Special: Flying on Water

Pilots,

It didn’t take long after the Wright Brother’s first flight in their glider in 1903 for other aviators to want to follow in their footsteps and outdo their accomplishments. Stronger and more sophisticated aircraft started popping up all over the world, while engineers tried to push their creations to ever-greater heights, speeds and capabilities. A couple of years later a Frenchman, Henri Fabre, built something that was thought impossible up until that time: an aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. This plane, which he called the Hydravion, took off for its first successful flight on 28^th March 1910. Today, on the eve of the 104^th anniversary of this incredible achievement, let’s take a look at how it all came about and celebrate with a special in the game!

Here are the bonuses that await pilots in the game this weekend:

Triple XP for the first victory of the day

Maybe you’ll never be able to land on water in the game, but you will definitely have more XP if you play this weekend.

50% discount on consumables

Both regular and Premium consumables will be at half price all weekend long!

50% discount on barracks slots

You have more pilots to house? No problem! Buy a discounted barracks extension now and have eight new beds for your crew delivered immediately!

50% discount on training/retraining your crew

Do you need to bring your men up to speed or have them change aircraft? Act now and save money while you do it!

The special runs from Friday 28^th March at 07:00 CET (GMT+1) until Monday 31^st March at 07:30 CEST (GMT+2).

Henri Fabre was born in Marseille in 1882. Ever since he was a young adult, Fabre dreamed of building an aircraft that would be able to take off and land on water. Motivated by his father’s promise to finance his experiments if he got a degree as an engineer, he went to Paris for his studies, where he met other great aviators of his time such as Breguet, Blériot, Farman and even Voisin.

Upon his return home in 1906, fueled by stories of competitors such as the Austrian Willhem Kress who had been experimenting with a seaplane as early as 1901, he immediately began working on his own aircraft. With his father’s money in his pocket, he built his first prototypes and started a series of tests, during which the aircraft were still pulled by a ship and a mechanic winch. Although the floats proved stable enough to hold the aircraft, both the motor and propeller were still too weak, meaning that the plane couldn’t create enough lift overall to actually rise from the water’s surface.

However, Fabre didn’t lose hope and, a few years later, he jumped at the chance to purchase one of the first, novel Gnome 7-cylinder rotary engines produced by fellow French inventor Laurent Séguin. This 50 horse power-engine, the strongest there was at the time, did the trick and the Hydravion, as Fabre would call his plane, finally took off for its first flight on 28^th March 1910 in the Bay of Martigues, France. Fabre himself, who was piloting an aircraft for the first time in his life, steered the plane as it flew approximately 500m at an altitude of a little over one metre. The Hydravion would take off three more times that day before inexperience finally caught up with Fabre – he scraped a bunch of rocks that were poking out of the water and seriously damaged the aircraft. 

Henri Fabre flying his ‘Hydravion’ (seaplane) for the first time on March 28^th 1910

Nonetheless Fabre had achieved his goal, which landed him both in today’s history books as well as the newspapers of his time. He went on to design floats for other aviation pioneers such as the Voisin brothers, who used his technology to perfect their own Canard-glider, which eventually became one of the first seaplanes to be used by the French Navy.

We know it’s tempting, but don’t try landing on water in the game, pilots!