Early Years of Aviation

Blent Ylmazer [email protected] METU-Dept. of History Hist474 1/15

THE EARLY YEARS, FLYING FOR SPORT AND COMPETITION The roots of the developments that led to the advance of aviation in the Western civilizations rested on the Industrial Revolution that had started about 150 years before the first flight of Wright brothers. The printing press (1450) and the telegraph (1844) had enabled much faster flow of information; the development of the steam engine (1698-1769) and its application on ships (1787) and trains (1804) enabled quicker movement of goods on waterways or railways; and the development of the internal combustion engines (1823-1870) using petrol based fuels enabled construction of vehicles that could haul cargo or passengers in a more practical way over land routes. The cumulative effect of faster movement of goods, people and knowledge, gave impetus to newer methods in agriculture and industrial production and accelerated a progress of constant improvement in productivity. The distribution of knowledge was the most important factor in the development of aviation. Most pioneers of aviation, like Sir George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute, wrote about their theories and experiments; they published and shared knowledge. Wright brothers made extensive use of the works of Lilienthal and exchanged many letters with Chanute during their efforts to achieve flight. Soon after the Wright brothers achieved the first man-carrying powered sustained flight, the advances in the use of aircraft was very rapid. Although the works of the pioneers were published and known to many people, the concepts and designs to achieve flight were still more of the dare-devil type, rather than systematic progress through developing theories and experimenting to prove their validity. This did lead to some weird, alas wonderful designs.

Alexander Graham Bell's 'Cygnet 1', made up of 3393 tetra cells with a surface area of 184 square meters. Fitted with floats and towed by a motorboat, the Cygnet 1 was able to take-off but was destroyed during landing.

Horatio Phillips flying venetian blind with 20 very short chord flying surfaces. It managed a hop of some 15 meters. Both Bell and Phillips tried to increase the area of the lifting surfaces in less space. Although Phillips multi-wing designs are weird, some had as many as 50 wing surfaces, he was one of the pioneers to experiment with different chamber profiles to generate more lift.


Some other pioneers experimented with cylindrical flying surfaces.

Claude Givaudans tandem-drum. The front drum pivoted for pitch control and yaw control. It never left ground. The concept of a ducted-fan, which would prove very efficient many years later when powerful turbo-jet engines became available, was also tested by the pioneers. Due to lack of power and knowledge on parameters of flight, the early efforts failed.

Bobba Jourdans design with a conical barrel fuselage and wings on the sides. Control was by warping the wings. His improved design was called helioplane, the propeller completely surrounded by the barrel, like a ducted-fan. His designs never achieved flight. The fact that most of these designs did not leave the ground and some of them ended up in fatal accidents does not detract us from noticing the boundless imagination of mankind.

While some pioneers were trying to perfect the flying machine with wings, we shall not overlook the effort to achieve flight in more unorthodox methods; like vertical flight. French bicycle maker Paul Cornu achieves first helicopter flight on 13 November 1907

In the early years, aviation developed as a sporting event. This was mainly due to the monetary prizes offered for achieving certain criteria in flight. Like the longest straight line flight; or more challenging: the first to complete a circular flight; or to cover a certain distance in the shortest time speed record; or the first to climb above a certain altitude by aircraft. Santos-Dumont won one of the first prizes offered in Europe when he covered a distance of 220 meters by a flight that lasted 21 seconds on 12 Nov 1906. The flight he achieved with his own design 14bis, a tail-first (canard) box-kite like aircraft, is the first officially recognized flight in Europe. The official French history of military aviation proclaims this event the true birth of practical aviation because the wheeled aircraft managed to take-off under planes own power, while the Wright biplane lacked wheels and required a launching apparatus.


Another prize, the Grand Prix dAviation worth 50,000 Francs, was won by Henry Farman on January 13th, 1908. Flying a Voisin biplane, he took off, circumnavigated a pylon 500 m away and returned to his point of departure, thus achieving a circular flight and covering more than 1,000 meters. Conquest of the English Channel

For centuries, the main-land of the British Empire, England, could be reached only by sailing over water. Helped with the establishment of a powerful Navy, England was regarded as untouchable. However, the pride of the British was shattered when Louis Bleriot took off from France very early on the morning of 25 July 1909 and landed near Dover Castle in England, 36 minutes later. From now on, the Imperial Navy would not be able to defend the homeland by ships alone; the British soil was under the threat of attack from the air! Air meetings, as the great aviation shows of those times were called, established the credibility of heavier-than-air flight as a practical new technology. Of course, there were mishaps and accidents. The technology was very

primitive yet and there was no standard training of pilots or specifications to control the materials used in aircraft production. The records attained during these events may seem mediocre by todays standards. However, the aircraft that accomplished these feats were actually very fragile machines, mostly powered with unreliable engines. As the very famous aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky said it, in the very early days of aviation, aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science, it was a miracle. Man had not yet fully uncovered the mysteries of the air that makes a plane fly. Flying was still mostly an art, rather than a science. High angle of attack, a sudden drop in aircraft speed and altitude due to stall, and other meteorological factors that affected the attitude of an aircraft in flight were still to be learned.


Women, as well as men, took interest in flight. Thrse Peltier flew in Italy as the first women airplane passenger. Very soon afterwards she became the first women to accomplish solo flight.

Fashion, the untouchable realm of women, was quick to enter this new field of womens activity. Struggling to be practical but still attractive in the air, aviatrixes developed new fashionable apparel to be worn during flight. ESTABLISHMENT OF OTTOMAN AVIATION Institutions played a great role in the developments that took place in the Western world during the Industrial Revolution. Most of the time institutions preceded over government as to what amount of resources would be allocated for which purpose, what should be researched and what is to be regarded as a taboo (the church versus scientist like Galileo). The institutions also had some influence on the dynamics of the mechanisms that shaped the choices of the society. These mechanisms were basically the market conditions and the decisions made by central governments. In the Western world, in free

societies where competitive environments can flourish, consumers preferences determined which works would be sustained and which would be abandoned. Thus, the church started to lose its influence and the capital that provided welfare to the society became more effective. Meanwhile; oppressive, reactionary governments and introvert, closed cultures did not allow for progress which would enable new ideas and improve the society and its well-being.

In the 15th century, the trade routes of the Mediterranean Sea had become under the control of the Ottoman State through its alliance with pirate captains. The Ottoman State owned the strongest navy and when it conquered Istanbul (1453), and started a new era in human history, Ottoman State was using the utmost military technologies of the time. Its control over the trade routes from Far East, Near East and Middle East to Europe provided an economic advantage to the Ottoman State. Activity on the same trade routes also provided a flow of information between the Western world and the inner parts of the Ottoman lands.


However; the discovery of the American continent and opening of Suez Canal in 1869 enabled Europe to reach new economic resources. Thus, Ottoman lands started to lose their commercial and economic value. During this period, the most influential governing body of Ottoman State, the Caliphate and institutions appertaining to it, acted in a conservative and reactionary manner which had a devastating effect at a time when progress was most needed. The previous accomplishments of the state, improved wealth and stability achieved by the innovative and progressive Ottoman State of the growth period was attributed to the divine will, and an ill-conceived belief that this would endure forever spread out. This prevalent mentality resulted in a narrow-minded attitude which aimed to conserve the order instead of making the changes necessary for improvement and progress. Reactionary attitude, which began to develop as a religious exploitation by the institutions of Islam started to prevail since 16th century. This led to a resistance to adopting the innovations of the Western world labeling them as infidel technology (gavur icad), which first brought about a period of stagnation and then a period of decline. Printing press and newspaper, means for informing the society, entered the lives of the state and the people with a delay of 300 years. Ottoman State started using steam ships 40 years and steam locomotives 50 years later than they came to be utilized for commercial purposes in Europe. While the Western world went through an industrial enlightenment period during 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman State was almost a century behind its contemporaries in the fields of science, technology and industry.

Publications other than the state owned one, like newspapers and magazines, which would inform the society about the developments in the world and improve its level of general knowledge entered the Ottoman life 400 years later than the West. Even though such publications came into being with a long delay, society was now being informed about the developments in the West almost on a daily basis. In the 1892 issues of Servet-i Fnun magazine, articles about the attempts of first adventurous aviators in Europe, like Clemet Ader who attempted to manufacture an aircraft with government subsidy, were being published. The army officers, which represented the most enlightened segment of the Ottoman society, started to adopt some advances in the West. However, the level of literacy in the Ottoman society was very low and the general public remained mostly unaware of

the developments in the Western world, or how the changing world would affect their lives. That was one of the reasons why the Constitutional Reforms (Tanzimat Ferman, Merutiyet lan) did not took root immediately in the society. Despite all these troubles and the political power struggle among the ruling class, the Ottoman military elite tried to forge ahead in following and adopting the technological developments in the military field.


Binba Ali Fethi and Kolaas Mustafa Kemal observing the use of aircraft for military purposes during the Picardy Maneuvers in 1910.

Mehmet Fesa Evrensev Yusuf Kenan

Aircraft appeared in military role for the first time during the Picardie Maneuvers of the French Army in September 1910. The aircraft were used to observe the movements of the forces representing the enemy. Among the officers from other countries watching this military maneuver were the Ottoman Military Attach of Paris, Binba Ali Fethi (Okyar) and his close friend Kolaas Mustafa Kemal (Atatrk). Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, who observed the potential of air power for the first time during the Picardy Maneuvers in 1910, would later make his visionary speech that has been summarized to the motto the future is in the sky.

The Paris attach was also gifted with great foresight on aviation matters. In his report to Istanbul, he clearly stated that a pilot can not be considered as fully qualified unless he possessed a full technical knowledge of his machine. He also stressed the fact that aircraft will be of great importance for the armies of the future and the Ottoman Army shall take all necessary measures not to fall behind. While the Ottoman officer was crying out the shape of things in the future, a noteworthy French general, Ferdinand Foch, who was also a professor of strategy at the Academy of War in Paris, was taking a backward look at things. He said: Aviation is fine as sport But as an instrument of war, it is worthless. The contrast in the views of the young Ottoman officer and the French general, voiced in the same year, is very striking. The Turks were very much aware of the importance of air power much before most western powers.

The Ottoman Erkn- Harbiyye-i Ummiyye (Office of the Chief of General Staff) was quick to grasp the significance of the reports sent by the attachs. The Ottoman Army planned to form an air power as early as October 1910. The General Staff submitted a request for volunteer officers to take pilot training in Europe. In addition to proficiency in technical and tactical matters, the ability to take photographs was another

requirement in choosing the officers for pilots training. This was something not yet required from pilots in the western world. Nominated officers took a written examination to test their proficiency in technical matters and foreign language. Svari Yzba Mehmet Fes (Evrensev) made the highest score, stihkam stemen Yusuf Kenan following him very closely.


Mehmet Fes and Yusuf Kenan passed medical examination, to determine if they were fit to take pilots training in Europe. The science of aerospace medicine was yet many years away. However, the Ottoman medical officers were able to foresee the physical and the psychological demand put on a person during flight. Their medical reports were most complete in examining the eyesight, hearth condition and psychological state of the pilot nominees. Both officers were enrolled in the Bleriot School at Etampe near Paris. Both pilots finished their training in February 1912. First to graduate was Mehmet Fes receiving French Aero Club certificate number 780 (Turkish no.1), than Yusuf Kenan receiving number 797. The latter had initially made slow progress with many mistakes. Because of this and later events in Turkey, he was never issued with a Turkish license.

While the two pilots were receiving training in France, Harbiyye Nzr (Minister of War), Mahmut evket Paa, appointed staff officer Yarbay Sreyya (lmen) Bey as responsible for aviation matters. Realizing that he could not cope with the complicated task alone, Sreyya Bey proposed to form a committee to take care of all aviation matters, with members from the Army Engineering corps (Ktat- Fenniye ve Mevki-i Mstahkeme Mfettilii - Inspectorate of Technical and Fortified Formations). Tayyare Komisyonu (Aircraft

Committee), formed under the chairmanship of Sreyya Bey, became the first official body of Ottoman aviation. The members were Yarbay Refik, Binba Mehmet Ali and Binba Zeki (Baner). The same committee is the forefather of todays Turkish Air Forces. The official documents regarding the first formation of Tayyare Komisyonu have not been found in the archives. June 1st is regarded as the symbolic date for the birth of Turkish military aviation. In December 1911, Tayyare Komisyonu made several excursions around stanbul, to locate a suitable place to establish a Tayyare Mektebi (Aviation School). A piece of land near Yeilky (San Stefano) was acquired for the purpose and two tent hangars were erected in January 1912. This location became the first military airfield and the aviation school for the fledgling pilots of the Ottoman Army. THE TRIPOLITANIAN WAR (THE OTTOMAN - ITALIAN WAR) In September 1911, Italy declared war against the Ottoman governorship at North Africa. After a naval bombardment of the shore defenses, Italian troops occupied the shoreline of Tripoli, Tobruk, Derne, Humus and Benghazi. Ottoman forces had withdrawn inland, outside the range of guns of the Italian ships, and they were inflicting some losses on the Italian Army.

Sreyya lmen Mehmet Ali Bey

Zeki Baner


Anti-aircraft defense developedby the Ottoman Army

An Italian air flotilla arrived off Tripoli on October 15, to provide assistance in harassing the Ottoman troops deep within land. However, the Italian aviators had some difficulty getting ashore because the Italian army commanders had a low opinion regarding the value of aircraft in combat.

On October 22, Capitano Riccardo Moizo made a flight over the battlefront in his Nieuport aircraft. Although he made the flight on his own initiative without receiving orders from the higher command, this was the first use of aircraft in wartime. Further events in air warfare took place in the following days. On October 26th, an Italian aircraft was used operationally to range the guns of the battleship Sardegna on Turkish defenses along the shore. This was the first joint naval and air operation in history.

Then on November 1st, Sottotenente Giulio Gavotti dropped grenades on a Turkish military camp. This was the first aerial bombing in war. The damage inflicted by the grenades was negligible; however the reconnaissance flights and the directing of ships guns had assisted greatly in defeating the Turkish forces. The Italian headquarters was quick to change its opinion of aircraft and airmen. The world was to witness several other firsts in military aviation during this war. In February 1912 Capitano Piazza photographed Turkish positions from the air. On the night of June 10-11 Capitano Marengo dropped bombs over a Turkish camp, marking the first night air-raid in history. Aircraft were also used to drop propaganda leaflets in an attempt to influence the Arabs. It was the Italian airship P1 that dropped incendiary (fire) bombs, first recorded aerial use of such weapons, during a night mission on July 12, 1912. Although the Ottoman army did not have the chance to use aircraft during this conflict, it made a contribution with several firsts in military aviation. The Ottoman units on the

ground had learned to group soldiers together and make them fire in unison at aerial targets. They had also managed to jack-up a 90mm Krupps gun to fire shrapnel shells into the air. Thus, Capitano Carlo Mont became the first airman to be wounded by ground fire when he received a bullet hit on January 31, 1912.

Capitano Riccardo Moizo


One additional incidence, which marks another first in military aviation - capture of the opponents aircraft - took place on September 10, 1912 when a Nieuport, piloted by Moizo, landed inside the Ottoman lines. Capitano Moizo became the first aerial prisoner of war (POW).

In November 1911, much before the first Ottoman aviators had earned their wings and Ottoman Army had acquired its first aircraft, several attempts were made to employ foreign pilots and their aircraft in North Africa. These attempts were unsuccessful and the course of the events made it very clear that the scheme of employing foreign pilots and their aircraft was not a practical solution. During the later stages of the Turkish-Italian War the Ottoman army did posses some aircraft. However, the Italian Navy had initiated a blockade of the North African coastline and the circumstances did not favor the use of these in North Africa. While the first two Turkish aviators Mehmet Fes and Yusuf Kenan were about to complete their training in France, there were no aircraft available for their use at the Tayyare Mektebi in Yeilky. In order to overcome this deficiency, Harbiyye Nzr proposed a law for aircraft procurement. Donanma-i Osmn Muvenet-i Milliyye Cemiyeti (Ottoman Navy National Support Association) had collected large sums to buy capital ships for the Ottoman Navy. It was proposed to transfer some of this money for procurement of aircraft. In addition to the donations requested from the public, it was also suggested that higher officers and wealthy citizens should display their patriotism by donating up to six months salary.

This call was acted upon enthusiastically and enough money had been collected very soon to buy aircraft. The first aircraft, two REPs; a 50 HP two-seater and a 25 HP single-seater, arrived at Yeilky in March 1912, to be assembled and prepared for flight by Fes and Yusuf Kenan.

Capitano Riccardo Moizos Nieuport aircraft captured by the Ottoman Army


On the morning of April 26, first the British test pilot Gordon Bell took a REP aircraft on a test flight and then Fesa bey made a flight. This marked the first flight of a Turkish aircraft. Thus; every year, April 26th is celebrated as Pilots Day in Turkey. Tayyare Komisyonu published their estimated budget for 1912. It was proposed to establish an aircraft school, to train pilots and aviation mechanics, and to form aircraft squadrons for use of air power in war. A memorandum, signed by Mahmut evket Paa, also proposed to study the possibility to build a aircraft production plant. The forefathers of Turkish aviation planned to establish factories for aircraft production as early as 1912.

However, there was an urgent need for aircraft, due to the war at Tripoli and the Balkans. So, before any aircraft construction could start in the country, these had to be purchased from Europe. In those days most armies considered the airships as the vital element of airpower for strategic purposes, not aircraft. However, the Ottoman Tayyare Komisyonu was shopping for attack aircraft, capable of dropping bombs, as early as 1912. During the negotiations at the Harlan factory, Sreyya Bey inserted a provision in the contract that Harlan would assure that the aircraft delivered would be able to drop bombs with accuracy and this would be proven by the test flights made at stanbul. This was the first instance for such a provision in a contract for procurement of aircraft. A contract was signed at the REP school in France, and at the Bristol school in England for training of Turkish pilots and aviation mechanics. Only those in France completed their primary training and received their flight certificates. They had to receive advanced trained to be regarded as fully competent military flyers. However, due to the start of the Balkan Wars, they had to return home to take duty at the battlefront.

Members of Tayyare Komisyonu, first Ottoman pilots and foreign aviators at Yeilky, prior to the very first flight of a Turkish owned aircraft over stanbul.

1: One of the first Ottoman pilots, stemen Yusuf Kenan. 2: Member of Tayyare Komisyonu, Binba Mehmet Ali. 3: First Ottoman pilot, Yzba Mehmet Fes (Evrensev). 4: Head of Tayyare Komisyonu, Yarbay Sreyya (lmen). 5: British test pilot Gordon Bell. 6: Member of Tayyare Komisyonu, Binba Zeki (Baner).


Those in England could not even complete their primary training, Less than 5 months after starting their training they hastily returned to stanbul to participate in the Balkan War. When they started to fly operational missions for the war, they did not have flying certificates. They had learned to fly by their own selves, through personal determination and sacrifice.

BALKAN WARS The Balkan Wars was the very first armed conflict where the armies fighting each other employed air power against each other for the first time. So it was natural that some of the first feats in military aviation took place during this war. The Turks, through the aviation units of the Ottoman Army made many contributions to the history of aviation. The Turkish pilots were performing extended reconnaissance flights over the battlefront to establish enemy positions. Most of the aircraft they flew were not well suited for military purposes. They were vigorously fired upon by ground forces of both sides and hit several times but were able to make a very detailed reports about the enemy.

Any aircraft flying over the front was shot on by all ground forces because the aircraft of all the sides involved in the conflict did not carry any identity markings at that time. The Ottoman units charged with the defense of the landing grounds fired even on the Ottoman aircraft that were returning from reconnaissance flights. When Turkish flyers complained about friendly ground fire an order was issued on March 6, 1913 to

paint large crescent and star markings in orange color under both wings of all Ottoman aircraft. This was the first instance to officially adopt national identity markings on military aircraft. The specification for the use of orange color for markings is noteworthy. Due to physical properties of orange on the color spectrum, it is the color of light that remains most visible even from very far distances. Today, orange is the color used to mark the training aircraft, because they carry a high risk of crash landings in the hands of novice pilots. The emergency and safety equipment on aircraft and most ships are also colored in orange. Coast guard ships and vehicles of all kinds, cars, trucks, ships, aircraft and helicopters that perform search and rescue missions carry orange color panels. It would seem that the Turks were well aware of these properties of the orange color and specified its use on aircraft, for visibility purposes, as early as 1913.

Ottoman pilots and mechanics during training at Bristol-England. 1: Temen Saffet; 2: stemen Fethi; 3: Temen Aziz; 4: School manager and instructor pilot Collyns Pzey; 5: Temen Mehmet Ali; 6: Temen Fazl


Parseval balloon making its maiden flight with German balloon officer Karl Hackstetter at the controls

Heavy rains had rendered the landing ground at Yeilky useless. The aircraft could not even taxi due to thick mud on the ground. The school commander requested the construction of a wooden strip in front of the two hangars housing the aircraft, to be used for take-off and landing. This initiative marks the very first effort to use planked runway in aviation history. At the end of the first phase of Balkan Wars, while peace negotiations were going on in London, Tayyare Komisyonu tried to purchase some more aircraft. The attempts were soon frustrated as very few factories were able or willing to deliver equipment, obviously due to international political pressure, as payment was offered in gold. The only success until late April was the procurement of the relatively modern Parseval airship PL.9. Several trial flights were performed over stanbul but the airship never saw action over the front.

Drawing upon their experience from the first phase of the war the Ottoman Army decided that an independent class of officers to act as observer aboard reconnaissance aircraft was necessary. An order for organization and training of a class of staff officers as observers was issued in May 1913. A training syllabus and a handbook for aerial observation were published. This was another first in the history of world aviation. Once again, we see that the Turks were much ahead of their contemporaries in the western world in developing an air force. The British began training observers as late as July 1914, similarly USA established its first aero squadron on July 1st, 1914. When the Ottoman Army had withdrawn to the defense lines at atalca, the Ottoman aviation units flew deep inside enemy territory reporting on the actions of the enemy. Although the Bulgarians possessed nearly 30 aircraft during this phase of the Balkan Wars, none were to be seen to challenge the observation flights made by the Ottoman aircraft during the thrust of the Ottoman Army towards Edirne. On August 20, 1913, Yzba Kazm (zalp), staff officer on the Balkan War Front, issued an order outlining the structure of an aerial observation report for the first time in aviation history.


The Ottoman army made every effort to use all kinds of aerial equipment during the Balkan Wars. All available equipment was used very effectively with extreme dedication, many times at the personal sacrifice of a handful of Turkish aviators, in combat despite all the unfavorable circumstances. We shall take a look at the use of aircraft by the enemies of the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. Serbia had few pilots training abroad, several aircraft and only mercenary foreign pilots to fly these, but these were never deployed against the Ottoman armies. Greece possessed few aircraft and a lesser number of pilots to fly them during the Balkan Wars. Several French and a few British mercenary pilots also flew for the Greek forces. However, in their official history they try to deny this fact. The Greek falsely laid claim for the first military reconnaissance mission by an aircraft. Apparently, they are overlooking the events of the Turkish-Italian War of a year earlier. The Greek repeat the same mistake laying claim to the first ever naval co-operation mission. However, the Italians had preceded them by more than 14 months during the Turkish-Italian War at North Africa. Although the Hellenic Army Air Company boasts that it was ready to meet the challenge, several Greek aviators lost their life in the course of the Balkan Wars. Bulgaria had a larger aviation force of aircraft and pilots. They also employed Russian pilots, both for organization and training of their fledging air force and for combat duties. Several other mercenary pilots from England, Italy, France and Austria were also recruited. At the time of mobilization only an Aviation Park consisting of a Balloon Otdelenie (Platoon) with two balloons and a Bleriot aircraft was deployed. The Bleriot was considered only as a substitute for use during the replenishment of the hydrogen gas for the balloons. At the beginning of the hostilities, Bulgaria did not consider the use of aircraft as a serious deterrent in combat. Bulgarian Army Staff changed its views on aviation later on. Bulgaria used balloons and aircraft to some effect, for aerial observation, bombing and leaflet dropping, during the Balkan Wars. While the Ottoman aviation units followed the ground troops at their heels, the Bulgarian aviation units were based at over hundred kilometers away from the battlefront. During the second phase of the Balkan Wars, they had withdrawn almost all aviation elements from the Ottoman Front. Despite their advanced training, much better aircraft such as the Bleriots and Farmans more suitable for combat duties, and much better resources such as prepared airfields, spares, fuel and maintenance facilities, some Bulgarian flyers lost their lives during the war. During the whole course of the Balkan Wars, at a time when European armies were emphasizing the unison of aviation elements to function as a team under a single command, in the Ottoman Army no single official body was charged with the responsibility of handling aviation matters. In addition to the misconduct of the Army units, which led to eventual defeat of the Ottoman forces; in the absence of an authorized body to manage resources, despite the most devoted efforts of the aviation personnel, the Ottoman aviation units were not utilized as effectively as they could be. The novice Ottoman pilots had no time to make practice flights or indulge in the experience of long distance flights. They were literally plucked away from the flight


Ottoman aviation personnel in front of a newly purchased Bleriot aircraft at the end of the Balkan Wars

courses in Europe and immediately sent to the battlefront. At the front, they had to perform long-range reconnaissance flights repeatedly. Their spirits and capabilities were continually taxed in dangerous sorties. Ottoman aircraft were fired on by the ground forces of all sides and performed several forced landings, not because of friendly or enemy bullets but due to inadequate maintenance conditions. There was hardly a trained Ottoman mechanic to maintain or repair the aircraft. The task was relegated to the pilots themselves, to care for the planes that differed widely in their structure, engine and flight characteristics, which they were tasked to fly at any time. The matter of spare parts and the crucial fuel and oil was another story. Even the Tayyare Mektebi at Yeilky did not have a workshop or the simplest machinery to manufacture any spares. The school did not even have electricity; night work was done under the lights of petrol burning lamps (ya kandili). The pilots and the few naval mechanics that assisted them to produce spares or make repairs employed makeshift methods. This they accomplished in spite of lack of any technical drawings or training in use of various materials for aircraft. Supply of spare parts, adequate quantities of fuel and oil to the aircraft that were following the advancing army units very closely was a constant problem. Fuel was transferred in 20-liter cans; they never arrived as needed and had to be lifted up by manpower above the fuel tank of the aircraft because there were no hand pumps to transfer fuel. Although the fledgling Ottoman pilots undertook a multitude of perilous missions none of them lost their life in the course of the Balkan Wars, which says much for the skill of the Turkish airmen.

When we look at the official histories of the other Balkan states, we see that both the Bulgarians and the Greek boast so much in their official histories regarding how much they were ready to use aircraft for war, that they employed airpower in a most effective way for strategic purposes. The truth is: armies opposing the Ottoman forces, the Greek and the Bulgarians did not deploy their aircraft to the most critical battlefronts, namely on their advance towards the capital of Ottoman Empire-stanbul. This was the front where Ottoman aircraft were actively used. The Ottoman aviators informed the defending forces at the atalca Front about enemy positions by aerial observation. It was due to these


reports the Ottoman Army was informed about the weakness of the Bulgarian Army and made their counter-attack to take back Edirne from Bulgarian occupation. Because the Balkan States preferred to confine their aviation activities to the less lively battlefronts, the aircraft of opposing forces did not meet each other in the air for an aerial battle. Air power historians have too often dismissed the aeronautical aspects of the Ottoman-Italian War and the Balkan Wars as of little importance. In addition to many feats accomplished for the first time regarding military use of aircraft, the fundamental principals of aerial warfare were established during these conflicts. It would seem that many military authorities of that time fell into the same delusion as the historians and were unable to absorb the important lessons, both strategic and tactical in military and political perspective, from these conflicts. Unfortunately, the commanders of the major European powers did not include the Balkan Wars in their assessment of military value of aircraft. They had to learn their lesson the hard way, at the cost of many lives, during the bitter years of World War One.

Documents

Early Years of Aviation