31 December 1913

The Wright Model E, built in 1913, was an exhibition plane. A small crew could disassemble this single-seat plane for shipping in just 12 minutes. Orville flew a Model E equipped with his automatic stabilizer on December 31, 1913, to win the Collier Trophy of the Aero Club of America.

30 December 1913

The headline of the St. Petersburg Daily Times on Tuesday, December 30, 1913 read “Tony Jannus Will Make First Flight Thursday” to inaugurate airline service between that city and Tampa. Jannus gave the recently assembled Benoist Model 14 flying boat two test flights on December 30 and 31, accompanied on one by Benoist's chief mechanic, J.D. Smith, and on the other by a local man named J.G. Foley.

29 December 1913

On December 29, 1913, the first public test flight was made at Sra Pathum Airfield by the Royal Thai Air Force. Field Marshal Prince Kamphaengbejra Agrayodhin, Inspector General of the Royal Engineers, Field Marshal Prince Chakrabongse, Army Chief of Staff, and a great number of crowds, viewed the flight.

28 December 1913

Record heights increased only gradually until what was called “the world’s first great altitude flight” took place Dec. 28, 1913, when Georges LeGagneux was the first to reach an altitude of over 20,172 feet (6,120 meters).

27 December 1913

The first airplane to visit the Holy Land was the Bleriot XI flown by the French aviator Jules Vedrines, who participated in a competition to fly from Paris to Cairo. He landed near Jaffa, on the Mediterranean coast, on December 27th, 1913 - at a time when Palestine was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

26 December 1913

On 26 December 1913, Lt. Joseph E. Carberry set an Army record for altitude carrying a passenger, piloting a Curtiss Model G to 7,800 feet. He subsequently set several other altitude records.

25 December 1913

French aviator Jules Vedrines, in the course of his journey from Paris to Cairo, landed his Bleriot XI monoplane at Beirut, Lebanon on Christmas Day, 25 December 1913.

24 December 1913

Pilot Richard Johnson joined a leading aviator, Frank Gooden, in an attempt to open an airfield and flying school in Tonbridge, Kent. The pair came to grief but were not hurt while taking off to return to Hendon after giving a demonstration flight on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1913. The wheels stuck in the mud, and the plane tipped on its nose damaging the propeller, which became an object of interest in a later Tonbridge museum.

23 December 1913

On 23 December 1913, in the annals of aviation history, it would appear that nothing of any lasting significance happened.

22 December 1913

On December 22, 1913 at Cicero Flying Field in Chicago, C. Le Gaucier reportedly tested his Le Gaucier monoplane, which was intended to accomplish a transatlantic flight.

21 December 1913

The ideas of air-minded First Sea Lord W.S. Churchill could be worked on very quickly. In a minute dated 21 December 1913 to the Director of the Air Department, he asks for the construction of a Sopwith tractor biplane with a 100hp engine and side-by-side seating for the flying school at Eastchurch. The aeroplane was actually built by Sopwiths, appearing in its order book 24th December 1913, and described as a Land Tractor biplane Ds with a 100hp Gnome engine. It was given the RNAS serial number 149, and was known as the ’Sociable’, the ‘Tweenie’ or the ‘Churchill’.

20 December 1913

On 20 December 1913, in the annals of aviation history, it would appear that nothing of any lasting significance happened.

19 December 1913

On December 19, 1913, the Hon. Mrs. Assheton Harbord accompanied by Mr. C.F. Pollock, ascended from Battersea in a free balloon and alighted 130 miles away in Taunton, Somerset. This flight won for the Hon. Mrs. Harbord the Mortimer Singer Long Distance Balloon Race cup.

18 December 1913

Harold D. Kantner received flight instruction at the Moisant aviation school on Long Island in 1910, where he became an instructor, aircraft designer and test pilot. He designed and built the Morane-Kantner Military Monoplane, a modification of the Morane Saulnier "G". The aircraft was destroyed in the Hempstead Trials on December 18, 1913. Kantner/Moisant built more of them, particularly for use in the Mexican Revolution.

17 December 1913

On December 17, 1913, Captains Eduardo Barrón and Carlos Cifuentes attacked the village of Ben Carich in Spanish Morocco, dropping four "Carbonit" shrapnel bombs filled with explosives and steel balls from their Lohner Pfeilflieger biplane, to punish rebellious villages. Ten years after the Wrights' First Flight their creation was in use as a weapon of war.

16 December 1913

In Chile, Clodomiro Figueroa (1886-1958) topped the list for persistence, courage and ingenuity. He made the first attempts at crossing the Andes but his efforts were unsuccessful. Mounting a fragile Blériot XI with an 80 hp Anzani engine, he took off on the morning of December 16, 1913 from a pasture at the foot of Cerro La Virgen with the intention of reaching Mendoza, but strong winds prevented sufficient progress. The Andes would resist crossings until 1918.

15 December 1913

On 15 December 1913, in the annals of aviation history, it would appear that nothing of any lasting significance happened.

14 December 1913

The second Blackburn Type I monoplane was a single-seater with a freight compartment in place of the passenger’s seat. It was first flown by Harold Blackburn (not related to designer Robert Blackburn) on 14 December 1913. The second Type I was flown by Blackburn through the winter of 1913-4. A trip from York to Leeds in fog, rain and gales brought out a crowd estimated at 10,000. This aircraft also featured at the Yorkshire Show that year, but was later written off in York.

13 December 1913

In a flight that began on 13 December 1913 and ended on the 17th, Germans Hugo Kaulen, Alfred Schmitz and Bruno Kweft-Gevelsberg set a free-balloon distance record of 1,757 miles from Saxony to the Ural Mountains. They also took the endurance record at the same time with 87 hours in the air. The latter record stood until 1978.

12 December 1913

Benoist Model XIV seaplane No. 43, the Lark of Duluth, arrived in St. Petersburg by train on December 12, 1913, two weeks before its scheduled debut with P.E. Fansler's nascent St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. The biplane had a wingspan of 44 feet, was 26 feet long, and had two seats for the pilot and one paying passenger. It weighed about 1250 pounds and had a top speed of 64 mph. Its Roberts six-cylinder engine produced 75 horsepower.

11 December 1913

The Parsons Biplane was designed and built by P. M. Muller specially to make use of an automobile engine (the four-cylinder 40 h.p. Aster), the weight of which, compared with the light-weight aero engines, normally militated against its use in an aeroplane. The machine was sold to a pupil of the Bristol School named Boger, who crashed it on 11 December 1913 at Ripley, when attempting to land there to breakfast at the Talbot Hotel. The remains were bought by Pemberton Billing and some parts were used in the construction of the Gaskell-Blackbum biplane.

10 December 1913

The Ilya Muromets aircraft, designed by Igor I. Sikorsky and built at the Russo-Baltic Carriage Factory (RBVZ) in Riga, first flew on 10 December 1913. The revolutionary design, intended for commercial passenger service, had a spacious passenger saloon and washroom on board. During World War I, it became the first four-engined bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit.

9 December 1913

On 9 December 1913, in the annals of aviation history, it would appear that nothing of any lasting significance happened.

8 December 1913

Effective Dec. 8, 1913, the 1st Provisional Aero Squadron was redesignated as the 1st Aero Squadron. This first military unit of the U.S. Army devoted exclusively to aviation, today designated the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, has remained continuously active since its creation. Assigned a role in the Punitive Expedition of the Mexican border in 1916, this squadron became the first air combat unit of the U.S. Army.

7 December 1913

Aviatrix Carmen Damédoz, flying a Sommer monoplane, reportedly won a prize offered by French senator Reymond for the world female record for altitude on December 7, 1913, when she reached an altitude of 1,050meters (approx. 3,500 ft).

6 December 1913

In the 6 December 1913 issue of the (London) Evening Independent, Lord Mayor Sir Vansittart Bowater ventured predictions for the world of 2013, including that "the drone of great airships, each carrying perhaps many hundreds of passengers, will also probably be heard across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."

5 December 1913

On December 5, 1913 the 5th Exposition de la Locomotion Aérienne (ancestor of today's Paris Air Show) opened in Paris. The Chairman was

4 December 1913

On Dec. 4th, 1913 Percival Elliot Fansler made his pitch for the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line in St. Pete. "They thought I had a mighty clever idea," he wrote later, "but they didn't believe there was any such thing as a flying boat. I talked a group of a dozen men into putting up a guarantee of $100 each, and the Board of Trade came in with a like amount." Fansler gained support from the city and other St. Pete businessmen, subscribing a $2,400 airline subsidy, even though there never had been a scheduled airline in the history of man. The first scheduled heavier-than-air airline flight would occur less than a month later.

3 December 1913

On 3 December 1913, the War Office ordered from the Royal Aircraft Factory a fast scout powered by a 160hp Gnome rotary engine, the SE4. The design, by Henry Folland, was for the most advanced aeroplane possible at the time, with every possible measure taken to reduce drag to a minimum, so as to attain the greatest possible speed. When completed the following summer it attained 135 mph and was the fastest airplane extant in 1914.

2 December 1913

On December 2, 1913 Capt. Gilbert V. Wildman-Lushington, Royal Marines, was killed in the crash of his Maurice Farman 'Longhorn' (No. 23) while landing at Eastchurch. His passenger suffered minor injury. Earlier in the year Wildman-Lushington had instructed Winston S. Churchill, First Lord of Admiralty, giving him three lessons in a Short Bros. S.38 biplane.

1 December 1913

Attempting a Paris to Cairo flight, Jules Vedrines took off from Belgrade, Serbia in his Bleriot monoplane on December 1, 1913 for Sofia, Bulgaria and was on arrival invited to the court of King Ferdinand.

30 November 1913

On 30 November 1913, many sources aver that American pilots Dean Ivan Lamb and Phil Rader (flying as mercenaries in the Mexican civil war) engaged in the first aerial combat by firing pistols at each other. But in his book, The Incredible Filibuster (1934), Lamb claims it was a "put up job" to impress their employers and that he and Rader never aimed at each other. And there is some evidence that the whole story is a fabrication.

29 November 1913

On 29 November 1913 the remarkable Sopwith Tabloid was first demonstrated in public at Hendon before an estimated 50,000 onlookers. Designed by Frederick Sigrist and piloted by Harry Hawker, the little Tabloid outperformed any monoplane then flying in the U.K.

28 November 1913

The 1st Aero Squadron (Provisional) was moved to Rockwell Field on North Island, San Diego, CA on 28 November 1913 under the command of Captain Benjamin D. Foulois (called by some the “father of U. S. military aviation)”. It comprised 16 officers and 90 enlisted men, and eight aircraft. The 1st Company consisted of Burgess Model H tractors S.C. No. 9, 24, 25, and 26; while the 2d Company consisted of Curtiss aircraft S.C. No. 2 (a Curtiss Model D), 6 (Curtiss Model E), 22 (Curtiss Model G) and 23 (an aircraft assembled from spare parts for the Curtiss E).

27 November 1913

Tests were carried out on 27 November 1913 with the firing of a Lewis machine-gun mounted on a two-seat pusher Grahame-White Boxkite (known by virtue of its pair of rudders as the "Bi-rudder Bus"). The Boxkite was flown by Marcus D. Manton, the gun being fired from the air at ground targets at Bisley, Hants. The engine was the 50 h.p. Gnome, and the machine was developed later into the Type 15 trainer used by the R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S, during the 1914-18 War.

26 November 1913

The Vickers E.F.B.2, designed by Archibald Low, made its first flight at Brooklands on 26 November 1913. This two-bay biplane, a progenitor of the F.B.5 "Gun Bus", was powered by an 80 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine. It had a steel tube structure, fabric covered wings and tail, and a duralumin covered nacelle. Armament was a single Vickers gun mounted in the nose of the nacelle, with limited movement possible, and a very poor view for the gunner.

25 November 1913

On 25 November 1913 Femina Cup for a non-stop long-distance flight of over 4 hours duration. The flight was made in a Farman biplane over a closed course at Rheims and covered 200 miles.

24 November 1913

On November 24, 1913 Lieutenants Hugh M. Kelly and Eric L. Ellington, of the U.S. Army First Aero Corps, were killed at North Island, San Diego in the crash of a Wright Model C biplane. Ellington occupied the instructor's seat with Lieutenant Kelly receiving instruction. Spectators say the biplane suddenly pitched forward, nose downward, and shot to the earth. The impact probably killed both men, but the motor made death sure by crushing them.

23 November 1913

The Lee-Richards annular monoplane No.l (conceived by Cedric Lee and George Tilghman Richards) was detail designed and built by James Radley and E.C. Gordon England at Shoreham. The machine was completed and ready to be flown by Gordon England on 23 November 1913. He flew successfully for the first time, although noting tail heaviness, until the engine cut out through lack of fuel on the approach to land. In the resulting crash England was injured and out of action for some months. The engine and other mechanical parts were salvaged for use in a new machine.

22 November 1913

The Britannia Trophy is a British award presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year. The first award was presented on November 22, 1913 to Captain C.A.H Longcroft of the Royal Flying Corps for a non-stop flight of 445 miles from Montrose to Farnborough in a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2a.

21 November 1913

On November 21, 1913 , the Caudron brothers organized an airshow at Issy-les-Moulineaux and invited the press to observe the acrobatics of pilot Pierre Chanteloup. Thus, this date is the "official" occasion of the first loop of a biplane in France. In fact, Chanteloup had looped the Caudron biplane earlier (on the 9th) but without witnesses.

20 November 1913

The first airplane to visit the Holy Land was a Bleriot XI, flown by the French aviator Jules Vedrines, who participated in a competition to fly from Paris to Cairo. He took off from Nancy in eastern France on November 20, 1913, and landed near Jaffa, on the Mediterranean coast, in December - at a time when Palestine was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

19 November 1913

The Short S.80 (also know as the Short Nile Pusher Biplane Seaplane) was built by Short Brothers for an aerial expedition up the Nile to investigate the cataracts between Aswan and Khartoum. When built it was the largest successful aircraft that had been constructed in Britain. It first flew in October, and on 19 November 1913 a weight carrying trial was made in which it was flown with five passengers. It was then dismantled and shipped to Egypt.

18 November 1913

On November 18, 1913 American aviator Lincoln Beachey was able to replicate Nesterov’s feat (of September 9) of "looping-the-loop". The New York Times reported he completed the loop with only 300 feet to spare, and that he said he didn’t know how he did it, “it was all an experiment.”

17 November 1913

The Sopwith Order Book shows, on 17 November 1913, two separate orders for Bat Boats of an enlarged version with the more powerful 200 HP Salmson (Canton-Unne) engine. The first order was placed by Capt. von Pustau, acting as agent for the German Navy, and the second by the British Admiralty

16 November 1913

A new hydro-biplane designed by Enea Bossi was listed in the "circuit of the Italian lakes", 5-9 October 1913. The "Bossi" hydro-airplane, piloted by Ballila Battagli, crashed on 16 November 1913 at Comacina Island, Lake Como.

15 November 1913

The execution of a loop by French aviator Adolphe Pégoud inspired many efforts at emulation. French aviator Paul Hanouille and Englishman Bentfield C. Hucks trained diligently with aircraft manufacturer Louis Bleriot and on 15 November 1913 at the Buc airfield near Versailles, both flew upside down and executed the loop.

14 November 1913

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. C. Perry Rich of the Philippine Scouts, a native of Indiana, died in the crash of his Wright Model C into Manila Bay on November 14, 1913. Unmarried and 30 years of age, he was the tenth U.S. Army pilot to die in a flying accident.

13 November 1913

On 13 November 1913, the United States Navy approved a change to its uniform regulations to include brown shoes (with brown high top leggings) as part of the permanent uniform for Naval Aviators.

12 November 1913

On November 12, 1913 Ruth Bancroft Law (age 25) of Lynn, MA, received her Aero Club of America license #188. She was the third woman to be licensed in the United States. She had soloed at Saugus Field in a Burgess Wright Model F in 1912.

11 November 1913

On 11 November 1913 the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain reversed an earlier decision to withhold from Marcel Brindejonc de Moulinais the award of the Geisler Challenge Trophy despite his having placed first in the race. The controversy arose over the aviator's inadvertent violation of the 1913 Aerial Navigation Act, of whose provisions he was unaware.

10 November 1913

At Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen on November 10, 1913, the airship LZ-21 had its first flight. It carried the military designation Z. VI, was 463 feet long and could achieve 48 mph. LZ-21 would be used as a bomber in Belgium at the start of World War I until it succumbed to battle damage on 6 August 1914.

9 November 1913

A "military landing station" at Reventin, adjacent to the parade ground of the Vienne cavalry garrison, was inaugurated on 9 November 1913. The station included a 3 hectare landing field and a 400 square meter hangar to house four airplanes. At the airshow Sergeant Aimé A. L. Vallet, a resident of Vienne, landed the first airplane, a Vickers-REP monoplane designed by Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Today, the old hangar is used for storage of goods.

8 November 1913

On November 8, 1913 a handicap race from London to Brighton and return was flown in blustery winds. Nine competitors left Hendon aerodrome for Brighton where they had to pass over the racecourse, along the sea-front to the Palace Pier head, thence to Shoreham aerodrome for refueling. The return journey passed over the same course. The race was won by Pierre Verrier in a 70 hp Farman biplane. There were in all, four finishers, the other competitors retiring due to mechanical faults or weather.

7 November 1913

Retired Army Captain Matthew Batson, a Medal of Honor recipient and visionary aviationist, selected Dutch Island (near Savannah, GA) for building a hydro-aeroplane which would fly across the Atlantic. On November 7, 1913, the ungainly Aero Yacht was rolled into the Herb River. Due to mechanical error, one of the propellers was accidentally engaged, seriously damaging the plane. All activities were suspended. A smaller "air boat" called the Dragonfly later reportedly flew for 30 minutes at an altitude of about 15 feet. The story was never substantiated. Batson died in 1917 and was interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

6 November 1913

The 1913 Michelin Cup was awarded to Mr. Reginald Hugh Carr. Mr. Carr, on November 6th, 1913, made a flight of 300 miles between Hendon and Brooklands, alighting every 60 miles. The aeroplane, constructed by the Grahame-White Aviation Co., Ltd., was fitted with 100 h.p. Green Motor, Zenith Carburettor, British Bosch Magneto, Sphinx and Aster Sparking Plugs and Lang Propeller.

5 November 1913

In 1913 the Spanish Air Military Service was born. An expeditionary unit, with 14 aircraft, 10 pilots and 6 navigators, was assigned to cooperate with the Army in colonial warfare in North Africa, giving Spain pre-eminence in first employing the airplane in military operations. The first combat flights occurred on November 5, 1913. Although Italian airplanes had dropped bombs in Libya in 1912, Spain was the first country to employ air forces in an organized fashion.

4 November 1913

On November 4, 1913 a patent was issued to the French engineer Louis Constantin for a "blown wing". In his scheme, the propeller was positioned before the leading edge of the wing to improve the flow of air around it. This is an early example of Boundary Layer Control.

3 November 1913

The Ghent World Fair (the last to take place before the First World War) attracted millions of people and lasted for about seven months. The major closing event, on 3 November 1913, was an exhibition by Adolphe Pégoud..."A little before 11 Pégoud took off. First he flew around the field, making turns at the same time that made the spectators shiver. After the third round one got the impression as if those stunts were actually very natural. At the height of a 1000 yards he did a "saut périlleux" (a dangerous jump) that shamed even the birds by climbing, the wheels of his plane in front of him, then turning to the side, and continuing after a drop into normal position."

2 November 1913

The Belgian pilot Charles Van Den Born displayed the first aircraft in Siam. Siamese authorities were impressed enough that they dispatched three officers to learn to fly in France. After learning to fly, the three returned to Siam on 2 November 1913 with eight aircraft (four Breguets and four Nieuport IVs), to found what has become the Royal Thai Air Force.

1 November 1913

On November 1, 1913, in the world of aviation, it would seem that nothing of any significance occurred.

31 October 1913

On October 31, 1913, Eugene Gilbert, in a successful attempt to win the Pommery Cup, left Paris in a Deperdussin at 8:31 a.m., passed over Verviers, 200 miles, at 10 a.m., an landed at Puerniz, Pomerania at 1:45 p.m. covering 650 miles at over 124 mph.

30 October 1913

In the fall of 1913, Belkis Sevket Hanim, a feminist leader, was taken on a flight by Fethi Bey, thus becoming the first Turkish and Muslim woman to fly. Sources vary as to the date of this event but October 30, 1913 is suggested.

29 October 1913

On October 29, 1913, Capt. Salim Bey and Capt. Kemal Bey of the Turkish Air Force flew across the Sea of Marmara in a Deperdussin monoplane.

28 October 1913

Karl Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH was founded in Munich on 28 October 1913, for production of "engines of all types, in particular internal combustion engines for aircraft". Diamler aircraft engine designer Max Friz came to Munich in 1916 to assist, and developed greatly improved engines. This led to the firm being renamed Bayerische Motorenwerke GmbH. BMW AG acknowledges this to be the official beginning of the company we know today.

27 October 1913

The second Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup was won on October 27, 1913 by Eugene Gilbert in a Deperdussin powered by a 14-cyl 160 hp Gnome at 155 km/h .The 190 km course around Paris was flown against the clock and required a speed at least 10% faster than the previous winner's to certify victory.

26 October 1913

On 26 October 1913, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, outlined his future policy for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). He recommended three new types of aircraft: an overseas fighting seaplane, to operate from a ship, a scouting seaplane to work with the fleet at sea, and a home-defence fighting aeroplane, to repel enemy aircraft and to carry out patrol duties along the British coast.

25 October 1913

Saturday the 25th of October 1913 was the day that a well known aviator named Edwin Prosser flew the first aeroplane, a Caudron biplane of 50 HP, over Cwmamman, Wales. His exhibition consisted of two flights, which could be seen and heard by large numbers of people in all parts of the locality when his plane circled very high in the air.

24 October 1913

In a decree published on 24 October 1913, France established the concept of prohibited areas where civil aviation activities were forbidden, and defined the legal terms under which these would be promulgated.

23 October 1913

On 23 October 1913 the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, Sheppey conducted the first tests in the UK of bombs dropped from aircraft. The tests were photographed by F. Marten Hale of the Cotton Powder Co., Ltd., the developer of the weapon.

22 October 1913

On October 22, 1913 a record for distance covered in one day with one passenger of 934 miles was made by Schlegel.

21 October 1913

A Burgess H, the first tractor aeroplane of the U.S. Army Signal Corps (and possibly the first air machine specifically designed and built for military use), was delivered Oct. 21, 1913.

20 October 1913

A number of pilots rose to the challenge set by the French Ligue Nationale Aérienne to "test the possibilities for air travel over long distances" by attempting to trailblaze 3,500 miles (5,600 km) to Cairo. The first pilot to attempt the feat was Pierre Daucourt. He took off from the parade ground at Issy in Paris on 20 October 1913, in a Gnôme powered Borel monoplane and headed east. After many difficulties, Daucourt crashed in the Anatolian mountains on 26 November and his machine was completely burnt out.

19 October 1913

Albert Ziegler used a donation from friends and influential people of over 15,000 crowns, to buy an Etrich-Eindecker. With this plane Ziegler flew for the first time over Codlea and Magura Codlea (Transylvania) on the 19th of October 1913.

18 October 1913

On October 18, 1913, pioneer aviator Gustav Hamel piloted the first aeroplane to land on Oulton Heath at Stone, Staffordshire. The event was arranged by Evans and Sons Garage.

17 October 1913

On 17 October 1913 the Imperial German Navy's new L-2 airship exploded and burned during its acceptance test flight. Hydrogen gas (which was being vented) was sucked into the forward engine and ignited. The airship crashed near Johannisthal Air Field about 10 miles southeast of Berlin All 28 passengers and crew on board perished.

16 October 1913

Journal and Tribune, Bristol, Tenn., Oct. 16 (1913) - After one successful attempt today Aviator Alexander C. Beech lifted his machine from a weed field and flew over the fair grounds here time and again this afternoon. His accomplishment was applauded by five thousand people. He will attempt two more flights here Friday afternoon.

15 October 1913

At 12:42 AM on October 15, 1913, Alsatian aviator Victor Stoeffler landed at Mulhausen after flying 1,376 miles in less than 24 hours, shattering the previous record of 867 miles.

14 October 1913

Orville Wright was granted US Patent #1,075,555 on October 14, 1913 for the first effective Automatic Stabilizer for airplanes. He won the prestigious Collier Trophy, recognizing the most significant contribution to aeronautics made during 1913. However, the Wright device was quickly rendered obsolete by the more sophisticated stabilizer developed by Elmer Sperry and demonstrated at Paris in June 1914. Sperry's device won him the 1914 Collier.

13 October 1913

Aviator Albert Jewell disappeared off Long Island, New York, on October 13, 1913, en route in a Moisant-Blériot monoplane from Hempstead to Oakwood, Staten Island to take part in the New York Times American Aerial Derby. No confirmed trace of Jewell or his aircraft was ever recovered.

12 October 1913

Tony Jannus participated in the New York Times Aerial Derby, flying actress Julia Bruns in a Baldwin Red Devil 4,000 ft. above Staten Island for twenty minutes on October 12, 1913.

11 October 1913

On October 11th, 1913, only 4 days after obtaining his pilot license, Sublieutenant Gheorghe Negel, one of Aurel Vlaicu's good friends, took off in his Farman airplane from Cotroceni airfield in Bucharest for a raid to Targoviste. It was there, the city of Targoviste where he graduated from the Cavalry Military School, where he crashed his plane and lost his life.

10 October 1913

As published in the San Francisco Call: "NEW YORK, Oct. 10. 1913 — Albert(sic) Lawson, an aviator, entered in exhibition flights soon to be made around New York, fell into the Hudson river today during a flight. He narrowly escaped drowning, being rescued by a tugboat." Almost certainly refers to Alfred Lawson, erstwhile pro baseballer, coiner of the word "Airliner", later eccentric "educator" and founder of "Lawsonomy".

9 October 1913

Noted aviator Robert G Fowler flew his biplane in a three-day exhibition at the Tri-state Fair in Amarillo, TX beginning on October 9, 1913.

8 October 1913

Slattery's Field, one of Ottawa's earliest airfields, was the site of the first inter-city airmail flight in Canada by William C. Robinson on the 8th of October 1913. He flew newspapers and packages from Montreal, Quebec, to Ottawa, Ontario.

7 October 1913

ROCHESTER, Oct 7 (1913) — Miss Ruth Hildreth, of New York City, was killed, and her sister, Dorothy H., was perhaps fatally injured this afternoon in Hammondsport when Lincoln Beachey lost control of a 100-horsepower aeroplane and it swept a number of spectators off a platform from which they were watching the exhibition. Among those slightly hurt were Lieutenants Richardson and Bellinger, of the United States Navy aviation corps, and Beachey.

6 October 1913

On October 6, 1913, the Royal Navy completed a series of tests involving about 30 flights of a Short Folder seaplane, and a René Caudron amphibian from the protected cruiser HMS Hermes. On at least two occasions the aircraft took off while the Hermes was underway. These experiments greatly influenced the Royal Navy’s approach to deploying aircraft at sea and laid the foundation for the fleet’s aviation operations during World War I.

5 October 1913

The Circuit of the Italian Lakes began October 5, 1913. It was the first international seaplane competition planned by the Milanese Aviation Society. Ten pilots participated: three Italians, five French, one German and one Belgian. The competition covered 370km, calling at various points on Lakes Como and Maggiore, eventually moving inland to Cremona and Piacenza.

4 October 1913

After the destruction on 27 August of the Sopwith entry (piloted by Harry Hawker) in the Daily Mail Circuit of Great Britain for hydro-aeroplanes, another craft of the same design was built in land-plane configuration. Its first flight occurred 4 October 1913 at Brooklands. This flight, too, ended in a crash wherein Hawker again escaped serious injury.

3 October 1913

Pilots soon realized they needed special flying maps with information specific to flying. So on the initiative of International Aviation Federation, an international committee dealing with issues of flying maps met in Brussels on 3 October 1913. At the meeting representatives of Belgium, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Switzerland were present.

2 October 1913

On 2 October 1913 Harold Blackburn and Dr. M.G. Christie won the War of the Roses air race, a competition sponsored by the Yorkshire Evening News between the Yorkshire-built Blackburn Type I monoplane and the Lancashire-built Avro 504 biplane, piloted by F. P. Raynham with H. V. Roe as passenger. The race began evenly but in deteriorating conditions Raynham missed a checkpoint, handing the race to the Yorkshire crew.

1 October 1913

Anthony Fokker established Fokker Aviatik GmbH at Johannisthal in Berlin to sell and manufacture aircraft. By late 1913, he had sold a dozen aircraft, had a booming flying school, and was profitable. On 1 October 1913, he re-registered as Fokker Flugzeugwerke GmbH and relocated the factory to Gorres, near Schwerin, in northern Germany; later, the business name was shortened to Fokker Werke GmbH.

30 September 1913

The New York Times reported on September 30, 1913, that "twenty Curtiss hydro-aeroplanes received at Sevastopol last year by the Naval and Military Aero Club have given the fullest satisfaction. The naval and military hydroaeroplane pilots at Sevastopol were trained by Charles Witmer, an expert member of the Curtiss aerial staff... It is the intention of the Russian Admiralty... to equip both the Baltic and Black Sea fleets with a considerable number of the latest and greatly improved Curtiss hydro-aeroplanes."

29 September 1913

On 29 September 1913, a Bleriot XI-2 arrived in New Zealand from Britain. Not the first aeroplane to fly in New Zealand, it did represent the first attempt by the New Zealand Government to fly a military aeroplane. The aircraft, flown by Second Lieutenant Joseph Hammond, was demonstrated successfully but the program was ended after a contretemps involving an unauthorized female passenger. The Bleriot was returned to England.

28 September 1913

On September 28, 1913 Adolph G. Sutro of San Francisco, flying a hydro-aeroplane of his own design, "broke three aeroplane records..." Sutro flew four and three-sixteenths miles in 3 min 40 sec (51 mph), lowering the old record held by T.O.M. Sopwlth; carried 900 pounds skyward, beating Phil Parmalee's record of 458 pounds, and established an altitude record of 800 feet with passengers.

27 September 1913

On September 27, 1913, during the Reims grand-meeting, (the Gordon-Bennett Cup, which he won), Maurice Prévost broke the world speed record at 200 km/h (108 knots) for one hour. His aircraft was a Deperdussin monoplane of advanced design.

26 September 1913

September 26, 1913 saw the first flight of Anthony Fokker's M.3, one of a series of monoplanes designed in an effort to win German military orders. It exhibited poor stability and was not successful, but was part of the lineage leading to the E.I Eindecker.

25 September 1913

Henry and John Herber "Hebbie" James gained Wales' first Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificates in 1913, building and flying their own aeroplane. The brothers first attempt at flight, on 25 September 1913, resulted in near-disaster with the biplane dropping 60 feet to the ground. Hebbie James was lucky to escape with cuts and bruises. Another attempt was made on 22 November, when a short flight was achieved. In the Spring of 1914 the James brothers achieved their ambition of flying over their home town of Narberth.

24 September 1913

On September 24, 1913, French airman Albert Moreau won the Bonnet prize flying his "Aerostable" monoplane. The prize required a flight of 20 km with the controls of the aircraft untouched, other than the steering gear. Moreau steered with the rudder.

23 September 1913

On September 23, 1913, French pilot Roland Garros flew non-stop across the Mediterranean in a Morane-Saulnier monoplane powered by an 80 hp Gnome rotary engine, a distance of 460 miles from St. Raphael, France to Bizerta, Tunisia. This was 20 times further than Bleriot's historic crossing.

22 September 1913

The Grahame-White Type X Charabanc (powered at first by a 120 hp (89 kW) Austro-Daimler engine) was built to meet the demand for passenger-carrying flights which could not be satisfied by the existing two-seat designs. Flown by Louis Noel with seven passengers aboard, it set a British world record on 22 September 1913.

21 September 1913

Twelve days after Pyotr Nesterov's September 9 loop at Kiev, Adolphe Pégoud duplicated the feat. Because Nesterov's "misuse" of an airplane was not mentioned in the Russian press, Pégoud was reported to have been the first person to perform the aerial maneuver of flying an airplane in a vertical circle and inspired pilots worldwide to try similar stunts.

20 September 1913

On September 20, 1913, Gustav Hamel won the 95 mile Aerial Derby around London flying a Morane-Saulnier Type H monoplane. His average speed was 75.18 mph.

19 September 1913

On September 19, 1913, in the world of aviation, it would seem that nothing of any significance occurred.

18 September 1913

The Avro 504 was first flown on 18 September 1913. It was powered by an 80 hp Gnome Lambda rotary engine. Production during World War I totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in that conflict. Over 10,000 were built by the time production ended in 1932.

17 September 1913

On 17 September 1913 the U.S. Army Signal Corps Aeronautical Division's aircraft no. 13, a Wright Model C biplane, was destroyed in a crash in the Phillipines. It was one of a series of crashes that led to grounding of the Model C's.

16 September 1913

The 1913 Michelin Cup, with an $8,000 prize, was awarded to the aviator who covered the greatest distance flying a minimum of 50km per day on consecutive days. It was won by Georges Fourney who flew 15,990.8 km over 23 days ending Sept. 16, 1913. He flew a Renault-powered Farman biplane.

15 September 1913

With money earned from selling rubber-band powered model airplanes, and barrel hoops, redwood scraps and automobile and motorcycle parts that he had begged at Chicago's Cicero Field, 16 year-old Emil Matthew "Matty" Laird set out to build his first plane. On Sept. 15, 1913, it was ready for flight. He got 10 feet in the air, changed his mind and tried to land, breaking the wing. Laird was to become a noted and influential designer and builder of airplanes.

14 September 1913

French inventor M. Bonnet was quoted in the Sept. 14, 1913 number of the Indianapolis Evening Star regarding successful tests of his life-saving parachute. He anticipated the Cirrus BRS system by nearly a century, saying he hoped to perfect "another and larger parachute which will save not only the pilot of an aeroplane but the aeroplane as well."

13 September 1913

Romanian designer and aviator Aurel Vlaicu died on September 13, 1913 near Câmpina while attempting to be the first to fly across the Carpathian Mountains in his Vlaicu II monoplane. He was buried in Bellu cemetery, in Bucharest.

12 September 1913

Reportedly, a U.S. Army Signal Corps Wright Model "C" crashed on takeoff at Manila, P.I. on September 12, 1913.

11 September 1913

West Virginian Paul Peck was killed in Chicago when the Columbian biplane he was piloting disintegrated in mid-air. He was 23.

10 September 1913

The Post Office Department authorized mail to be flown from the fair grounds to the post office in Carmi, Illinois, on September 9 and 10, 1913, as Route No. 635,003. According to the Carmi postmaster, aviator Anthony Jannus flew a sack containing 241 pieces of mail on a single flight. Mail is known with postmarks on September 10 or 11, all with the official one-line "MAILED VIA AIRSHIP" cachet.

9 September 1913

Russian Army aviator Pyotr Nikolayovich Nesterov believed an aircraft could fly a loop, a feat not previously performed. Despite the doubts of his peers, Nesterov proved his theory on 9 September 1913 and became the first pilot to fly a loop. This was done in a Nieuport IV monoplane with a 70 hp Gnome engine over Syretzk Aerodrome near Kiev, before many watchers. For this he was disciplined with ten days of close arrest, ostensibly "for risking government property".

8 September 1913

On September 8, 1913, one hundred years ago today, in the world of aviation it appears that nothing of significance occurred.

7 September 1913

On September 7, 1913 aviator Tony Jannus took young Jean Baker for an airplane ride at St. Louis against her father's wishes. The elder Baker threatened an innocent