Eugene Ely's 1910 launch from USS Birmingham used a temporary platform while the scout cruiser lay stationary in Hampton Roads. Two years later, Commander Charles Samson flew a Short S.38 from HMS Hibernia while the battleship was underway. The aircraft were extremely light, and their flotation gear offered little reassurance if a launch failed. The moving-ship trial also answered a confused contemporary claim that an aircraft would loop back into the vessel after inheriting its forward speed. Together the tests moved shipborne aviation from using a warship as an artificial island to operating from a vessel at sea.
Chapter · 16:01-20:14
Birmingham and Hibernia prove flight from warships
Eugene Ely launched from the stationary USS Birmingham in 1910, while Charles Samson's 1912 takeoff from HMS Hibernia proved the method with a ship underway.