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| Commander Charles Samson taking off from the runway on the foredeck of HMS Hibernia. |
The development of aircraft carriers began in the early 1900s. The first experimental take off of a fixed-wing aircraft from a ship took place in the United States in 1910 from the deck of U.S. Navy cruiser USS Birmingham. In May 1912 the British naval aviation pioneer Charles Rumney Samson became the first man to take off from a ship underway. Sources differ on whether the flight from the runway, built over the foredeck of the battleship HMS Hibernia, took place on 2 May, 4 May or 9 May. The Hibernia is reported to have steamed at 10.5 knots at the time of Sampson's take-off. It all happened during the Royal Fleet Review in Weimouth Bay.
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A Royal Navy aircraft at the Royal Fleet Review.
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| During the fleet review,King George V (on the extreme left) witnessed a number of flights. |
The Swedish news magazine Hvar 8 Dag reported in its May 1912 issue that the Royal Fleet Review had received a lot of attention in England as well as elsewhere, because the Royal Navy had for the first time used airplanes in its operations:
"The Hibernia had been completely adapted into an airplaneship, from which Commander Samson flew several particularly beautiful and succesful flights, which were observed with great interest by the foremost authorities of the Royal Navy."
The news report also cites German sources who believed that the use of airplanes "could mean a turning point in the entire British naval strategy."
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