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First Flight - Kitty Hawk NC

How quickly man adapts. It is a simple fact. War produces needs and ideas spawning new developments at often alarming rates. On December 17^th 1903 after more then three years spent at Kitty Hawk the Wright Brothers finally achieved manned flight.

Just eleven years later the Wright Brothers achievement was put to a new use. That of an observation plane in World War I. Unarmed aircraft were being used as spotters for artillery fire and as observers of enemy troop movement.

Sopwith Camel

It wasn’t long before handguns, rifles, bricks and other items were carried aloft to prevent enemy observation aircraft from flying near strategic areas.

This very quickly led to the addition of machine guns to the aircraft. The result being that the first fighter pilots were born. What had started as an unarmed observation plane had very quickly become a very effective offensive weapon.

Folkker Tri-Plane

There were many types of aircraft used in the war. Some of the more famous being the Sopwith Camel and the Folkker Tri-Plane.

It wasn’t long before small bombs were being carried and the use of the newest weapon of war to strafe the enemy on the ground in the trenches.

America did not enter the war until very late, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. The Lafayette Escadrille being the prime example. A French squadron of American Pilots.

This new hero – The Air Combat Pilot was born in the air over France in World War I. Names like Eddie Rickenbacker, Americas air ace with 26 kills. Germany’s Manfred von Richthofen “The Red Baron” with 80 kills. France’s Rene Fonck with 75 kills. And Briton’s Albert Ball with 44 kills.

Snoopy WWI Ace

And of course our favorite World War I almost ace. Snoop with as yet no kills, but always on the look out for the Red Baron.

Bob’s Gift Baskets hopes you have enjoyed this little insight into the past.

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Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Heard that before? I’m not surprised if you have.

The story of the Trojan Horse is a tale of perhaps one of the strangest gifts in history. It happened around 1200 BC. Exact dates are a little hard to pinpoint, but it involved the war between the Greeks of Sparta and the Trojan’s of Troy and it involved a woman, Helen and ancient Gods. The war lasted at least ten years. At least this is so according to Greek mythology. Many historians believe this all to be a tale with no historical background at all.

Regardless if it really happen or not, the tale goes as such.

The Trojan Horse

The war originated in a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera and Aphrodite. Zeus settled the dispute with a gift of a golden apple or the “Apple of Discord” and declared Aphrodite to be the fairest of all. In exchange Aphrodite made Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta to be the most beautiful of all mortal women.

Paris, from Troy in a visit to Sparta, fell in love with Helen and abducted her, some say willingly and took her to Troy were they were soon married. The insult to Menelaus triggered the Trojan War.

For ten years Menelaus laid siege on Troy during which time the Trojan hero Hector was killed.

Frustrated by a long war, the Greeks under the command of Menelaus’s brother Agamemnon and at the suggestion of the clever Odysseus with the aid of Athena, in a last desperate move constructed a large wooden horse on wheels. They then pretended to sail off leaving just. the horse as a gift.

The Trojans assuming the horse to be a tribute to their bravery and a gift rom the Greeks pulled it into the center of Troy where it was proudly displayed. The horse was hollow and several Greek warriors led by Sinon, snuck out during the night and opened the gates to Troy. As it turned out the Greek fleet had not sailed away any further then out of eyesight and that fateful night they returned and captured Troy slaughtering the Trojans in their sleep or drunken stupor. The Greek hero Achilles was slain by the hand of Paris

And what happened to Helen? Well it seems that her old husband Menelaus was so infatuated by her beauty that he allowed her to live.