In late August 1940, as the aerial battle over Britain intensified, the Manchester Guardian published a short, light-hearted account of how the war was affecting a cathedral town in the provinces. For example, a dogfight takes place overhead, and shelterers scatter outside to pick up bullet casings for souvenirs; four of the enemy raiders are […]
This photograph of Australian soldiers was taken during the First World War. It’s not particularly unusual: just a group of mates getting together to record a memento, perhaps after a weekend’s carousing in the fleshpots of Cairo or Paris. Mateship is a important concept in Australian culture. The OED defines it as ‘The condition of
I’m not sure if this ever happened, but if it did it’s surely more impressive than shooting bison from a train, or even wolves from a helicopter. ACCORDING to a telegram from Port Elizabeth [South Africa] to the “African World,” bombing aeroplanes are to be used to exterminate “rogue” elephants in the Bush. North-China Herald,
Your browser does not support iframes. In lieu of a more substantial post, here are some flying aeroplanes. Clicking the above picture will take you to a British Pathé newsreel issued on 7 July 1938, showing ‘Britain’s latest air fighter’, also known as the Supermarine Spitfire Mk I. Unfortunately the narration is missing, but I
On 2 June 1915, a London coronial inquest was held into the deaths on the night of 31 May of Henry Thomas Good, 49, and Caroline Good, 46. The jury returned the verdict That the deceased died from suffocation and burns, having been murdered by some agent of a hostile force.1 That was about as
A recent post on io9 mentioned Le Péril Bleu, a 1912 French novel by Maurice Renard (who also wrote the oft-filmed Les Mains d’Orlac, ‘The hands of Orlac’). According to io9, Le Péril Bleu features ‘invisible aliens who lived in the upper strata of the atmosphere[,] fish for humans and keep them in a space
The Boer War of 1899-1902 doesn’t often appear in airpower history. This may have something to do with the fact that it took place before the invention of the aeroplane, which I suppose is reasonable. But there are still interesting and even important connections and influences to be traced. Here are a baker’s half-dozen.
In the summer of 1940, strange patterns like these began to appear in the sky over southern England. Today they wouldn’t be thought so unusual (except that they are on the twisty side), for contrails are a common sight now, especially over London. Seventy years ago, however, they were a little mysterious, even to those
In February 1912, the International Arbitration League issued ‘A Memorial Against the Use of Armed Airships‘, an early proposal for arms control. The memorial claimed that ‘For the first time, in the face of a new development of the arts of fighting, nations possess both the conscience and the machinery necessary to check that development
Harry Houdini is still famous as a magician and escapologist, but he was also a pioneer aviator. One hundred years ago today, on 18 March 1910, he carried out the first powered, controlled flight in Australia, at Diggers Rest, near Melbourne. This testimonial from witnesses appeared in the Melbourne Argus, 19 March 1910, 18: To
