1914 in aviation

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

Table of contents

1 Events 2 First flights 3 Entered service

Events

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

• The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets sets a load-to-altitude record, lifting 16 people to 2,000 metres (6,562 ft).

• April 16 - The Canadian Aviation Corps is formed.
• 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 Tabloid

• July 28 - outbreak of World War I
• July 30 - Trygve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane.

• August 8 - A French aerial observer is injured by small-arms fire, becoming that nation's first casualty of air war.
• August 13 - A Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 becomes the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.
• 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 27 - The first French bomber groupe is formed.

• October 5 - Sgt Joseph Frantz and Cpl Louis Quenault of Escadrille VB24 score the first air-to-air kill of the war, 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 LZ 25.

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

• 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.