Well at first it was reconnaissance and artilect spotting. Then the opposing side would send their planes to frick with the first planes, and their pilots would take shots and them with handheld guns. Then both sides decided they could drop grenades/bombs on the enemy while they flew over them. Someone got mad and figured out how to put a machine gun on the plane in case they get fricked with. Eventually the other side also figured out how to put machine guns on the planes to frick with the first planes who had machine guns. Next thing you know, buttholes would take flight just to look for enemy plans to shoot them down because frick you this is war. Kind of silly when you think about it
Recon was too important not to kill enemy assets. The aircraft and dirigible in WWI were the equivalent of today's satellite recon in importance. Not silly at all.
I think he was saying it's kind of silly how they started off ignoring each other and waving to each other and then went from that to throwing bricks while doing something else all the way to going up just to attack each other in such a short span.
I read a book on air combat during WW1 and it was rather fascinating how things changed for the crews and their mindsets. At first pilots on recon flights just waved to one another, the whole "war" thing for people on the ground to worry about. Then came the experimental phase, shooting handguns and rifles at one another, tossing grenades and bricks out as you flew by someone. Once people figured out mounted machine guns there became a competitive spirit to things. But one thing that gets overlooked is that for many of the aces of the time, war had become just as brutal as on the ground. I can't remember if it was the Red Baron or another pilot, but he lamented that every time he flew, the enemy "sent up more boys for me to kill" and that he had gotten sick of it.
>Then came the experimental phase, shooting handguns and rifles at one another, tossing grenades and bricks out as you flew by someone
And how much do you wanna bet that was some officer or general saying "Hey, do something to stop the enemy recon plane next time you are up there" rather than the pilot deciding to
The whole honorable knights of the sky thing is somewhat true, but greatly exaggerated in pop media. Pilots had been shooting at each other since the beginning of the war, and things got very ugly as the war progressed. Off the top of my head, Germany began booby trapping crashed planes for example
>Germany began booby trapping crashed planes for example
But... why? If they had access to the crashed plane, then presumably the only people who could recover it would be Germans because it would have been behind their lines. If it was in no man's land it's not getting recovered.
It's not like the war was fast moving or anything.
10 months ago
Anonymous
standby one while I fund the source, but airmen on both sides would infiltrate behind enemy lines to recover pilots and pieces of aircraft to confirm kills.
In 1918 after the Kaiserschlacht offensive imploded, the Germans began laying IEDs everywhere and a few airmen were killed wile fricking around with the planes.
>same energy as when the RAF figured out a way to fit 4 AIM-9Ls to a Nimrod patrol aircraft just in case they spotted an argentinian patrol aircraft.
d-did it worked?
Its kind of funny how drone use looks similar to this. First civilian drones for their camera feeds, then retrofitting grenade dropping devices, then strapping RPGs or wire tripped explosives to suicide drones.
Sometimes people forget just how much military innovation starts with the soldiers and what they get wild ideas to start doing.
Being a fighter pilot in WW1 must be the coolest combat role in modern history. You are revitalizing knighthood and chivalry and inventing a new form of battle in the act of doing it.
>nothing
They did not exist until long after the First World War ended; the United States Air Force did not exist until after the Second World War ended.
OP is referring to Army Air Corps & equivalent units employed as organic components of their parent Armies; these forces did, in fact, do things:
>primarily conduct reconnaissance >assess damage to enemy positions to better plan next artillery barrages >strafe trenches with machinegun fire >drop bombs >shoot at other planes
>United States Air Force did not exist until after the Second World War ended. >OP is referring to Army Air Corps & equivalent units
pedantic, the post
Yep. And just before the U.S. got into WW1, they were all shot down by Pancho Villa.. No joke. That beaner bandit and his men really did shoot down what at the time was the entire U.S. Air Force...
No aircraft were lost directly to enemy fire during the expedition, however a bunch crashed due to mechanical and human error and were captured by Mexicans. Suprisingly no airmen were killed or seriously injured. >one plane flies into a mountain at night and accidentally sets off the biggest wildfire in Mexican history >another crash lands into a farmer's field and the pilot gets a ride back to base on a traveler's donkey cart. The airmen send out a truck to repair the aircraft but take fire from the nearby farmhouse. The maintainers get excited and magdump their entire load of ammunition at the senpai to no discernable effect before retreating for the day. When they return the next morning with a platoon of cavalrymen they find the plane has been stripped to the frame and put on bricks. >another makes a controlled landing outside Chihuahua and gets swarmed by a crowd of angry Mexicans, who begin beating the shit out of the pilot. Eventually a photographer comes out with an old daguerreotype camera and everybody stops stomping on the pilot to get the picture taken (pic related). The pilot realizes that the crowd will just go back to beating him up as soon as the picture is taken, so right as the photographer is about to set everything up he sneezes or jerks his body suddenly so that the process has to be restarted. This was repeated until help arrived to rescue him.
>fly around >observe enemy positions >occasionally drop grenades on enemy fortifications >shoot at other planes with everything from handguns to machineguns to literally whipping hammers and shit at eachother. >have no clue what you're doing 90% of the time
Was pretty rad.
>Going after a balloon
Good luck, have fun dying to ground fire or going down without a parachute while the guy in the balloon laughs at you and worst case jumps out with a parachute
Recon and artillery spotting, a task so important it became necessary to develop planes capable of stopping enemy recon flights, which in turn meant these new fighter/chaser/hunter type planes logically ended up having to contest the air space with each other before being able to take on their original task, and so you had the first real air war.
As a neat side note the first "true" fighter planes, the Morane-Saulnier N and Fokker E.III, were monoplanes much like what became the standard aircraft design later on, but were at the time quickly outclassed by biplane designs which dominated for the rest of the war.
A lot of of people seem to have forget that there was bombers and zeppelins too.
What was really amazing was the speed of inovation. One side shows up with a superior aircraft that dominates the sky. The other side learn from it, inspect wreckages, draw a new aircraft in a few weeks, flies a prototype, and in 3 months the new airplane is on the battlefield wiping the ass of the previous wonderwaffe.
Every inovative aircraft enjoyed a 3 months domination before becoming trash.
Picrel Spad XIII, the best WW1 fighter.
That’s just factually no true. The Sopwith Pup and Triplane were very competitive designs in 1916.
Those goofy looking Airco designs weren’t bad for 1915 standards either.
It really is wild. Just a few years before, planes were just being able to prove they could go a few thousand feet up or do loops (sometimes without structural failure.) It took less than two decades to go from the Wright Flyer to purpose-built fighters capable of many maneuvers.
basically all test pilots (at least british ones) from the 1950-70s started flying various shitty interwar era biplanes.
>Eric Brown first flew in a 2 seat Bucker Jungmann trainer with Ernst Udet. The last aircraft he flew as part of his extremely prolific flying career was the F4K Phantom. >Roland Beaumont (who test flew the Lightning, TSR-2 and Tornado) first flew in a Avro Tutor biplane. >Peter Twiss the first man to reach over 1000 mph in level flight spent the early war flying the Swordfish (he was one of the stunt pilots flying Swordfish in Sink the Bismarck later). >Rolly Falk the eccentric Vickers/Avro test pilot of the Vulcan who always flew in a 3 piece suit started his career flying around journalists in 2 seat biplanes during the Italo-Ethiopian War
Was innovation slower in WW2? Given the absolute stalemate on the Western front and the secure industrial bases of the countries fighting on that front, it seems like it lead to constant attempts at trying to gain the upperhand via new or improved tech, the same kind of stalemate didn't really exist in the second world war.
Yes, innovation slowed in that it went past a three month cycle, but when a jump did happen, they were fundamental and huge. Geared, Injected, turbo supercharged Opposed (GITSO) high performance engines, constant speed props, high G frames, the Germans busting out with fricking jets.. Yeah, each breakthrough took a bit longer, but were huge jumps.
>Was innovation slower in WW2? Given the absolute stalemate on the Western front and the secure industrial bases of the countries fighting on that front, it seems like it lead to constant attempts at trying to gain the upperhand via new or improved tech, the same kind of stalemate didn't really exist in the second world war.
2nd world war was sufficiently different in terms of technology base that a direct comparison is pointless.
However, it is important to understand that WW1 wasn't terribly innovative for aircraft. Aircraft top speed increased by 100 km/h in the four years before WW1 and by 100 km/h in the four years after WW1, but only by 60 km/h in the four years of the war.
The first four-engined aircraft flew before the war. Interruptor gear was patented before the war.
By all metrics, the speed of aircraft development slowed down during the war.
However, aircraft production increased massively. From at most a few hundred to several ten thousand per year. The immense number of trained pilots and production capacities would then create the interwar aircraft industry.
Technologically, WW1 did basically slow down aircraft development.
But it turned a hobby into a major industry.
They had a huge role in spotting and correcting artillery fire. By far the most casualties of the war were caused by artillery on both sides; aircraft corrected that fire. That means you've got to try and stop the other side's aircraft doing their job so you need aircraft that can stop them. You also need recon aircraft to confirm what you arty'd was destroyed, which lead to photo reconnaissance. Bombing was kind of a sideline.
Is it theoretically possible to build a biplane that can reach and survive supersonic speed? It doesn't have to be exclusively prop driven, it could be rocket assisted.
I know it would be pointless I'm just wondering from an engineering standpoint.
WWI era canvas and wire strut biplane? Probably not.
Purpose built jet that happened to have two sets of wings? Sure.
Wiggen is kind of a biplane if you squit your eyes. The huge canards that are higher than the main delta and are overlapping slightly.
>Early war
Recon: initially literally just eyesight, later on with photographs, generally handheld cameras or mounted ones. Mainly goal was usually spotting for artillery, or counter-artillery. Sometimes trying to monitor trench networks prior to an assault or to detect troop movements.
Protecting Balloons: balloons were a huge part of artillery spotting, and were generally far more valuable than aircraft till late war. Downing such a manned balloon was as valuable as shooting an enemy plane down, or more so.
Combat: homies just brought a handgun up with them, and shot out from their pilot's seat, or threw grenades/bombs. Sometimes with a marksman in the rear seat (usually with a longrifle or lmg)
>Late war
Combat: wing-mounted bombs, fixed machineguns. Dogfighting actually became possible.
The engine crankshafts were stationary, propellers attached to the engine blocks.. So the whole fricking engine was spinning. This is why you see men running with the plane during take off until there was enough weathervane effect on the tail so that the plane wouldn't spin out of control on the ground from gyroscopic force. No real throttle either, just on and off. Hence the sound of these old planes when approaching to land.. That's the pilot hitting the magneto switch on and off to pulse power instead of the engine running full tilt as in take off. You can also do some aerobatics in these aircraft that aren't practical in modern ones due to this massive gyroscopic force of the engine. Castor oil laxative fumes, no parachute because frickheads in command viewed them as bad for morale, fire a common horrific death, sometimes with nobody shooting at you. The concept of a heavier than air aircraft was still new so everything was a stumbling to ecstasy thing. The first dogfights started when someone decided not to be friendly anymore and shot at an enemy plane with a pistol.. Before that they were all just observation flights to spot and report movements.. But it evolved quickly.
Recon, Balloon Busting, and Balloon Protection. WW1 is also when they first started experimenting with dropping bombs.
Observation Balloons need more love. They were like mile tall observation towers. Just put a man in one with some binocs and a telegraph line and you'd have accurate intel on everything for a hundred miles.
>Start sending aircraft over the lines to find targets for your artillery >Notice your enemy is doing the same thing >Pilots on both sides start bringing personal weapons on their flights to shoot at the other sides spotters, thus inventing the fighter aircraft. >Start bringing bricks to drop from altitude onto enemy trenches, realise that's not working and call in some favours with your cousin in logistics to get hold of boxes of grenades to drop on enemy trenches, thus inventing the bomber. >Eventually your commanders realise that mounting proper machine guns onto the aircraft will make them more effective fighters than having the pilot hanging out of the wienerpit trying to stage an aerial drive by with a revolver. >Also that you can fit bigger bombs onto the wings/underside to do more damage to the trenches than hand grenades. >Through all of this your aircrew are living in an occupied French Chateau, drinking some of the finest wine known to man, eating like kings, going to sleep in comfortable beds with silk sheets, and with a different - beautiful - nurse/local next to him each night. >As long as you're not running a literal criminal gang out of the base or brawling in the mess nobody really gives much of a shit about discipline (compared to the other services at least) >Every man wearing an individually tailored, incredibly stylish, uniform - and a world tier moustache.
It's about as close as humanity has ever come to maximum military kino. We will never see its like again.
In WWI fighter pilots routinely:
- landed behind enemy lines since you could still land in any more or less even field.
- picked up pows behind enemy lines
- escaped base to party with hookers in Paris then get back in time for morning patrol
- challenged enemy pilots to one on one duels
- dropped flowers for fallen enemies on airfields
no radios or radar - once you took of you were pretty much independent
no regulations - paint your plane any way you want, only accept pilots that play in instrument that your squadron jazz band is lacking, fly with your danish dog in an already cramped wienerpit, fly under bridges and the Champs Elysee... It was all possible then,...
Crash and frick nurses.
In that order?
Yes. Crash first, nurses second.
Yes.
Scout, dogfight and drop grenades like trolls
Make shit up as they went
Well at first it was reconnaissance and artilect spotting. Then the opposing side would send their planes to frick with the first planes, and their pilots would take shots and them with handheld guns. Then both sides decided they could drop grenades/bombs on the enemy while they flew over them. Someone got mad and figured out how to put a machine gun on the plane in case they get fricked with. Eventually the other side also figured out how to put machine guns on the planes to frick with the first planes who had machine guns. Next thing you know, buttholes would take flight just to look for enemy plans to shoot them down because frick you this is war. Kind of silly when you think about it
*artillery spotting (but you probably figured that out)
Recon was too important not to kill enemy assets. The aircraft and dirigible in WWI were the equivalent of today's satellite recon in importance. Not silly at all.
I think he was saying it's kind of silly how they started off ignoring each other and waving to each other and then went from that to throwing bricks while doing something else all the way to going up just to attack each other in such a short span.
I read a book on air combat during WW1 and it was rather fascinating how things changed for the crews and their mindsets. At first pilots on recon flights just waved to one another, the whole "war" thing for people on the ground to worry about. Then came the experimental phase, shooting handguns and rifles at one another, tossing grenades and bricks out as you flew by someone. Once people figured out mounted machine guns there became a competitive spirit to things. But one thing that gets overlooked is that for many of the aces of the time, war had become just as brutal as on the ground. I can't remember if it was the Red Baron or another pilot, but he lamented that every time he flew, the enemy "sent up more boys for me to kill" and that he had gotten sick of it.
>Then came the experimental phase, shooting handguns and rifles at one another, tossing grenades and bricks out as you flew by someone
And how much do you wanna bet that was some officer or general saying "Hey, do something to stop the enemy recon plane next time you are up there" rather than the pilot deciding to
I assume it was a "It's dangerous to go alone, take this" moment
same energy as when the RAF figured out a way to fit 4 AIM-9Ls to a Nimrod patrol aircraft just in case they spotted an argentinian patrol aircraft.
The whole honorable knights of the sky thing is somewhat true, but greatly exaggerated in pop media. Pilots had been shooting at each other since the beginning of the war, and things got very ugly as the war progressed. Off the top of my head, Germany began booby trapping crashed planes for example
>booby trapping crashed planes for example
nothing wrong with that
>Germany began booby trapping crashed planes for example
But... why? If they had access to the crashed plane, then presumably the only people who could recover it would be Germans because it would have been behind their lines. If it was in no man's land it's not getting recovered.
It's not like the war was fast moving or anything.
standby one while I fund the source, but airmen on both sides would infiltrate behind enemy lines to recover pilots and pieces of aircraft to confirm kills.
In 1918 after the Kaiserschlacht offensive imploded, the Germans began laying IEDs everywhere and a few airmen were killed wile fricking around with the planes.
How would that work if the pilots every time died?
Worlds largest fighter aircraft.
>same energy as when the RAF figured out a way to fit 4 AIM-9Ls to a Nimrod patrol aircraft just in case they spotted an argentinian patrol aircraft.
d-did it worked?
Its kind of funny how drone use looks similar to this. First civilian drones for their camera feeds, then retrofitting grenade dropping devices, then strapping RPGs or wire tripped explosives to suicide drones.
Sometimes people forget just how much military innovation starts with the soldiers and what they get wild ideas to start doing.
Throw bricks on groundies
Shit themselves constantly because of breathing in oil fumes with a laxative effect.
Thats why they all grew mustaches, to ack as a filter over their nose.
for a significant amount of the war, British soldiers also could not shave their upper lips.
Yep, they used castor oil..
Being a fighter pilot in WW1 must be the coolest combat role in modern history. You are revitalizing knighthood and chivalry and inventing a new form of battle in the act of doing it.
Look at stuff, take pictures of the stuff, shoot at each other, throw grenades on the enemy trenches, crash, and die.
>nothing
They did not exist until long after the First World War ended; the United States Air Force did not exist until after the Second World War ended.
OP is referring to Army Air Corps & equivalent units employed as organic components of their parent Armies; these forces did, in fact, do things:
>primarily conduct reconnaissance
>assess damage to enemy positions to better plan next artillery barrages
>strafe trenches with machinegun fire
>drop bombs
>shoot at other planes
>United States Air Force did not exist until after the Second World War ended.
>OP is referring to Army Air Corps & equivalent units
pedantic, the post
ummm, acktchually sweetie, it was the US Army Air Service during WW1
Yep. And just before the U.S. got into WW1, they were all shot down by Pancho Villa.. No joke. That beaner bandit and his men really did shoot down what at the time was the entire U.S. Air Force...
No aircraft were lost directly to enemy fire during the expedition, however a bunch crashed due to mechanical and human error and were captured by Mexicans. Suprisingly no airmen were killed or seriously injured.
>one plane flies into a mountain at night and accidentally sets off the biggest wildfire in Mexican history
>another crash lands into a farmer's field and the pilot gets a ride back to base on a traveler's donkey cart. The airmen send out a truck to repair the aircraft but take fire from the nearby farmhouse. The maintainers get excited and magdump their entire load of ammunition at the senpai to no discernable effect before retreating for the day. When they return the next morning with a platoon of cavalrymen they find the plane has been stripped to the frame and put on bricks.
>another makes a controlled landing outside Chihuahua and gets swarmed by a crowd of angry Mexicans, who begin beating the shit out of the pilot. Eventually a photographer comes out with an old daguerreotype camera and everybody stops stomping on the pilot to get the picture taken (pic related). The pilot realizes that the crowd will just go back to beating him up as soon as the picture is taken, so right as the photographer is about to set everything up he sneezes or jerks his body suddenly so that the process has to be restarted. This was repeated until help arrived to rescue him.
Mate the RFC became the Royal Air Force in 1918 before hostilities ended.
where in the post did op specify the us air force you moron. it's obvious he is talking about the birth of air warfare in general
>fly around
>observe enemy positions
>occasionally drop grenades on enemy fortifications
>shoot at other planes with everything from handguns to machineguns to literally whipping hammers and shit at eachother.
>have no clue what you're doing 90% of the time
Was pretty rad.
Fricked around and found out what works in their time.
>ctrl+f balloon busting
>0 hits
We really have become a tourist board
>Going after a balloon
Good luck, have fun dying to ground fire or going down without a parachute while the guy in the balloon laughs at you and worst case jumps out with a parachute
Recon and artillery spotting, a task so important it became necessary to develop planes capable of stopping enemy recon flights, which in turn meant these new fighter/chaser/hunter type planes logically ended up having to contest the air space with each other before being able to take on their original task, and so you had the first real air war.
As a neat side note the first "true" fighter planes, the Morane-Saulnier N and Fokker E.III, were monoplanes much like what became the standard aircraft design later on, but were at the time quickly outclassed by biplane designs which dominated for the rest of the war.
A lot of of people seem to have forget that there was bombers and zeppelins too.
What was really amazing was the speed of inovation. One side shows up with a superior aircraft that dominates the sky. The other side learn from it, inspect wreckages, draw a new aircraft in a few weeks, flies a prototype, and in 3 months the new airplane is on the battlefield wiping the ass of the previous wonderwaffe.
Every inovative aircraft enjoyed a 3 months domination before becoming trash.
Picrel Spad XIII, the best WW1 fighter.
>Picrel Spad XIII, the best WW1 fighter.
>aside from the Camel
Fixed that for you.
The camel wasn't that great and that's speaking as a bong. It was the first british plane that matched what the Germans had, that's all.
More enemy aircraft shot down than any other fighter during the war.
That’s just factually no true. The Sopwith Pup and Triplane were very competitive designs in 1916.
Those goofy looking Airco designs weren’t bad for 1915 standards either.
It really is wild. Just a few years before, planes were just being able to prove they could go a few thousand feet up or do loops (sometimes without structural failure.) It took less than two decades to go from the Wright Flyer to purpose-built fighters capable of many maneuvers.
40 years between the first Wright brothers powered flight and the me262...
And another twenty or so years gets you to this.
and then, five years later...
basically all test pilots (at least british ones) from the 1950-70s started flying various shitty interwar era biplanes.
>Eric Brown first flew in a 2 seat Bucker Jungmann trainer with Ernst Udet. The last aircraft he flew as part of his extremely prolific flying career was the F4K Phantom.
>Roland Beaumont (who test flew the Lightning, TSR-2 and Tornado) first flew in a Avro Tutor biplane.
>Peter Twiss the first man to reach over 1000 mph in level flight spent the early war flying the Swordfish (he was one of the stunt pilots flying Swordfish in Sink the Bismarck later).
>Rolly Falk the eccentric Vickers/Avro test pilot of the Vulcan who always flew in a 3 piece suit started his career flying around journalists in 2 seat biplanes during the Italo-Ethiopian War
Was innovation slower in WW2? Given the absolute stalemate on the Western front and the secure industrial bases of the countries fighting on that front, it seems like it lead to constant attempts at trying to gain the upperhand via new or improved tech, the same kind of stalemate didn't really exist in the second world war.
Yes, innovation slowed in that it went past a three month cycle, but when a jump did happen, they were fundamental and huge. Geared, Injected, turbo supercharged Opposed (GITSO) high performance engines, constant speed props, high G frames, the Germans busting out with fricking jets.. Yeah, each breakthrough took a bit longer, but were huge jumps.
>Was innovation slower in WW2
Look at what armies and airforces fielded in 1939 and 1945 and try thinking that one again
>Was innovation slower in WW2? Given the absolute stalemate on the Western front and the secure industrial bases of the countries fighting on that front, it seems like it lead to constant attempts at trying to gain the upperhand via new or improved tech, the same kind of stalemate didn't really exist in the second world war.
2nd world war was sufficiently different in terms of technology base that a direct comparison is pointless.
However, it is important to understand that WW1 wasn't terribly innovative for aircraft. Aircraft top speed increased by 100 km/h in the four years before WW1 and by 100 km/h in the four years after WW1, but only by 60 km/h in the four years of the war.
The first four-engined aircraft flew before the war. Interruptor gear was patented before the war.
By all metrics, the speed of aircraft development slowed down during the war.
However, aircraft production increased massively. From at most a few hundred to several ten thousand per year. The immense number of trained pilots and production capacities would then create the interwar aircraft industry.
Technologically, WW1 did basically slow down aircraft development.
But it turned a hobby into a major industry.
They had a huge role in spotting and correcting artillery fire. By far the most casualties of the war were caused by artillery on both sides; aircraft corrected that fire. That means you've got to try and stop the other side's aircraft doing their job so you need aircraft that can stop them. You also need recon aircraft to confirm what you arty'd was destroyed, which lead to photo reconnaissance. Bombing was kind of a sideline.
Act like rock stars until their plane lit on fire and they had to jump out without a parachute.
Is it theoretically possible to build a biplane that can reach and survive supersonic speed? It doesn't have to be exclusively prop driven, it could be rocket assisted.
I know it would be pointless I'm just wondering from an engineering standpoint.
WWI era canvas and wire strut biplane? Probably not.
Purpose built jet that happened to have two sets of wings? Sure.
Wiggen is kind of a biplane if you squit your eyes. The huge canards that are higher than the main delta and are overlapping slightly.
Please read a fricking WWI history book, anon. Christ.
artillery spotting, reconnaissance and shooting down other planes mostly
>Early war
Recon: initially literally just eyesight, later on with photographs, generally handheld cameras or mounted ones. Mainly goal was usually spotting for artillery, or counter-artillery. Sometimes trying to monitor trench networks prior to an assault or to detect troop movements.
Protecting Balloons: balloons were a huge part of artillery spotting, and were generally far more valuable than aircraft till late war. Downing such a manned balloon was as valuable as shooting an enemy plane down, or more so.
Combat: homies just brought a handgun up with them, and shot out from their pilot's seat, or threw grenades/bombs. Sometimes with a marksman in the rear seat (usually with a longrifle or lmg)
>Late war
Combat: wing-mounted bombs, fixed machineguns. Dogfighting actually became possible.
Innovators innovate.
fun fact, planes were first used in a war by Italy during the Italo-Turkish war in 1911
Numero uno.
What do you like about it?
How does it not blow its own propeller off?
There's actually a mechanical system that makes the guns unable to fire when they would hit the propeller.
That mechanism - various kinds across the Entente and the German side - was the single biggest innovation in air combat in the first world war.
Fokker interruptor
It timed the shots to the position of the prop allowing you to shoot through.
>Fokker interruptor
Is that how you say wienerblocker in German?
Named after Anthony Fokker who designed some of the best planes of WWI
Really Anon
Bader was fricking nuts. Lost both legs in a crash and then learned to fly with prosthetics.
To be born in the very end of the 19th century, you would see so much in a lifetime...
The engine crankshafts were stationary, propellers attached to the engine blocks.. So the whole fricking engine was spinning. This is why you see men running with the plane during take off until there was enough weathervane effect on the tail so that the plane wouldn't spin out of control on the ground from gyroscopic force. No real throttle either, just on and off. Hence the sound of these old planes when approaching to land.. That's the pilot hitting the magneto switch on and off to pulse power instead of the engine running full tilt as in take off. You can also do some aerobatics in these aircraft that aren't practical in modern ones due to this massive gyroscopic force of the engine. Castor oil laxative fumes, no parachute because frickheads in command viewed them as bad for morale, fire a common horrific death, sometimes with nobody shooting at you. The concept of a heavier than air aircraft was still new so everything was a stumbling to ecstasy thing. The first dogfights started when someone decided not to be friendly anymore and shot at an enemy plane with a pistol.. Before that they were all just observation flights to spot and report movements.. But it evolved quickly.
i fricking love ww1 planes bros
So does Peter Jackson.
He has about 70 real and replicas and you can play lazerquest with some of them.
Recon, Balloon Busting, and Balloon Protection. WW1 is also when they first started experimenting with dropping bombs.
Observation Balloons need more love. They were like mile tall observation towers. Just put a man in one with some binocs and a telegraph line and you'd have accurate intel on everything for a hundred miles.
>Start sending aircraft over the lines to find targets for your artillery
>Notice your enemy is doing the same thing
>Pilots on both sides start bringing personal weapons on their flights to shoot at the other sides spotters, thus inventing the fighter aircraft.
>Start bringing bricks to drop from altitude onto enemy trenches, realise that's not working and call in some favours with your cousin in logistics to get hold of boxes of grenades to drop on enemy trenches, thus inventing the bomber.
>Eventually your commanders realise that mounting proper machine guns onto the aircraft will make them more effective fighters than having the pilot hanging out of the wienerpit trying to stage an aerial drive by with a revolver.
>Also that you can fit bigger bombs onto the wings/underside to do more damage to the trenches than hand grenades.
>Through all of this your aircrew are living in an occupied French Chateau, drinking some of the finest wine known to man, eating like kings, going to sleep in comfortable beds with silk sheets, and with a different - beautiful - nurse/local next to him each night.
>As long as you're not running a literal criminal gang out of the base or brawling in the mess nobody really gives much of a shit about discipline (compared to the other services at least)
>Every man wearing an individually tailored, incredibly stylish, uniform - and a world tier moustache.
It's about as close as humanity has ever come to maximum military kino. We will never see its like again.
In WWI fighter pilots routinely:
- landed behind enemy lines since you could still land in any more or less even field.
- picked up pows behind enemy lines
- escaped base to party with hookers in Paris then get back in time for morning patrol
- challenged enemy pilots to one on one duels
- dropped flowers for fallen enemies on airfields
no radios or radar - once you took of you were pretty much independent
no regulations - paint your plane any way you want, only accept pilots that play in instrument that your squadron jazz band is lacking, fly with your danish dog in an already cramped wienerpit, fly under bridges and the Champs Elysee... It was all possible then,...
God I miss Biggles
Strategically bomb motherfrickers.