jusr wanted to know the source of this and who would have taken it.
(i just wanted to confirm when wright brothers flew, and had 1905 in mind, it was 1903 december), sincee it is like 5 years since wright, and considering practical limitation of flying, and i know first transatlantic flight was in 1910s (checked it, it was 1919), so this plane must have been made in europe (or made in us and sent on ship) or collonial africa or maybe indian subcontinent.
So I want to know - how this flight happened, why were they in iraq of all places. am i wrong in thinking it is wierd that planes were surely not common to be used in surveys, especially on iraq or other countries. and settlement does not seem very large (do not know the scale, but surely it must be less than 1 km across), could not be more than 1000-10000 people (my rough guess for houses from eye balling is 100-150, and at most 10 people per house). also i do not know what the thing on the backround is (a temple? a military watchpost or something?)
jusr wanted to know the source of this and who would have taken it.
Not sure about the exact provenance of this photo, but Samarra here resembles several later photos taken by the RAF of the same city after WW1, so I’m inclined to think it’s real.
So I want to know - how this flight happened, why were they in iraq of all places. am i wrong in thinking it is wierd that planes were surely not common to be used in surveys, especially on iraq or other countries. and settlement does not seem very large (do not know the scale, but surely it must be less than 1 km across),
While enthusiasm for flight spread very fast, hot air balloons had also been used to take aerial photographs (including photos of cities) for the past ~50 years by 1909. Samarra is also historically important, even though it was economically marginal at the time.
could not be more than 1000-10000 people (my rough guess for houses from eye balling is 100-150, and at most 10 people per house).
A quick online search suggests that it held ~10,000 people in 1950, so likely a little bit under 10,000 in 1909.
also i do not know what the thing on the backround is (a temple? a military watchpost or something?)
The remains of the Great Mosque of Samarra, destroyed by the Mongols
thank you for the answers.
regarding air balloons, i did wonder, but got mis directed by trans atlantic wiki, where the mention for flight had blimp style in reference, so in my mind, flight was either plane or blimp style, and completely forgot that balloons existed. still, i do not know if it was cost effective to do aerial surveys, as i do not know what would have been the best nergy source available back then, coal i guess, and maybe some other liquid hydrocarbons (we have been doing liquid fuel for some time i think, but it would definitely be dirty).
Might just be wood or other organic materials - I know some of the earliest hot air balloons just burned material on the ground, filled up with hot air, and then would float until they ‘ran out’.
