Flying Caps and Throat Microphones: Solving the Problems of Aviation Communication in World War One

Large-scale conflicts have long generated new practices and technologies of communication. As we have argued elsewhere (Bruton & Gooday 2016), long-distance aural communications became especially important in the First World War. In this paper we explore the new challenges of sky-borne telecommunication in that conflict as parallel innovations in aircraft and wireless (radio) brought opportunities for near real-time intelligence. Airborne wireless sets using Morse code existed prior to the war’s outbreak in 1914 and voice-over-wireless systems were developed for airborne use by former Marconi Company engineers working for the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1915. Yet the conjunction of enormously noisy engines and open cockpits in First World War aeroplanes initially created great difficulties for pilots to hear Morse code and even (later) voice messages. Even with noise-reducing adaptations of aircraft engines nearly a quarter of airmen suffered the additional problem of permanent hearing loss. Both problems were solved in the development of pilot’s flying caps equipped with sound-resistant headphones around 1917. Combined with the new throat microphone, this system was successfully adopted by pilots into the Second World War and beyond.