1916 in aviation

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

Table of contents

1 Events 2 First flights 3 Entered service

Events

• 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.

• April 20 - the Escadrille Américanne (later to be known as Escadrille Lafayette is established as an American volunteer unit in France, equipped with Nieuport 11s.

• May 17 - Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.

• June 18 - German ace Max Immelmann is shot down and killed.
• June 23 - Victor Chapman of Escadrille Lafayette 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

• August 2 - Lt William Leefe-Robinson, RFC shoots down Zeppelin Schütte-Lanz SL 11 in a BE.2c.
• August 6 - French ace Capitaine René Fonck gains his first confirmed victory.

• September 15 - French submarine Foucault is sunk by an Austrian flying boat.
• September 17 - Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen scores his first kill, from a Albatros D.II
• September 23-24 - eleven Zeppelins attack England in a mass air-raid. Two are shot down, LZ 76 by ground fire, and LZ 74 by Lt Frederick Sowrey

• October 12 - RNAS ace Raymond Collishaw claims his first victory.
• October 28 - German ace Oswald Boelcke is killed in a mid-air collision.

• November 28 - Central London is bombed by an LVG C.II flown by R. Brandt

• Sopwith Pup

• June 29 - the B&W, William Boeing's first aircraft.

• September 9 - Bristol F2b Fighter
• September 12 - the Hewitt-Sperry flying bomb