This is one of the editorials written by U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell (1879 – 1936) that only served to annoy the senior army leadership and their civilian overlords in Washington. On these pages General Mitchell made his case for the creation of a unique branch of the military confined entirely to air power that was distinct and independent of the Army. He points out that numerous armies are doing just this and the U.S. would be wise to do the same. He was particularly keen on seeing to it that everyone know that that the Imperial Japanese Army was doing the same thing.
Attached herein is a printable list of the important record-breaking flights in aviation history that made the world sit up and take notice.
Another article on this site marks 1912 as being the year that saw the first airborne wedding ceremony; but this article reported on the first wedding to be performed in a Fokker Monoplane with the added benefit of a wireless radio transmitter that broadcast the event to numerous well-wishers down below. The wedding was officiated by non-other than "the Flying Parson" himself, Belvin W. Maynard. Maynard was a legend in early aviation and he died in a crash some four months later. The number of in-flight nuptials that have been performed since the first in 1912 are too numerous to count; however the last high-profile event took place in the Fall of 2007, when Sir Richard Branson (b. 1950) of Virgin Airlines presided over an in-flight wedding ceremony at 35,000 feet en route from San Francisco to Las Vegas. For at least one week in 1918, the slide-rule jockeys lounging about in the faculty watering holes at the aeronautical engineering brain-trusts believed that the propeller illustrated herein was pretty slick, and bound to bring greater speed to the aircraft of the day. But the bright lads at OldMagazineArticles.com couldn't help but notice that this propeller design was never seen any time after this issue of POPULAR MECHANICS was on the stand, so we have our doubts concerning the "increased efficiency" that the propeller was credited in creating...
What do you think? Two color pictures of French World War I aircraft said to have played a part during the Battle of the Marne. At this point in the war, aircraft was primarily used for observation, which explains why the planes are unarmed. The inability of the Sears & Roebuck Company to understand the nature of early aviation was made manifest by the fact that the first pilots used to wear horse-back riding clothes before taking to the skies.
Attached, you will find two pages from the Sears Military Equipment Catalog of 1918, pictured are flight-clothing items offered for military or private purchase.
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