history of ballooning in Britain, France, and the United States. However, he does briefly talk about the first balloon flights in Australia: In 1858 the British balloon the Australian made some startling flights over Melbourne and Sydney. There was a
A drawing by an Australian, John T. Collins, perhaps as a student exercise. Unlike in Britain, there was no dominant ‘aerial pageant’ here but rather many local ones, so it seems like a generic advertisement. It’s dated to 1932 or 1933, but assuming the context is Australian then those would be Hawker Demons and it
A bit of aerial theatre from Dan Todman’s (excellent) Britain’s War: Into Battle, 1937-1941: Newton Abbot, Devon, February 1941. The town is holding its War Weapons Week to promote the National Savings movement. It has been set the aim of increasing savings by £100,000 during seven days. To publicize the event, local organizers arrange a
I ended the previous post in this series with the tease: In a final post, I will discuss what [Alban] Roberts called his airship, and what it might mean. That was over two months ago! I think it’s time to finally reveal the answer to this question. Errol Martyn, who has written what must be
