Russian balloon corps
Preparatory committee under General Todleben; experiments within the navy; balloons for optical telegraphy. Then:
In September, 1884, a special detachment was formed, consisting of one officer (who later became Colonel von Kowanko) and twenty-two men. The Russians bought their entire outfit, including gas generators, from French manufacturers, nearly all of them receiving orders in due course, viz., Brisson, Yon, Godard, and Lachambre.
[...] A great deal of work was done by the navy, about 1894, with balloons in connection with the unsuccessful attempt to discover the warship "Russalka," which had been sunk in the Gulf of Finland.
The organisation of the corps was gradually evolved. A school for aeronauts was started at Wolkowo Polje, near St. Petersburg, after the French model, instructions being given both for the purposes of the army and navy, and extensive workshops being constructed. The establishment included seven officers and eighty-eight men, from which the detachment for the manœuvres was selected. They also provided any officers that were required for ballooning purposes.[1]
The 1903 war games showed the Russian aeronautical force to be cumbersome to deploy; thus the spherical balloons were replaced by German kite balloons and a new system for gas production introduced. Two companies of the East Siberian Balloon Corps reached the front in September 1904.
The reports which have been made public as to the results of the campaign from the point of view of ballooning experience are very meagre. Reconnoitring work of various kinds was often done under the heavy fire of the Japanese, and to judge from the number of decorations that were afterwards bestowed it would appear that the second company must in some special way have distinguished itself. The balloon which had been intended to be used in the forts of Port Arthur was loaded on board a ship and subsequently captured; and the same fate probably overtook a German steamer, named Lahn, which was intended to help in the service, but disappeared mysteriously. At the present moment Russia is devoting herself to the reorganization of the service in the light of the experience gained from the war.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hildebrandt, 1908, Airships Past and Present, pp. 167–168.
| Organization names | |
|---|---|
| Entity type | |
| Country | RU |
| City | |
| Affiliated with | |
| Scope | |
| Started aero | |
| Ended aero | |
| Keywords | LTA |
| Key people | Alexander Matveevich Kowanko |
| Wikidata id |
