Aviation in World War I

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Nieuport Fighter Aisne, France 1917

Aerial warfare was introduced alongside many other innovations in World War I. Previously wars had been fought on land and at sea, but the advent of aircraft technology allowed a third dimension: a war in the air.

Up to 1914: the early years of war

The dawn of air combat

Observation aircraft solved both difficulties - because of their small size and relative agility, they were more difficult to shoot at from the ground, unlike the Zeppelins. They were also greatly mobile, allowing a scan of large sections of the front below it, unlike observation balloons.

Both the Entente and Central powers initially used aircraft only for observation purposes. When rival observation planes crossed paths, the aviators at first exchanged smiles and waves. This soon progressed to throwing bricks, grenades, and other objects, even rope, which they hoped would tangle the enemy plane's propeller. Eventually pilots began firing handheld guns at enemy planes. Once the guns were mounted to the aircraft, the era of air combat began.

Technology improvements

Aircraft

With limited engine power, aircraft could only afford a certain amount of weight, and therefore were made of mostly canvas and wood. Still-rudimentary engineering, however, meant aircraft might suffer structural failure pulling out of dives, shedding wings or tails.

Problems mounting machine guns

Frenchman Roland Garros attempted to solve this problem by attaching metal deflectors to the blades of his propeller, which he hoped would guide bullets away. Garros managed to score several kills with his deflector modification, yet it was still an inadequate and dangerous solution.

One of the remedies at this time was to mount the gun to fire above the propeller. This required the gun to be mounted on the top wing of biplanes and to be propped up and secured by strings on monoplanes. Yet because the gun could not be reached, it could not be serviced during a gun jam, thus making it inoperable.

Another solution was the invention of the "pusher" plane, a design which was briefly popular during 1914 to 1915. The pusher design had a propeller positioned in the rear of the plane, behind pilot. This provided the opportunity to optimally mount the gun, which could now be reloaded and repaired in-flight. The drawback was that the plane was unstable and not very maneuverable.

Later, in 1915, Germany found a breakthrough solution to this problem in the interrupter gear which allowed the gun to fire through the arc of a spinning propeller without the bullets striking the blades. This led in part to their air dominance during this period, which was known as the Fokker Scourge by the allies because of devastating losses inflicted by Fokker aircraft.

1915: The Fokker Scourge

Max Immelmann of Feldflieger Abteilung 62 in the cockpit of his Fokker E.III.

In 1915, Anthony Fokker designed the interrupter gear, which turned the tides of war in Germany's favor. This ingenious device mechanically linked the gun to the propeller, allowing it to fire between blades. This was fitted to the monoplane Fokker E-III (1915-Germany), making it top-of-the-line in design, maneuverability, and most importantly, gun placement. The result was devastating for the Allied powers, and a solution was needed fast.

The Fokker E-III's foil came in the form of the Nieuport 11 (1915-France), a biplane with a tractor prop and, as needed, a cowl gun. The key event which allowed the Allies to reverse-engineer the German technology occurred when a German pilot became lost in heavy fog over France. The pilot and plane were captured when it landed, giving the Allies access to its technology.

April 1917: Bloody April

During the First World War, the month of April 1917 was known as Bloody April by the Allied air forces. The Royal Flying Corps suffered losses so severe it came close to being annihilated. In April the Allies launched a joint offensive with the British attacking near Arras in Artois, northern France, while the French Nivelle Offensive was launched on the Aisne and the air forces were called on to provide support, predominantly in reconnaissance and artillery spotting.

Up to 1918: the final years of war

Anti-aircraft weaponry

A German observation balloon being bombed by an allied aircraft.

Though aircraft still functioned as vehicles of observation, increasingly it was used as a weapon in itself. Dog fights erupted in the skies over the front lines - planes went down in flames and heroes were born. From this air-to-air combat, the need grew for better planes and gun armament.

This need for improvement was not limited to air-to-air combat. On the ground, methods developed before the war were being used to deter enemy planes from observation and bombing. Anti-aircraft artillery rounds were fired into the air and exploded into clouds of smoke and fragmentation, called flak, providing enemy aircraft with an obstacle course to fly around.

Anti-aircraft artillery defenses were increasingly used around observation balloons, which became frequent targets of enemy fighters equipped with special incendiary bullets. Attacks on balloons were so frequent that observers were given parachutes, enabling them to jump to safety. Ironically, only a few aircrew had the luxury of parachutes, due in part to a mistaken belief they inhibited aggressiveness (and in part to early aircraft being unable to lift their significant weight).

Bombers

There were a further nineteen raids in 1915, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. Raids continued in 1916. London was accidentally bombed in May, and, in July, the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defences improved. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918, which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. The Zeppelin raids were complemented by the Gothaer bomber, which was the first heavier than air bomber to be used for strategic bombing. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defences. The calculations which were performed on the number of dead to the weight of bombs dropped would have a profound effect on the attitudes of the British authorities and population in the interwar years.

Notable aces

Notable Aircraft

• Aircraft of the Entente Powers
• Aircraft of the Central Powers

Notes