Pre-War Pilots

Here's a thought that came to me while scrolling through microfilms today--

I wonder how many of the most famous/top scorers were actually fliers BEFORE the war? Might make for some interesting comparisons. I mention this as I'm going through old Russian newspapers for my disseration and certain names keep popping up with regularity in aviation news (Tkachev, etc.) and this is in 1912.

[PeterL]

Roland Garros of course, first to fly the Med and so on, and Jan Olieslagers was very active pre-war.

[Amy]

Tim:

Both Josef Jacobs and Willi Rosenstein (9 victories) learned to fly in 1912 and both spent some time as instructors during their career. And last but not least, they both survived the Great War.

Amy

[Reinout]

Actually, quite a few renowned Great War aviators were "old hands" (comparatively) during the war.

I don't have my sources with me, but I know that the bio's in Neal O'Connor's books name a few people who were pre-war fliers.

From my mind I can hardly think of any.
Walter Höhndorf was a pre-war aircraft designer so he must have been able to fly.
I think Berthold was in the Fliegertruppe as an observer before he became a pilot in 1915. Berthold was the observer who spotted the gap in the battle of the Marne in Sep 1914.

There are many more Germans (not much sources on the Allies on my bookshelves), however I don't think I'd be able to send them to you before you leave. I have a busy weekend ahead and I'm on my way to Spain next week so unless you're leaving after say, the 21st/22nd of July, I hope somebody else can supply you with the info.

Incidentally, what does your dissertation deal with exactly?

Kind regards,

Reinout

[Vigilant]

Adolphe Pegoud (France's first ace?) was a well-known aerobatic pilot before the war. He did a spectacular parachute jump too - but didn't use a 2-seater. So when he jumped the plane reared up out of control and then only narrowly missed him as it did a 'falling leaf' to the ground. They both landed at about the same time.

[rammjaeger]

Other examples of German pre-war pilots were Anders, Anslinger, Christiansen, Habich, Ernst Heß, Frankl, Odebrett, Schönfelder, Theiller, Ungewitter

BUT the overwhelming majority of the pilots, aces and top aces learned to fly during WWI.

Reinout,

I'm not really looking for the pilot info as a "must have," I just found it interesting that some of the greatest aces learned during the war, but that in some countries (France, Russia, Germany and perhaps Austria?) there was a more numerous cadre of trained experienced pilots when the war started than in other countries. It's ironic that there was far more government expenditure and involvement in aviation in Russia than there was in the United States in 1914!

My dissertation topic is the Imperial Russian Air Service roughly during the period 1914-16. Apart from general introductory and historiographical material, I plan to focus on air ops in 1916, especially EVK & tactical air units in support of the South-Western Front (Brusilov), especially the May/June 1916 offensive. Apart from actual operations I'm also looking at logistics, training, etc. Originally I was going to cover a wider topic, but that's a bit ambitious for a dissertation!

I'm working right now on surveying Russian newspapers (of which Princeton has a nice collection)looking up aviation related news stories (there are lots). Most American scholars persist in the belief that there "wasn't much going on" in Russia in terms of aviation and it was fairly insignificant during the war.

I think this oversight is a leftover Cold War leftover attitude, exacerbated by the difficulty of getting access to good sources and not being able to speak the language.

[Reinout]

Tim,

Thanks, we could do with a revision of attitudes on Russia!
Good luck and be careful in Russia...there's danger in the evening (okay, there's lots of danger during the day too, but after 2200 hrs, that's when the "fun" starts).

Kind regards,

Reinout

1914-1923

January 1, 1914. America's first regularly scheduled airline starts operation across Tampa Bay between Saint Petersburg and Tampa, Fla., with one Benoist flying boat. It lasts three months.

January 20, 1914. The Navy's aviation unit from Annapolis, Md., arrives at Pensacola, Fla., to set up the first naval air station.

February 24, 1914. In the wake of a rash of accidents, an Army investigative board condemns all pusher-type airplanes.

April 25, 1914. Navy Lt. (j.g). P.N.L. Bellinger, flying a Curtiss AB-3 flying boat from the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-23), makes the first US operational air sortie against another country when he searches for sea mines during the Veracruz incident.

May 5, 1914. A patent is issued for hinged inset trailing-edge ailerons.

July 18, 1914. The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps is created by Congress. Sixty officers and students and 260 enlisted men are authorized.

August 25, 1914. Stephan Banic, a coal miner in Greenville, Pa., is issued a patent for a workable parachute design.

August 26, 1914. The first air battle of World War I on the eastern front takes place. Staff Capt. Petr Nikolaevich Nesterov records the first aerial ramming in combat.

December 1-16, 1914. Two-way air-to-ground radio communication is demonstrated in a Burgess-Wright biplane by Army Signal Corps Lts. H.A. Dargue and J.O. Mauborgne over Manila, the Philippines.

January 19-20, 1915. Germany launches the first zeppelin bombing raids on England. One airship, the L.6, turns back, but two others, the L.3 and L.4, drop their bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.

March 3, 1915. Congress approves the act establishing the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA is to "supervise and direct the scientific study of flight with a view to [its] practical solution." The committee, initially given a budget of $5,000, will evolve into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

April 1, 1915. French Lt. Roland Garros shoots down a German Albatros two-seater with a Hotchkiss machine gun fixed on the nose of his Morane-Saulnier Type L monoplane. The airplane's propeller is fitted with wedge-shaped steel deflector plates that protect the blades from damage as the rounds pass through the propeller arc.