1915 in aviation

yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1912
yp2=1913
yp3=1914
year=1915
ya1=1916
ya2=1917
ya3=1918
dp3=1880s
dp2=1890s
dp1=1900s
d=1910s
dn1=1920s
dn2=1930s
dn3=1940s

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 1 Leutnant Kurt Wintgens achieves the first aerial victory by a true fighter plane in history, flying his Fokker M.5K/MG production prototype of the Fokker Eindecker, downing a Morane-Saulnier two-seat "parasol" observation aircraft.
* 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

* December 12 - Leutnant Theodor Mallinckrodt makes the initial "hop" of the world's first practical all-metal aircraft, the Junkers J 1.

First flights

April

* April 11 - Zeppelin-Staaken R.I

May

* SPAD A.2

June

* June 1 - Airco DH.2

December

* Sopwith 1½ Strutter
* December 12 - Junkers J.I, the first all-metal aircraft
* December 15 - Anatra D
* 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

June

*Fokker Eindecker

eptember

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