WWI Aircraft Development June 1914 – November 1918

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WWI Aircraft DevelopmentJune 1914 November 1918
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• When war broke out in Europe in August of 1914
  (only 10 years after the first flight by the
  Wright Brothers), aircraft designed to fight one
  another did not exist
• The Generals and Admirals were almost unanimous
  in thinking that aero planes had little if any
  practical application for war purposes
• It was grudgingly conceded that aero planes might
  be of some use as an adjunct to the existing
  military and naval forces, to observe the
  progress of the war.
• The possibility of aero planes making any
  positive contribution to the progress of the war
  received scant support.
• The official French position was that the aero
  plane was no more than a substitute for a
  captive balloon

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In the years before the war..

• In 1911, Major Brooke-Popham of the Air
  Battalion, Royal Engineers had successfully
  fitted a gun to his Bleriot monoplane His
  superiors ordered it removed
• In 1913, Major Issac Newton Lewis demonstrated
  firing of one of his Lewis machine guns from a
  Wright bi-plane. The U.S. Army Signal Corp
  rejected the idea.

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June 1914
Arch Duke Ferdinand killed, and WW1 Begins
A Russian staff pilot attempted towing a
grappling hook on a steel cable attached to his
Moraine in an attempt to hook it into an opponent
aircraft and tear the him apart
NO GUNS
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Aug 1914
Germans invade Belgium and France Upon being
ordered across the English Channel to France,
crews of these unarmed aircraft were instructed
to use their planes to ram any Zeppelins they may
encounter on the way
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Jan 1915
Machine guns make it into the air Roland Garros
first used deflector plates with this aircraft in
March of 1915 In April of 1915 Garros crashed and
the secret to his success was out
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Feb 1915
No guns
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March 1915
-appx. 1900 built, some equipped with a 37mm
cannon for strafing
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May 1915
Another solution to aerial combat was mounting a
gun so it fired upward at a 45 degree angle, so
that bullets passed the area swept by the
propeller blades
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June 1915

• First interrupter gear installed on a Fokker M.5K
  (became Fokker E series with appx. 266 Es
  built)
• It took the German Air Service about 6 months to
  figure out the value of this weapons system and
  begin to exploit it

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June 1915

• Raymond Saulnier had developed a type of
  interrupter gear for French aircraft. The French
  authorities were unwilling to back continued
  research.
• French aircraft had to make do with a machine gun
  mounted above the top wing.

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July 1915
-Appx. 400 built -A reasonable match (one on one)
with the Fokker E type.
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Oct 1915

• Manfried von Richthofen s first solo flight,
  ended in a crash
• The Red Barrons first kill in April of 1916
• The Red Barron received the Blue Max in Jan of
  1917
• The Red Barron Killed in April of 1918 at age 25
  (80 victories)

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November 1915

• The beginning of the Fokker Scourge
• A mediocre underpowered airplane (Fokker E)
  dominated the skies because
• 1. synchronized machine gun firing through
  propeller allowed pilot to aim
  airplane rather than the gun
• 2. Pilot officers, Max Immelman and Oswald
  Boelcke developed maneuvers to take advantage of
  their Fokker Es weapon
• 3. Immelman and Boelcke developed tactics,
  and organized German aircraft and pilots into
  hunting groups, rather than a number pilots
  acting as individual hunters (get the high
  position and attack out of the sun)

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Feb 1916
-better performer than the Fokker E types, and
the Fokker D types to be introduced in June of
1916 -not well respected by German pilots as it
appeared slender and frail
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May 1916
-larger stronger wing than the Nieuport 11 -most
popular aircraft fighting aircraft of entire war
because of its flying qualities and fighting
ability
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June 1916
-Appx. 291 DII IIIs built -meant to replace
E models was only marginally better
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July 1916
-Fast climbing , tight turning aircraft but the
drag of the three wing layout made it slow. -RFC
were not impressed and built only a few, quickly
shifting to other models -Germans were impressed
with its turning ability and ordered Anthony
Fokker to build a copy.
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Aug 1916
-Appx. 2000 DI thru DIIIs built -First German
fighter to carry a 2 gun armament without
suffering loss of performance -Red Barron scored
majority of his victories in this aircraft
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Sept 1916
-Appx. 6000 built -French built, designed around
newly developed water cooled Hispano-Suiza 150hp
V8 engine -some equipped with an over wing gun in
addition to the single fuselage mounted gun
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March 1917
-Appx. 2700 built -British built, designed around
newly developed water cooled Hispano-Suiza 150hp
V8 engine -standard armament was 1 fuselage
mounted and 1 wing mounted machine gun -S.E.5-a
model had 200 hp
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May 1917
-Appx 8500 built -2 machine guns and a 220 HP
Hispano-Suiza motor, with 138mph speed -tricky to
handle at low speeds but strong and an excellent
gun platform
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Aug 1917

• Appx 1000 built
• -semi-monocoque plywood fuselage gave great
  strength
• -stable gun platform, but not as fast as French
  and British contemporaries
• -could dive at higher speeds without shedding its
  wings

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Nov 1917
-Development of the Nieuport 17, but with only 10
more HP, increased weight, and less endurance,
they were not popular -appx. 381 built
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Jan 1918
Developed to replace the Nieuport 17s, and
24 -appx. 297 built -Had 60 more HP, and 10
faster, but was not a particularly good fighter
-Would have faded into obscurity except that it
was the only fighter available when the A.E.F.
entered the war in early 1918
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April 1918
-Thought to be the best German fighter of WW1 as
it was capable of maintaining performance at high
altitude -appx. 1000 built -so feared by allies
that is was singled out for specific treatment
(handed over to allies) in the armistice
agreement -some smuggled to Holland by Fokker to
continue his aviation business
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May 1918
-Basically a Fokker triplane minus one wing -
Faster than the D7 but disliked by pilots only 59
built
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July 1918
-Appx. 400 built -Fast and maneuverable, and a
better overall fighter than many allied aircraft,
but too late to do any good
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11am-11-11-18 it ended
To be continued 01-09-39