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The Foreign Aviators of the Division of the North 1914-1915 by DOCTOR LAWRENCE D. TAYLOR The Mexican REVOLUTIONARY FIGHT from 1910 to 1920 constituted one of the first wars of this century in which the airplane was used as a battle weapon. The Italian Army was first in using the airship in war during its conquest of the Turkish territory of Cirenaica and Tripolitania between 1911 and 1912. They also used it against the belligerent forces that fought in the War of the Balkan Mountains from 1912 to 1913,1 Almost immediately, these " Constitutionalist " rebels tried to smuggle an airplane across the border in an attempt to provide air support to their dispersed armed groups that fought in the north of Mexico. The airplane they acquired in this manner was a twin-engine Martin Pusher equipped with a Curtiss motor of 75 horsepower. It then comprised the entire airforce of the Army of the Northwest of Alvaro Obregón. With this airplane, piloted by the French Didier Masson and the Mexican Gustavo Salinas Camiña, several bombings were carried out in the summer of 1913 and the spring of 1914. As part of the rebel operations in the regions the northwest of Sinaloa and Nayarit, the airplane attacked several groups of naval forces and infantry. Three other Moisant military single-engine airplanes in tandem, designed by Harold Kantner for the Moisant Aviation School and Company, were dispatched to Chihuahua to be united with that portion of the Constitutionalist forces. In Mexico, the revolutionary and federal armies used the airplane for first time in the bloody civil conflict that exploded in 1910. The insurrection, headed by Francisco I. Madero, who ended the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz in May of 1911, was not able to establish peace in México. On the contrary, the revolutionary government -- first in the form of a temporary regime headed by Francisco Leon of Barra and later by Madero as president elect -- was harassed by rebellions. In the course of one of many such events, headed by exinsurrecto chihuahuense head Paschal Orozco, the Mexican federal column, under the leadership of General Victoriano Huerta, employed an aerial element for patrolling against the main rebellious army in Chihuahua in his campaign . The unit consisted of two single-engine Moissant Blériot airplanes , one of 60 HP and the other of 100 HP . These machines were piloted by the American aviator John Hector Worden and the Mexican pilot Francisco Alvarez, respectively. The Alvarez machine was damaged during a practice flight in the outskirts of Torreón. Only the Worden airplane took part in the battle to a limited extent. Editor's Note:The article excerpted above is a treasure house of information on several of the early fliers. It is written in Spanish and I have tried to translate the relevant portions as my ability permits. If you read Spanish, I highly recommend that you go to the original by clicking on the title above.. |
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of the Hispano-American Precursors of Aviation SEÑOR BRUCE ASHCROFT Editor's Note:The article excerpted above is another rich source of information on several of the early fliers. It is written in Spanish and I have tried to translate the relevant portions as my ability permits. If you read Spanish, I highly recommend that you go to the original by clicking on the title above. |
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If you have any information on this Early Flier, please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper Back 
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