31 August 1913

August 31, 1913 saw the completion of the two-day Rundflug um Berlin, involving three circuits of the German capital. Taking first place in all three circuits as well as over-all was Anton Baierlein, Chief Pilot of the Otto Flugzeugwerke, on the Otto monoplane. Herr Stiplescheck on the Jeannin-Pfeil-Taube was runner-up.

30 August 1913

A Curtiss Model F flying boat (US Naval designation C-2) became the first aircraft to fly under automatic control on 30 August 1913, when fitted with a gyroscopic stabilizer designed by Elmer Sperry.

29 August 1913

On Friday, 29 August 1913, the week-long Deauville Waterplane Meeting continued. Gaubert, on the second Farman, got through nine tests. Moineau on a Breguet, Prevost on the Deperdussin, Chemet on the Borel and Molla on the Leveque completed their ten preliminary tests. This was the last day of the preliminaries.

28 August 1913

On 28th August 1913, French aviator Henri Salmet was giving exhibitions of flying from the racecourse at Scarborough. He had taken up a passenger and they had done a lap of the racecourse, but while maneuvering at low altitude he struck some bushes and crashed. The aircraft was seriously damaged but two in the aircraft were unhurt. The aircraft was dismantled and damage was put at about £200.

27 August 1913

At 5:42 AM on 27 August 1913, Harry Hawker and Harry Kauper departed Oban for the next leg of the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain, a flight to Dublin. Unfortunately, their Sopwith hydroaeroplane crashed while descending. Hawker was uninjured; Kauper sustained a broken arm. The sponsors awarded the aviators 1,000 pounds in recognition of their completing 1,043 miles of the 1,540 mile course.

26 August 1913

Harry Hawker and Harry Kauper departed Beadnell shortly after 8 AM on August 26, 1913 for a second day of flying in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain. They crossed Scotland following the Caledonian Canal and reached Oban about 6 PM, there to spend the night.

25 August 1913

Shortly after 5 AM on August 25, 1913 Harry Hawker and mechanic Harry Kauper departed Southampton in a Sopwith hydroaeroplane for a second attempt to complete the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain. The end of the day's flying found Hawker at Beadnell in Scotland, having covered 495 miles of the 1,540 mile course.

24 August 1913

An accident on August 24, 1913 took the lives of French aviator Olivier de Montalent, and a passenger, M. Metivier. Montalent was one of nine competitors in a hydro-aeroplane race from Le Pecq near Paris for Deauville, a seaport in the north of France. He reached Rouen third and was flying at a height of 1,000 feet as he approached the town. The waiting crowds saw the Breguet machine suddenly pitch violently and drop. The occupants were thrown out. Montalent crashed through the deck of a river barge; Metivier fell into the river. The race was won by George Chemet in a Morane-Borel monoplane.

23 August 1913

British aviator Gustav Hamel performed a display in his Bleriot monoplane, watched by some 14,000 spectators, at Lonsdale Park, Workington on August 23, 1913. Hamel had intended to carry passengers but with a howling gale he took up instead his French mechanic. The flight was a success but on coming in to land the crowd was in the way so he made for the beach and landed on the water’s edge where the aircraft flipped over. Luckily no one was injured and the plane was rescued.

22 August 1913

On Aug. 22, 1913 the New York Times reported that aviator Hans J. Weidemann of Hempstead, L.I., had been left $50,000 by his late uncle on condition that he marry by age 40. He said, however, that the aeroplane held first place in his heart, adding, "I think that a married man, and particularly a father, has no right to fly."

21 August 1913

On this day 100 years ago, August 21, 1913, in the world of aviation, it appears that nothing of significance occurred.

20 August 1913

The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8 was designed by John Kenworthy. It broadly followed the layout of his previous designs, the B.E.3 and B.E.4. In common with most of its contemporary stablemates, the B.E.8 had wing-warping for lateral control and undercarriage skids to protect the propeller tips during landing. The prototype, which was powered by a 70hp Gnome and had no division between the cockpits, made its first flight on 20 August 1913.

19 August 1913

One of the earliest aerobatic display pilots, Frenchman Adolphe Pegoud shot to fame after performing Europe's first parachute jump from a plane, on 19 August, 1913. This was particularly remarkable in that Pegoud was flying solo at the time, and left his Bleriot XI to ungracefully return – astonishingly, undamaged – to the ground.

18 August 1913

On this day 100 years ago, August 18, 1913, in the world of aviation, it appears that nothing of significance occurred.

17 August 1913

The Italian Army's airship Citta di Milano, designed by Enrico Forlanini, first flew on August 17, 1913. It was 236 feet long and was powered by two 80 hp Isotta Fraschini engines that provided a maximum speed of about 43 mph. It was destroyed on the ground by fire in April 1914.

16 August 1913

On August 16, 1913 Harry Hawker, with mechanic Harry Kauper, embarked from Southampton on the 1,450 mile Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race for float-planes. The aircraft was a Sopwith one-off powered by a 100 hp Green E.6 engine and capable of 65 mph. They landed at Yarmouth where Hawker collapsed due either to sunstroke or carbon monoxide poisoning, ending their first attempt.

15 August 1913

On this day 100 years ago, August 15, 1913, in the world of aviation, it appears that nothing of significance occurred.

14 August 1913

The Blackburn Type I monoplane, a two-seat variant of the Type D, made its first flight at Yorkshire Aerodrome on August 14, 1913. The aircraft was designed by Robert Blackburn. It was fitted with a seven cylinder Gnome rotary engine of 80 hp and was capable of a speed of 70 mph.

13 August 1913

The flying career of a Benoist Type XII built in 1912 by brothers Edward & Milton Korn, ended on the morning of August 13, 1913 when the they crashed while flying near their grandfather's farm at Montra, Ohio. Five days later, Milton Korn died from his injuries. Edward, the pilot, was badly hurt but recovered. The remains of the Korn-Benoist were placed in storage after the accident. It was later given to the Smithsonian, restored, and is displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Museum.

12 August 1913

Henri Coandă, chief designer of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, developed the T.B.8 as a biplane development of his earlier Bristol-Coanda Monoplane to meet an order from the British Admiralty. The first aircraft, a conversion of a Bristol-Coanda monoplane, flew on 12 August 1913. Ultimately, 54 T.B.8's were built. They served primarily as trainers until 1916.

11 August 1913

Samuel F. Cody was buried with full military honours in the Aldershot Military Cemetery on August 11, 1913. He had died, along with a passenger, a few days earlier in the crash of a biplane of his design. The funeral procession drew an estimated crowd of 100,000. Cody, an American, had made the first aeroplane flight in Great Britain in 1908.

10 August 1913

On August 10, 1913 Lawrence Sperry and Lieutenant Berringer demonstrated an automatic stabiliser in a Curtiss F flying boat. It was based on the ship's gyro-stabiliser which Sperry's father, Elmer Sperry, invented.

9 August 1913

As the Bath (ME) Daily times reported, on August 9, 1913, “Miss Ruth Law Held 10,000 spellbound, IN THE AIR 23 MINUTES.” She flew her Wright Model B Flyer on the occasion of Bath's Midsummer Carnival. “It was one of the most enjoyable flights of the many I have made,” Law said after her flight.

8 August 1913

Hawaiian Islanders craned their necks and gawked in astonishment at the primitive flying machine which soared over Diamond Head, made a wide turn, then sputtered back toward Pearl Harbor. It was 8 August 1913, and this was the first military flight in Hawaii. At the controls was First Lieutenant Harold E. Geiger, a fledgling pilot of the newly-formed Aviation Division of the United States Army Signal Corps. He and his men were based at Fort Kamehameha, at the mouth of Pearl Harbor.

7 August 1913

Samuel Franklin Cody, an American ex-patriot, had been the first to fly a heavier-than-air machine in Great Britain (5 October 1908). He continued to work on his aircraft until August 7, 1913, when testing a new hydroplane of his own design called the Cody Floatplane, he was killed along with a passenger named William Evans (a famed cricket player), His aircraft broke up in mid-flight while at 500 feet of altitude and both men plunged to their deaths.

6 August 1913

August 6, 1913 - The first fatal airplane accident in Canada occurred when John M. Bryant, husband of Alys (Tiny) Bryant, was killed in the crash of his plane at Victoria, B.C.

5 August 1913

For most of its long history, the Air Station at Felixstowe was associated with sea planes and flying boats, and it was as ‘Sea Planes - Felixstowe’ that it was first opened on the 5 August 1913 under the command of Squadron Captain C. E. Risk. By the end of World War I it was one of the world’s largest coastal air stations.

4 August 1913

On this day 100 years ago, August 4, 1913, in the world of aviation, it appears that nothing of significance occurred.

3 August 1913

On August 3, 1913, Maurice Guillaux, in his Clement-Bayard 70 HP monoplane, started from Issy, stopped for 25 minutes at Bordeaux to secure fuel, and then completed his 800 km journey to Vittoria. After lunch he restarted for Southern Spain but eventually landed on the Portuguese frontier, a total distance for the day of 720 miles.

2 August 1913

The British weekly Flight, in its 2 August 1913 number, editorialized on The Aeroplane in War. It discussed the use of aircraft in a scouting role in Royal Navy war games (describing it as "a sure detector of the presence of the submarine"), and commented on reports (later found to be inaccurate) of destruction of a Mexican federal gunboat by aerial bombing.

1 August 1913

On August 1, 1913 the noted aviator Gustav Hamel made the first flight over the Yorkshire towns of Bradford and Hull, taking off from a disused horse racing course. Aviation activities continued at the site, which officially became Hedon Aerodrome in 1929 and continued in use until its closure during World War II. Hamel disappeared while flying across the English Channel in May 1914.