Flying at night

[Gurgast]

I keep coming across references in various memoirs about WW1 to night flying, mostly with regard to bombing missions. One from 1917 talks about hand-held electric torches and dim little bulbs incorporated into instrument panels, and another the method of using "petrol flares" to delineate a home aerodrome when it was time to put down. As to the bombing itself, unless they were trying to flatten a blast furnace, it must have been a wee bit on the inaccurate side, although on a clear, starry night I suppose navigation would have been somewhat easier. The point was made that no scouts or Archie made the flights more comfortable than usual!

But does anyone know when night flying started to evolve as a war tactic?

I have seen an interesting story from "Flight" 14 Oct 1960 p, 618 (Correspondence) of the first night flight, it having been part of the race from London to Manchester between Paulhan and Grahame-White in 1910. They were competing in a couple of Maurice Farmans for the huge sum of £10,000. If nothing else, it shows that night flights pre-date the war considerably. (Oddly enough, it seems that G-W was lodging at the time in my local pub that night -- the North Pole, near Shepherd's Bush. No wonder he lost!)

Presumably they painted night planes black underneath even at that early period?