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
The following letter appeared in the Evening News, 13 12 March 1935, 6: On the brick wall at the side of our street door can still be seen faintly two large letters, “P. P.,” which stood for Poplar Patrol. Every Friday night it was my job to collect 3d. from each house-hold that belonged to
Compare and contrast. The Daily Mail in 2007: During the dark days of the Second World War, British children passed the time with marbles, hopscotch, tiddlywinks and, for a lucky few, a Monopoly set. But over in Germany, the amusements were far less innocent. In one version of bagatelle named Bombers over England, children as
I hadn’t come across this before. @ukwarcabinet recently linked to some informal notes of a War Cabinet meeting held on 8 February 1940. It was pretty quiet, even for the Bore War, and ‘Some of the subjects discussed were rather discussed by way of filling in time’. Including this: At the end of the Meeting
I’ve just had a go at working out who held the influential position of aeronautical correspondent (or air correspondent, in later years) for The Times for its first third of a century or so. No names were used in the articles themselves, so the easiest way to find them seems to be through the obituary
The Electrical Experimenter was an American science magazine, founded and edited by Hugo Gernsback. These covers were published during the First World War, and illustrate ways in which science could be used to create new weapons and new defences. Many of them are just a little far-fetched, such as the land ironclad shown above.
In June 1935, the Daily Express ran a story about three ‘secret British air devices’. The source was a story in the Chicago Tribune by that paper’s London correspondent, John Steele: The devices are declared to be a new “mirage” smoke screen, a new seventeen-foot long anti-aircraft rifle, and a robot airplane which, controlled by
