This is a list of aviation-related events from 1915:
Events The United States Navy establishes a lighter-than-air arm, charged with the operation of airships and of kite balloons to be towed behind warships. By the end of World War I, four of its battleships and six of its destroyers will have operated balloons.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 120. The United States Army forms one company of the 2d Aero Squadron for service in the Philippine Islands..
January January 6 or 15 – The German submarine U-12 departs Zeebrugge with a Friedrichshafen FF.29 seaplane lashed to her deck in an attempt to use submarines to carry seaplanes within range of England. The seaplane is forced to take off early, reconnoiters the coast of Kent, and has to fly all the way back to Zeebrugge when bad weather makes returning to U-12 impossible. It is the only German attempt to operate an aircraft from a submarine.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , pp. 29-30.Wikipedia SM U-12 (Germany) article. January 7 – Italy establishes the Corpo Aeronautica Militare ("Military Aviation Corps") as part of the Italian Royal Army. January 19–20 (overnight) – The first Zeppelin raid on the United Kingdom takes place, carried out by the Imperial German Navy dirigibles L-3, L-4, and L-6. L-6 turns back with engine trouble, but L-3 drops six 50-kg (110-lb) high-explosive and seven incendiary bombs on Great Yarmouth and L-4 bombs Sheringham, Snettisham, and King's Lynn. The raid kills four people and injures 16.Cross, Wilbur, Zeppelins of World War I, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1991, , pp. 19-20.Frankland, Noble, Bomber Offensive: The Devastation of Europe, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1970, p. 10.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 70, 73-76. January 24 – An airship plays a role in a naval battle for the first time, when the German Navy Zeppelin L 5, flying a routine patrol, arrives over the ongoing Battle of the Dogger Bank between British and German battlecruisers in the North Sea. Operating cautiously after taking fire from British light cruisers, L-5 finds it difficult to track the action through cloud cover and plays a minimal role in the engagement, passing limited information to the commanding German admiral, Franz von Hipper, in the late stages of the battle.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 94-95. January 25 – The Imperial German Navy suffers its first wartime loss of an airship when PL 19 is forced down on the Baltic Sea by icing and engine failure while attempting to return to base after bombing Libau, Russia. Two Imperial Russian Navy minesweepers capture her seven-man crew and set her ablaze, destroying her. No further airship operations will take place in the Baltic theater until mid-July.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 216-218. The 15 January 1915 date given for the incident on p. 217 appears to be a typographical error; the 25 January 1915 date given on p. 216 appears to be accurate.
February February 2 – The only Imperial Russian Navy seaplane carrier to see service in the Baltic Sea during World War I, Orlitza, is commissioned.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 97. February 15 – Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers attack the Vistula-Dobrzhani area of Poland, the first bombing raid by the Ilya Muromets. February 17 – Only four weeks after they became the first two airships to bomb the United Kingdom, the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins L-3 and L-4 are wrecked in Denmark while attempting to search for British ships off Norway. L-3s crew burns her before being interned by Danish authorities. L-4 is blown out over the North Sea after touching down in Denmark and disappears with four men still on board; the Danes intern the rest of her crew.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 76, 95-96. February 26 – The second German attempt to bomb the United Kingdom fails when strong headwinds force the German Navy Zeppelin L-8, sent out to attack alone, to give up her attempt and land at an Imperial German Army camp in German-occupied Belgium.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 76.
March The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet begins seaplane carrier raids against the Bosporus and the Ottoman Empires European Black Sea coast. The raids, which continue until May, are historys first in which battleships play a subsidiary role while operating with aviation ships, foreshadowing the aircraft carrier-battleship task forces of World War II.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , pp. 96, 101. March 3 – In the United States, an Act of Congress creates the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), a United States Government agency charged with undertaking, promoting, and institutionalizing aeronautical research. NACA will operate until October 1, 1958, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will replace it. March 4 – The third German attempt to bomb the United Kingdom fails when the naval Zeppelin L-8, sent to attack alone, encounters a gale over the North Sea and is blown out of control over Nieuwpoort, Belgium, where Belgian antiaircraft gunners shoot her down. March 7 – The first British tactical bombing raids are made in support of ground troops in Menin and Courtai. March 11 – The Royal Navy charters the cargo ship SS Manica for conversion into the first British balloon ship, HMS Manica. The Royal Navy will be the only navy during World War I to operate balloon ships, specialized ships designed to handle observation balloons as their sole function.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 73. March 14 – Pioneering American pilot Lincoln J. Beachey dies when his Beachey-Eaton Monoplane suffers a structural failure while he is flying inverted before a crowd of 250,000 at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition and crashes into San Francisco Bay. March 17 – The Imperial German Army attempts its first airship raid against the United Kingdom with the Zeppelin Z XII. Unable to find targets through cloud cover, Z XII drops no bombs, but over Calais, France, on the way home makes the first use of a manned observation car lowered by winch below the Zeppelin to allow observation while the airship remains safely above cloud cover.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 76-77. The German Navy later also experiments with such cars and later makes them standard equipment aboard German naval airships.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 78. March 18 – Imperial Russian Air Service Stabskapitän Alexander Kazakov uses a grapnel to hook his aircraft to a German Albatros two-seater aircraft in mid-air, hoping to destroy the Albatros by detonating a small bomb fixed to the grapnel. When his grapnel mechanism jams as he unreels it, he instead downs the Albatros by ramming it with his undercarriage.Franks, Norman, Aircraft vs. Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998, , p. 11. March 24 – Five Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s of No. 1 Squadron bomb the German submarine depot at Hoboken in Antwerp, Belgium, starting a fire in the shipyard that destroys two German submarines.Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 33.
April April 1 In a Morane-Saulnier L, future French ace Jean Navarre and his observer/gunner, Sub-Lieutenant Jean Robert, attack a German Aviatik B.I over Merval, France. Robert uses a carbine to damage it and wound its pilot, forcing it to land behind French lines and surrender. It is Navarres first victory.Hollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, p. 36. Later in the day, French pilot Lieutenant Roland Garros scores the first kill achieved by firing a machine gun through a tractor propeller when he shoots down a German Albatros observation plane. With no synchronization gear yet available for his machine gun, he uses metal deflector wedges installed on the propeller of his Morane Saulnier L fighter to keep the machine gun from shooting his own propeller blades off. It is also his first kill. He will score two more victories this way, on April 15 and April 18.Hollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, p. 38. April 3 – French pilot Adolphe Pégoud scores his fifth aerial victory, becoming historys first ace. April 14–15 (overnight) – Germany bombs the United Kingdom for the second time when the German Navy Zeppelin L 9 bombs the Tyneside area of England, either killing or injuring a woman and a small boy. April 15–16 (overnight) – The German Navy Zeppelins L 5, L 6, and L 7 – the latter carrying Peter Strasser, the commander of the German Naval Airship Division, as an observer – bomb England. Although they meet little resistance other than rifle fire, their bombs inflict little damage. April 16 – The United States Navy conducts the first catapult launch of an aircraft from a floating platform, launching an airplane from Navy Coal Barge No. 214 at Naval Air Station Pensacola at Pensacola, Florida.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 112. April 18 German forces shoot down and capture Roland Garros. Flying a B.E.2c, Royal Flying Corps pilot Lanoe Hawker attacks the German Zeppelin sheds at Gontrode, Belgium, destroying a brand-new shed and shooting down a nearby Drachen observation balloon. He will be awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the action. The Germans soon cease to use Gontrode as an airship base.Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 79-80. April 19 – During the Gallipoli campaign, the Royal Navy balloon ship Manica lofts her observation balloon operationally for the first time in the first operational use of a balloon ship during World War I. The observer in her balloon directs fire against Ottoman positions for the armored cruiser Bacchante. Manicas work during the campaign impresses the British Admiralty enough for it to order additional balloon ships April 20 – Flying a reconnaissance mission along the border with Mexico in a Martin T biplane, First Lieutenant Byron Q. Jones (pilot) and Lieutenant Thomas D. Milling (observer) become the first United States Army aviators to come under enemy fire during a flight when Mexican forces open fire on them with small arms and at least one machine gun while they are over the Rio Grande at Brownsville, Texas. Their plane is hit, but they are uninjured. It is considered the first combat air sortie in U.S. Army history.Heaton, Dan, "Gunfire Over the Rio Grande," Aviation History, May 2014, pp. 16-17. April 26 – Second Lieutenant William Rhodes-Moorhouse of the Royal Flying Corpss No. 2 Squadron is mortally wounded while carrying out a bombing attack on a railway junction at Kortrijk, Belgium; he dies the next day. For the action, he posthumously will become the first airman of any sort while flying against the enemy to receive the Victoria Cross.
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