1915 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1915:

Events

January

• January 19 - First Zeppelin raid on the UK by the German Navy.

February

• February 15 - Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers attack the Vistula-Dobrzhani area of Poland

March

• March 7 - the first British tactical bombing raids made in support of ground troops made in Menin an Courtai.

April

• April 1 - French pilot Lt Roland Garros scores the first kill using a non-synchronised machine gun when he shoots down an Albatros observation plane from his Morane Saulnier Type L.
• April 1 - French ace Jean Navarre, with an observer Lt. Robert, score the first kill.
• April 18 - Roland Garros is shot down and taken captive.
• April 26 - 2nd Lt William Rhodes-Moorhouse is the first airman to receive the Victoria Cross (posthumous).

May

• May 26 - Oberleutnant Kästner and Lt Georg Langhoff score the first German air-to-air victory of World War I.
• May 31 - First Zeppelin raid on London, made by LZ 38. Seven people killed, fourteen wounded.

June

• June 6 - LZ 37 becomes the first Zeppelin destroyed in air-to-air combat when it is bombed by Flt Sub-Lt Reginald Warneford, RNAS.

July

• July 6 - Lt Oswald Boelcke claims his first victory, a Blériot Parasol, while flying an Albatros C.I two-seater with Lt von Wühlisch as the observer & gunner.
• July 25 - Captain Lanoe Hawker of the RFC wins first Victoria Cross for aerial combat, over France.

August

• August 1 - Lt Max Immelmann shoots down his first aircraft, beginning his career as an ace and the period that will become known as the "Fokker scourge"
• August 12 - Flt Cdr Charles Edmonds becomes the first pilot to attack a ship with an air-launched torpedo. He is flying a Short Type 184 from HMS Ben-my-Chree. His target is a Turkish supply ship.
• August 19 - Lt Oswald Boelcke shoots down his first aircraft flying a Fokker E.I fitted with interrupter gear.
• August 20 - The first sustained aerial bombing offensive is made by Italian Caproni Ca.2s against Austria-Hungary.
• August 31 - the first French ace Adolphe Pegoud is killed in combat. He scored 6 victories.

November

• November 3 - Flt Sub-Lt Fowler makes the first take-off of an aircraft with a conventional, wheeled undercarriage from a ship when he flies a Bristol Scout C from HMS Vindex.
• November 6 - A Curtiss AB-2 piloted by Lt Cdr Henry Mustin is catapulted from the deck of USS North Carolina while the ship is underway.

December

First flights

April

• April 11 - Zeppelin-Staaken R.I

June

• June 1 - Airco DH.2

December

• Sopwith 1½ Strutter
• December 12 - Junkers J.I, the first all-metal aircraft
• December 17 - Handley Page O/400

Entered service

February

• February 5 - Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus with No. 5 Squadron RFC

April

• Morane-Saulnier Type N

September

• Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2 with No. 6 Squadron RFC