1916_in_aviation

1916 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1916:

January 12 - German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, with 8 kills, are the first pilots awarded with Pour le Mérite ("the Blue Max")
January 29 - the second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.

March 16 - US military aircraft fly their first mission over foreign soil when Curtiss JN3s of the 1st Aero Squadron carry out reconnaissance over Mexico.
March 18 - German ace Ernst Udet scores his first kill

April 15 - RFC and RNAS aircraft deliver 13 tons of stores into Kut el Amara, Mesopotamia, while it is besieged by the Turks. This was the first time aircraft were used for such a purpose.
April 20 - the Escadrille Américanne, later to be known as Lafayette Escadrille, is established as an American volunteer unit in France, equipped with Nieuport 11s.

May 2 - eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin L 20 (LZ59) is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.
May 17 - Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.

June 17 - the first French ace, Jean Navarre, is shot down and wounded, ending his combat career with 12 confirmed kills.
June 18 - the first German ace Max Immelmann is shot down and killed by a FE.2b from No. 25 Squadron RFC -- a symbolic end of the "Fokker Scourge". He had scored 15 kills.
June 23 - Victor Chapman of Lafayette Escadrille becomes the first US airman to be killed in action, shot down near Verdun.

No.3 Wing RNAS becomes Britain's first strategic bombing unit, equipped with Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters
July 1 - beginning of the Battle of the Somme. In the five months of the battle, the British lose 782 aircraft and 576 pilots but maintain air superiority over the battlefield.

August 2 - 16 German Zeppelins raid southeast England. Lt William Leefe-Robinson, RFC shoots down Zeppelin SL 11 in a BE.2c.
August 6 - French ace Capitaine René Fonck gains his first confirmed victory.
August 27 - Oswald Boelcke creates the first German special fighter squadron Jagdstaffel 2 (Jasta 2).

September 15 - British submarine B-10 is sunk by Austrian Lohner flying boats, led by Fregatten-Leutnant Zelezny, becoming the first submarine sunk by aircraft; French submarine Foucault is sunk by two Austrian Lohner flying boats, led by Fregatten-Leutnant Zelezny, becoming the first submarine sunk at sea by aircraft.
September 17 - Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen scores his first kill, from a Albatros D.II
September 23-24 - eleven Zeppelins attack England. Two are shot down, LZ 76 by ground fire, and LZ 74 by Lt Frederick Sowrey