1914 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1914:

Events

January

• January 1 - The St. Petersburg/Tampa Airboat Line starts services, becoming the first airline to provide regular services with heavier-than-air aircraft, with Anthony Jannus conveying passengers in a Benoist XIV flying boat. A.C. Pheil is the first airline passenger.

February

• The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets sets a load-to-altitude record, lifting 16 people to 2,000 metres (6,562 ft).
• February 8-10 - Berliner, Haase and Nikolai fly 3053 km in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record lasted until 1950.

March

• March 23 - Royal Siamese flying corps was formed.

April

• April 20 - Three US Navy aircraft depart Pensacola on board the USS Mississippi in support of troops at Vera Cruz, Mexico. They will fly reconnaissance missions until May 12.
• April 20 - Howard Pixton wins the Schneider Trophy at Monaco. Pixton averages 139.66 km/h (86.78 mph) over the course in a Sopwith Schneider

May

• May 23 - well known pilot Gustav Hamel is lost over the North Sea while returning from Paris in a new Morane-Saulnier monoplane.

July

• July 10-11, German Reinhold Böhm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 minutes without refueling and nonstop. This one-man-flight record lasted until 1927.
• July 28 - outbreak of World War I Aviation changes war in a twofold way. The aeroplane turns the sky into a new battle field where about 20,000 flyers, most of them trained pilots die. Aircraft eliminate the distinction between frontline and hinterland, with the civilian population far behind the frontline also becoming a target.
• July 30 - Norwegian Tryggve Gran flying a Blériot monoplane makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane.

August

• August 8 - A French aerial observer is injured by small-arms fire, becoming that nation's first casualty of air war.
• August 12 - Lieutenant Robin R. Skene and mechanic R. Barlow crash their Blériot monoplane on the way to Dover, they become the first members of the Royal Flying Corps to die on active duty. Robin Skene is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Send Surrey.
• August 13 - A Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 becomes the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.
• August 22 - An Avro 504 on patrol over Belgium is shot down by German rifle fire, the first Royal Flying Corps destroyed in action.
• August 25 - The first German aircraft of the war is forced down.
• August 30 - Paris is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time - an Etrich Taube flown by Lt Ferdinand von Hiddessen.

September

• September 16 - The Canadian Aviation Corps is formed.
• September 27 - The first French bomber group is formed.

October

• October 5 - Sgt Joseph Frantz and Cpl Louis Quenault of Escadrille VB24 score the first air-to-air kill of the war (and the first aircraft in history to shoot down another aircraft), shooting down a German Aviatik B.II with machine gun fire from their Voisin III over Jonchery, Reims.
• October 8 - Wing Cdr Charles Samson, RNAS plans the first strategic air raid on Germany. Two Sopwith Tabloids set out to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf. One of the aircraft attacks the Cologne railway station, but the other, piloted by Flt Lt "Reggie" Marix finds his target and destroys a shed holding the Zeppelin Z.IX (LZ25).

November

• November 21 - Three RNAS Avro 504s bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen.

December

• December 21 - The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time - a Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.
• December 25 - HMS Empress, HMS Engadine and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.

First flights

January

• Sikorsky Ilya Muromets

February

• 23 February - Bristol Scout

July

• Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus

Entered service