Viewpoint: How WW1 changed aviation forever.......

[LongTermGuy]

"When the world went to war in 1914 the Wright Brothers had only made the world's first powered flight little over a decade before.."

....But the remarkable advances made in aviation during World War One are still at the core of air power today, says Dr Peter Gray..."
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**How the hell did Germans get ahold of Airplane tech from the Wright Brothers??..Was looking for an answer and ran into this interesting read with pic`s...
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"To say the first aeroplanes used in WW1 were extremely basic is something of an understatement.

Cockpits were open and instruments were rudimentary. There were no navigational aids and pilots had to rely on whatever maps could be found.

A school atlas or a roadmap if necessary.


Getting lost was commonplace and landing in a field to ask directions was not unusual, as was flying alongside railway lines hoping to read station names on the platforms.

But throughout the war there was a spiral of technological developments, as first one side and then the other gained the ascendancy."
O

n all sire was never a shortage of volunteers eager to learn to fl
des thM..

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29612707

[Gunny]

"When the world went to war in 1914 the Wright Brothers had only made the world's first powered flight little over a decade before.."

....But the remarkable advances made in aviation during World War One are still at the core of air power today, says Dr Peter Gray..."
__

**How the hell did Germans get ahold of Airplane tech from the Wright Brothers??..Was looking for an answer and ran into this interesting read with pic`s...
__


"To say the first aeroplanes used in WW1 were extremely basic is something of an understatement.

Cockpits were open and instruments were rudimentary. There were no navigational aids and pilots had to rely on whatever maps could be found.

A school atlas or a roadmap if necessary.


Getting lost was commonplace and landing in a field to ask directions was not unusual, as was flying alongside railway lines hoping to read station names on the platforms.

But throughout the war there was a spiral of technological developments, as first one side and then the other gained the ascendancy."
O

n all sire was never a shortage of volunteers eager to learn to fl
des thM..

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29612707

At the beginning of the War, the French and German monoplanes were used as scouts/recon. The pilots would just wave to each other if they encountered one another. Then one had to bring along a handgun ... The French plane was Morane-Saulnier (sp) monoplane. The German plane was ... (Jeopardy theme) ... the same plane built by the Germans. The Brits flew them as well.

The Germans later built and used the Fokker eindecker. It was the first fighter airplane fitted with a machine gun synchronized with the propeller to fire between the blades and built for the specific purpose of being a fighter plane. The Morane-Saulnier had deflectors on the propeller blades.

My grandfather said the planes were as basic as driving a car with the exception of going up and down. The Wright Brothers actual occupation was a bicycle shop and their undercarriage was bicycle parts.
I grew up eating up every word of this stuff Air Force brat

[LongTermGuy]

At the beginning of the War, the French and German monoplanes were used as scouts/recon. The pilots would just wave to each other if they encountered one another. Then one had to bring along a handgun ... The French plane was Morane-Saulnier (sp) monoplane. The German plane was ... (Jeopardy theme) ... the same plane built by the Germans. The Brits flew them as well.

The Germans later built and used the Fokker eindecker. It was the first fighter airplane fitted with a machine gun synchronized with the propeller to fire between the blades and built for the specific purpose of being a fighter plane. The Morane-Saulnier had deflectors on the propeller blades.

My grandfather said the planes were as basic as driving a car with the exception of going up and down. The Wright Brothers actual occupation was a bicycle shop and their undercarriage was bicycle parts.
I grew up eating up every word of this stuff Air Force brat

Excellent!..Thanks Gunny...

[Russ]

The Morane-Saulnier had deflectors on the propeller blades.

I remember reading about this years ago. Some of the earliest propeller fighter planes didn't bother synchronizing the guns to shoot between the propellers - they just built the propellers to withstand bullets hitting them a lot the time, and ricocheting off.

I think I remember reading also that some early planes mounted the guns on top of the wings so they could shoot over the propellers. Fascinating stuff.

[Gunny]

I remember reading about this years ago. Some of the earliest propeller fighter planes didn't bother synchronizing the guns to shoot between the propellers - they just built the propellers to withstand bullets hitting them a lot the time, and ricocheting off.

I think I remember reading also that some early planes mounted the guns on top of the wings so they could shoot over the propellers. Fascinating stuff.

Been trying to get back to this all day

The British SE5 had a machine gun mounted on the center of the top wing (biplane), the pilot had to stand up to shoot. There were others I don't recall. The Germans always used the synchronized MG/propeller, after they dumped their French planes.

Now we'll test my memory, and I don't cheat. Can't stand cheaters.

Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron, achieved most of his success in an Albatross DIII? (not sure on the roman numeral) rather than a bright red Fokker Dr1 triplane. His squadron was called "the Flying Circus" of which Herman Goering was a pilot. The Fokker triplane was not very popular. It was slow. The 3 wings gave it awesome maneuverability. The Fokker DBVII was the best fighter Germany had, and the coolest looking of all the fighters.

Sgt Roy Brown is credited with shooting down von Richtofen in a Sopwith Camel -- the best British fighter plane of the war.

After the Morane Saulnier, the French flew a single seat biplane called the Neuport which had numbers behind the name for each version.

American Eddie Rickenbacher (sp) flew a French SPAD.VIII I believe when he flew for Lafayette Escadrille, a group of US pilots who flew for France prior to US entry into the war.

The planes were wooden frames covered in canvas with a motor in front. No armor. The pilot was just up there. Got to have ice in your veins to go into combat like that.

American planes sucked. Pretty much they sucked until midway through WWII. US troops generally got castoff French and British equipment. The French had a machine gun that was particularly shitty so they gave them all to the US.

Most planes flew around 120-140 mph max.

The first airships in WWI were dirigibles. Germany used them as bombers in the beginning of the war until the Allies got some armed fighters going. They were also used to get up in the sky and report enemy movements on the line that could not be seen from the ground. The first one I have seen a picture of was at US Grant's headquarters at Petersburg, VA in 1865. It looked like the Wizard of Oz's balloon