War+in+the+Air

Aviation During WWI

"War in the Air" = = media type="youtube" key="Tr_xLqvCd_E?fs=1" height="405" width="500" //Footage from the 1930 American Movie appropriately named Hells Angels.//

Timeline of Aviation http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0213000/aviation.htm

//The different aircraft produced and utilized during the First World War//

//A photograph of the well known Manfred von Richthofen, more widely known as the Red Baron with a confirmed 80 air combat victories//

//A replica of the plane flown by the Red Baron throughout World War 1//

//http://www.theaerodrome.com/aircraft/by_nation.php//

**Aviation before WW1**

 •    **Wright brothers airplane “first in flight”** (March 23, 1903) - The Wright brothers (Kitty Hawk NC) fly an airplane for 12 seconds at 120 feet.  •  •     **Distance and duration record** (Oct 5, 1905) - 24.2 miles in 38 minutes and 3 seconds by Wilber Wright  •   •     **Many records beaten** (1905 onwards) – People are over the world help the progression of aviation by striving towards longer, faster and higher flights with aircraft  •     **Nations start to incorporate aircraft into military** (1910-1914) – Pilots started becoming military members and countries started to really notice the potential power of aviation   <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">** Early years ** <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • There was a large amount of debate over the usefulness of aircraft in a combat situation and there was lots of skeptics, most of them conservative, senior officers <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • A lot of soldiers and other people in Germany believed that Zeppelins were the future, as they were “lighter then air” unlike these new air heavy aircraft being proposed (and the fact that Germany had been extremely successful in the past with the Zeppelin) <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">During the starts of air combat, planes did not have guns (or at least guns that worked), so they would throw rocks and bricks (even grenades) at each other and even rope to try and mess up their propeller. <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">Later they brought guns on to the plane with them to fire at other aircrafts and the first plane to be shot down was with a machine gun by a French Man on a German Plane <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">At the start of the war, air combat was very rare, but it slowly started to become a phenomenon due to the small success’s of the bombings runs during 1914 and this was a potential super weapon <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">TECHNOLGY <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> //Despite what some people thought would become the case, Zeppelins became the// //more popular means of bombing because they could carry much more weight than the// //plans of the time. Air planes would be designed to destroy balloons and zeppelins that// //were responsible for bombing and reconnaissance missions. However, airplanes were// //much more capable of avoiding anti-aircraft weaponry, so each aircraft had its pros// //and cons.// <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • 1915: The Fokker Scourge <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -First use of synchronization gear by the Germans (huge step forward) <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -Germany had clear air superiority during this time  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -Reconnaissance missions become much more difficult and dangerous for allied nations as Germany become more and more dominant in the skies  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -Not too long afterwards though almost every nation had this new technology and it was “the norm”  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • 1916: Battle of the Somme <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -Militaries started making many squadrons of planes making aviation much more organized  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -The “Battle of the Somme” was in France and it marked the debut of the tank and it also caused the need for more pilots and soldiers, a lot of which had very little experience  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -The Allied nations, however, had shifted a lot of their focus to the skies and this led to them have air superiority during this famous battle  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • 1917: Bloody April <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -The beginning of 1917 is important, as Germany had earned back its air superiority and Germany was very successful in the air during the first half of this year  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -The allies had a lot of new planes being released, however, as they were new, there were very few of them in service  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -A very shocking amount of deaths in the air for the British side took place during April (thus given the name Bloody April)  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -However, once Britain had released all its new aircraft in large numbers, the allied nations earned back their “rightful” place as rulers of the air. It remained this way for the rest of the war. <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> //The After Effects// //<span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • The main effect that would affect future wars was strategic bombings which are the main means of attack in today's society. <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • Also, artillery started becoming a lot less effective due to air reconnaissance which would survey the enemies territories <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • **“The day has passed when armies on the ground or navies on the sea can be the** **arbiter of a nation's destiny in war. The main power of defense and the power of** **initiative against an enemy has passed to the air.”** <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • -Brigadier General  Billy Mitchell, November 1918  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> •  <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">

<span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> // <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 20 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;"> • <span style="display: block; mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0"; mso-margin-left-alt: 216;">