From Bombing Runs To Mail Runs

Sending mail through the air added a sense of glamor and civility to an otherwise mundane task. Peacetime uses for aircraft, such as the de Haviland Tiger Moth, inspired fascination with machines that flew in the sky.

In the immediate post-war period, several factors were working against the widespread expansion of aviation, particularly in the U.S. North America had precious few airfields in existence of under construction. Also, there was still the problem of passenger aircraft, or lack thereof.

Nonetheless, aviation, related businesses managed to develop and grow.

From the ashes of World War I, the British flying team of John Alcock and Arthur Brown stunned the world. Aboard a converted bomber, a Vickers Vimy, the duo took off from Newfoundland and landed in Ireland less than sixteen hours later. The first non-stop transatlantic flight showed the world how the airplane could bring people and places closer to one another faster than ever before. (The Vimy, employed for use as a bomber by the British Air Force, could carry ten passengers after alterations.)
The flight nearly ended in disaster several times owing to engine trouble, fog, snow and ice. It was only saved by Brown's continual climbing out on the wings to remove ice from the engine air intakes and by Alcock's excellent piloting despite extremely poor visiblity at times and even snow filling the open cockpit.




Shortly thereafter, the first scheduled airline service was established between England and the European continent. Regular service aboard de Haviland DH-4s and DH-6s began in August 1919, linking London and Paris.




Seating for two was offered aboard Handley Page 0/400s that had been used as bombers during World War I.

In the 1920s, American aviators grabbed the international spotlight with daring aerial feats.


None were more heroic than Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927. Aboard a Ryan monoplane loaded with sandwiches, but without the aid of a radio or sextant, Lindbergh left a Long Island airfield on May 20. Thirty-three hours and thirty minutes later, he touched down in Le Bourget, France, the first aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo.

In the early 1930s, Amelia Earhart took a major step forward for the suffragette movement when she piloted a Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland in May 1932.

Three months later she crossed the continental United States from New York to Los Angeles without stopping. Both feats were firsts for women, and no doubt served to encourage young women and men to pursue the field of aviation.

The first scheduled international air service in America was founded when Aeromarine West Indies Airways began service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. Curtiss Flying Boats were used on this route, a practice that became widespread due to the lack of land-based airfields.




The Flying Boats of the 1920s fell out of favor in the late 1930s, since they were unable to reach landlocked cities, but not before some spirited production of some classic amphibious aircraft.

The Airplane Goes To War

Two inventions in relative infancy, the airplane and the machine gun combined to add new meaning to the wishes of the aviators to conquer the sky during World War I.


Intended merely as crowd pleasers, the aerial feats of Adolphe Pegoud would soon be put to use in the air battles fought over Europe in World War I. Pegoud was the first to fly upside down.












Eugene Ely demonstrates the airplane's naval utility, as he completes the first successful take-off from the deck of a ship.
























With the introduction of the Wright Military Flyer, militarization of the airplane soon found it in the skies as well as at sea.

However, in order for the Flyer to land on a naval vessel, it was necessary to construct a special platform.



Extending his influence beyond civil aviation, Glenn Curtiss delivered his Flying Boats to the United States Navy in 1911.



With help from the adventurous Samuel Cody, an English army aviator, the British aviation effort quickly evolved from sluggish dirigibles.











World War I brought the fears of many earlier thinkers to reality, as the airplane became the newest member of an Army's arsenal (the speedy and versatile Sopwith Pup, built by Thomas Sopwith).

















Proving themselves equal to the challenge of the British Sopwiths, the German air forces were bolstered by the designs of Anthony Fokker and the piloting skills of Manfred von Richtofen.

No nation had a monopoly on designing and building military aircraft. Still a beautiful machine, airplanes such as the Fokker monoplane became war planes with the simple addition of a mounted machine gun.


Obtaining greater speed and maneuverability was the goal of military aircraft designers during World War I. Two of the more successful efforts were the Scouting Experimental-5 of the Royal Aircraft Company....



and the French-built Nieuport 17.

While the SE-5 gained speed from the power of its Hispano-Suizo engine, the Nieuport 17 employed a smaller, almost nonexistent lower wind to give it an advantage during aerial maneuvers.









Equal in importance to the airplane's design, of course, was the skill of the pilot.

Few possessed great natural talent for flying than the American Ace Eddie Rickenbacker.

Eddie Rickenbacker entered World War I at a distinct disadvantage as a fighter pilot. World War I began in 1914, and even though war fighting in the air was a new phenomenon, the enemy had the advantage of three years critical learning experience. German pilots had already flown many air-to-air engagements and well understood the tactics needed to fight, win, and survive. Many young, inexperienced American pilots learned this lesson the hard way, going down in flames under the machine guns of their German enemy’s planes. This did not deter Rickenbacker. Instead, he studied the tactics, as well as the capabilities of his airplane and quickly mastered the skills he needed to succeed. He likewise applied and mastered these same skills to become a successful squadron commander. He was well respected by both his superiors and the enemy. Eddie Rickenbacker also realized full well that he needed to keep a clear head and sharp focus, both in the air and on the ground.

The World Wants To Fly

Inventions such as the Curtiss Pusher advanced the dreams of aviators to someday replace the "iron horse" s the principal means of transportation in the world.


















Having dazzled America with their accomplishments, the Wright brothers set out to conquer the European continent.






Not to be outdone by the upstart Americans, Frenchman Louis Bleriot led the European assault on the aviation record books, becoming the first man to fly across the English Channel. Bleriot's crossing of the English Channel made him an instant international celebrity.





American, Harriet Quimby, became the first woman to cross the English Channel in 1911.

Credits - © 2002 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution (SI Neg. 87-9386)










The streamlined design of the French-built Deperdussin allowed it to dominate serial speed records in 1912.









Flying a Wright-built airplane, Calbraith Perry Rodgers spanned the American continent and brought the miracle of aviation to almost every corner of the Continental United States.










His daring surpassed only by his ambition, Glenn Curtiss led the challenge against the Wright brothers for superiority in the American skies. The object of the Wright brothers wrath: Glenn Curtiss and his biplane.

The feud between the brothers and Curtiss led to a lawsuit that dragged on for years, eventually contributing to the early death of Wilbur Wright.

The Curtiss influence on American aviation was far-reaching. Whether piloting the Langley Aerodrome or providing engines for the early works of the brilliant Lougheed brothers, Glenn Curtiss asserted himself quickly and forcefully in American aviation circles.


The Lougheed Model G, featuring an 80 horsepower Curtiss engine and consisting of fabric stretched and glued over a wooden frame, was the first effort of Allan and Malcolm Lougheed.

One December Morning on Kill Devil Hills

With the dunes of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, providing the land, the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio, provided the legacy of flight. Today, a monument has been erected on Kill Devil Hills marking the spot of the first powered flight.

Even though the sand dunes of the North Carolina shore were far from home for Wilbur and Orville Wright, their genius carried them to heights well beyond their humble beginnings in Dayton, Ohio.



History was made on 17 December 1903, as the Wright brothers accomplished the first manned and powered flight. Mastery of the akies belonged, temporarily, to them.

A monument to this first flight has been erected on Kill Devil Hill.

Science Sets Its Sight On The Sky

With lighter-than-air balloons becoming an increasingly familiar sight in the skies over Europe during the nineteenth century, aviation gained acceptance as a scientific pursuit.

What had once been viewed as an inane attempt to overcome the laws of physics and gravity was now seen as a training ground for many bright and talented engineers and inventors.

Further advancing the understanding of aerodynamics, Sir George Cayley attached a pilot-operated rudder to his mid-nineteenth century glider.

'It was beautiful,' he wrote concerning this, 'to see this noble white bird sailing majestically from the top of a hill to any given point of the plain below it with perfect steadiness and safety, according to the set of its rudder, merely by its own weight, descending at an angle of about eight degrees with the horizon.'

True to the teachings of Sir George Cayley, William Samuel Henson designed his Aerial Steam Carriage with an extended wing-span in order to maximize lift.






While gaining in stature among the scientific community, aviation was still the dream of choice for inventors such as W. O. Ayres and his "Flying Bedframe" and for the purveyors of popular culture and entertainment.





While failing to realize his childhood dream to fly, Hiram Percy maxim's ambitious and calculated effort convinced many disbelievers that flight was possible.
His Hiram Maxim multiplane, driven by steam, was built in 1894.

Soaring With Birds

Throughout the ages, many have ignored the advice give to Icarus by his father....

not to fly too close to the sun.


Today, with the gliders such as the Ultralight, we are coming closer to soaring with the birds.

Many early efforts at flight began with the mistaken assumption that with a few minor adjustments, man could float on air just as the birds did.

Leonardo de Vinci's exhaustive study of the bird's physiology led to a greater understanding of the mechanics of flight, as well as to the design of his ornithopters.
Whether simply donning a pair of wings, or constructing a complex machine, the early efforts to fly ended in failure for most aviators, and in death for some.

For some, the prospect of a flying machine represented an innocent form of entertainment, while for others, it meant a new and more destructive means for conducting war.

Despite the fears and anxieties over manned flight, the quest for the sky continued.

The dream that one day a human would soar with the birds would not die.