Aviators

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:59:45 +0000

An aviator is a person who flies or travels via aircraft for pleasure or as a profession. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887 as a variation of the French ‘aviation’, from the Latin ‘avis’, coined 1863 by G. de la Landelle in “Aviation ou Navigation Aérienne”. The term aviatrix is used for a female aviator.

The term is often applied to pilots, but is often extended to include air navigators, bombardiers, Weapon Systems Officers, and electronic warfare Officers. This should not be confused with the term naval aviator, which refers crew members in the United States Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

The term aviator (as opposed to “pilot” or other terms) was used more in the early days of aviation, before anyone had ever seen an airplane fly, and it had connotations of bravery and adventure. For example, the editors at the Dayton Herald, in an article of December 18, 1903 described the Wright Brothers’ first airplane thus: “The weight, including the body of the aviator, is slightly over 700 pounds”.

Female Pioneers

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:58:41 +0000

Pioneer aviatrix include the American Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932), Bessie Coleman, first person of African American descent to become a licensed airplane pilot (1921), and the British Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia (1930).

Combat between airplanes

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:56:36 +0000

1914 – In the first few months of the first world war, combat between airplanes was unknown; they were used for reconnaissance photographs and some far-sighted aviators could envision using them for bombing. After some pilots took up pistols and rifles, some planes had machine guns mounted in the observer’s seat, which typically fired rearward or to the side. When a French pilot, Roland Garros, bolted steel deflectors to his propeller, which permitted him to fire a machine gun through it, the airplane became an offensive weapon.