Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros was a French aviation pioneer and fighter pilot. Garros began a career in aviation in 1909 and performed many early feats such as the first-ever airplane crossing of the Mediterranean Sea in 1913. He joined the French army and became one of the earliest fighter pilots during World War I. Garros was shot down on 5 October 1918. In 1928, the Roland Garros tennis stadium was named in his memory; the French Open tennis tournament takes the name of Roland Garros, which is held in this stadium.
Oswald Boelcke PlM was a World War I German professional soldier and pioneering flying ace credited with 40 aerial victories. Boelcke is honored as the father of the German fighter air force, and of air combat as a whole. He was a highly influential mentor, patrol leader, and tactician in the first years of air combat, 1915 and 1916.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1913:
Gustav Wilhelm Hamel was a pioneer British aviator. He was prominent in the early history of aviation in Britain, and in particular that of Hendon airfield, where Claude Graham-White was energetically developing and promoting flying.
John Bevins Moisant was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, flight instructor, businessman, and revolutionary. He was the first pilot to conduct passenger flights over a city (Paris), as well as across the English Channel, from Paris to London. He co-founded an eponymous flying circus, the Moisant International Aviators.
Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.
Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov was a Russian pilot, an aircraft designer and an aerobatics pioneer.
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island".
Jens Tryggve Herman Gran was a Norwegian aviator, polar explorer and author.
Jean Marie Dominique Navarre was a French aviator during World War I. As one of the pioneer flying aces, he was credited with twelve confirmed aerial victories and fifteen unconfirmed ones.
Ferdinand Marie Léon Delagrange was a sculptor and pioneering French aviator who was one of the top aviators in the world.
Stunt flying refers to any stunts performed in an aircraft. It encompasses aerobatics, wing walking, and transferring from one airplane to another or to a moving vehicle on the ground, such as an automobile or train, and vice versa.
Juan Bielovucic was a Peruvian aviator who set several speed and altitude aviation records in 1910–13. He was also the first person to complete a successful powered aircraft crossing of the Alps in 1913, following a 1910 attempt by his friend Jorge Chávez that ended in a fatal crash landing. He established the first aviation school in South America in Lima, Peru. Bielovucic became a colonel of the Peruvian Aviation Corps (PAC) in 1911, joined the Service Aéronautique of the French Army as a volunteer in 1914 and earned the Legion of Honour for his service in World War I. He retired from active aviation in 1920 and returned to Peru where he became the lieutenant commander of the PAC Reserve. He was also active with the French Resistance during World War II. In Croatia, he is regarded as the first Croatian aviator.
Sous Lieutenant Eugène Gilbert was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories. He had also been a famous pioneer pre-war racing pilot, flying in many countries throughout Europe.
Podporuchik Ivan Aleksandrovich Orlov was a Russian flying ace during World War I. He was a prewar flier, having built both gliders and an airplane, and having earned pilot's license no. 229 just prior to start of the war. He volunteered his experience and his personal airplane to his country's military service. His experience and his valor made him both a mentor and leader of less experienced pilots, as Orlov rose to command the 7th Aviatsionniy Ostryad Istrebitelei of the Imperial Russian Air Service. After an exchange duty assignment to the Escadrille 3, Aéronautique Militaire, he wrote the first Russian text on aerial combat, Ways to Conduct an Air Combat. He was killed in action after scoring five confirmed aerial victories.
Lieutenant Colonel Cosimo Rennella Barbatto (1890–1937) was an Ecuadorian World War I flying ace of Italian birth. He was credited with seven confirmed aerial victories flying for Italian aviation during the war; however, his pioneering civil aviation activities both before and immediately following the war were probably even more important than his martial career.
The Nieuport IV was a French-built sporting, training and reconnaissance monoplane of the early 1910s.
Sergeant James McKinley Hargreaves was a Scottish World War I flying ace. Despite being an observer, he became one of the first flying aces in history while flying with Lionel Rees,.
The Romanian Air Corps or Aviation Corps (RAC) was the air arm of the Romanian army until the formation of the Romanian Air Force. It was established on 1 April 1913 as the Military Aeronautics Service and subordinated to the Engineer Inspectorate, being organized in two branches – the aviation and the balloon branch. On 23 August 1915, the RAC was formed as an independent military arm and operated until 1 January 1924 when it became an equal to the Army and Navy, being redesignated as the Royal Romanian Air Force.
