x planes

“Give me the wings, magician. So their tune
Mix with the silver trumpets of the moon
And, beyond music mounting, clean outrun
The golden diapason of the sun.
There is a secret that the birds are learning
Where the long lanes in heaven have a turning
And no man yet has followed ; therefore these
Laugh hauntingly across our usual seas
I’ll not be mocked by curlews in the sky ;
Give me the wings magician, or I die…”

from The First Airman, Humbert Wolfe

(photo of the Schreck Eindecker, Diapason II, 1911)

pbfcomics:

Here’s a 3-framer meant for the pages of the (UK) Guardian. Since making it, it’s come to my attention that it’s too close to a Louie C.K. bit. It was not published in the paper.

“Lillian Lorraine in her airship” (Library of Congress)

the Voisin “Icare” aero-yacht, circa 1912

from a wonderful Le Petit Journal Flickr set, by user pillpat

“Highly interesting experiments with a new aerial gun were made at Bisley yesterday. The new gun fixed in aeroplane piloted by Marcus Manton. The gun can be seen underneath the pilot, the gunner being Lieut Stellingwerf, a Belgian officer.”(1913)

“Mechanic standing on wing”
(over England)

nobody died! friday #49: USS Enterprise, 1943

“An enormous flying machine has recently been completed at Dutch Island, near Savannah, Georgia, by Capt. Matthew A. Batson, United States Army, retired..It is by far the most elaborate hydro-aeroplane ever attempted. The inventor expects to fly across the Atlantic in this machine. We have yet to learn what it will do in flight.”
(from an article in Scientific American, December 1913)

did it fly..?

The Slesarev “Svyatogor”, experimental Russian aircraft, circa 1916

Samuel Pierpoint Langley began experimenting with flying machines towards 1890. his unmanned models, with a 14-foot wingspan and powered by miniature steam engines (approx 1.25 horsepower), were very successful.

“Aërodrome No. 5” made the first sustained flight (from Langley’s houseboat on the Potomac River) on May 6th 1896, covering about three-quarters of a mile. Further flights were to cover nearly a full mile in length.

The British SS-40 ‘Black Ship’, used for covert night operations in WW1

(another great find from Airminded)

reblog: janitoroflunacy

Paris - Flieger

“Postcard reproduction of an old print showing the Graf Zeppelin airship. The Zeppelin aircraft company was (and still is) located in Friedrichshafen, on the Bodensee (Lake Constance).”

“The first woman to navigate a dirigible solo was an (unknown) American woman, piloting the airship ‘Dixon’. Jan 01, 1910”

She appears to be wearing a natty feathered hat, which is great.