Aviation at War

Aviation at War

Since the dawn of time man has been fascinated by the heavens, always striving to get closer to and learn about them. But it was never apparent until the early twentieth century that most of the worlds wars would soon by fought in the sky. From the wholesome beginnings of flight to the aircraft carriers used against Japanese forces during the second World War, airplanes served an invaluable purpose, arguably winning an otherwise impossible wars against heavily industrialized countries. The bombings in Germany were quite possibly the only way of breaking down the industry infrastructure that kept the German economy thriving during war years. This paper intends to prove that without airplanes the two Great Wars may have turned out drastically different than what is now written in history.

On December 17, 1903 the Wright Brothers flew the first successfully controlled flight for any substantial amount of time. They were finally able to control all aspects of the maneuvers by an airplane: pitch, roll, and yaw. Soon the Wright brothers had secured a patent for their flier and began pursuing the U.S. Military for a government contract. The Army Signal Corps realized the advantage to be gained in aerial superiority and established an aeronautical division on Aug 1, 1907. The offer on the table to the Wright brothers was $25,000 for a design of a two passenger flier capable of a 125 mile flight at forty miles per hour, Wright’s received an official government contract on February 10, 1908. After months of development time, tweaking the plane to carry more weight, fly further, and faster Orville took a Lieutenant as a passenger for a one hour and twelve minute flight. The Corps and the two Wright brothers were ecstatic because the new flyer had finally met endurance requirements, flying from Fort Myer, around a balloon at shutter hill near Alexandria and back. The Wright Flyer was finally certified by the Army Signal corps, this made it the first airplane purchased by a nation for military purpose.

Now that the certified flyer was now the official airplane of a nation, national security forces needed to be trained to operate the new equipment. The Wright brother’s began instructing two of the Army Signal Corps. Though both pilots didn’t require much training to be qualified to control the first military plane, they were the only two. One was promptly assigned to other duties after training, and the other partially trained Foulois, was the only official pilot. Foulois along with his heavily damaged plane, mostly from training, and then a few mechanics constituted the Army’s entire air arm. After a failed attempt at the first air force the Wright’s pursued a more commercial career and released the Wright B Flyer.

The Wright B Flyer was a much more stable airplane and was vastly easier to control. Soon the Army again wanted to take a chance with the more advanced model, and many pilots began to be trained again under the observation of the Wright’s. However, soon competition for the air began and the Wright’s gained an opponent for the Army’s contract, Glenn H Curtiss. After increasing deaths due to Wright Flyer’s the government also began buying Curtiss planes. The Curtiss planes or the Wright planes were used to train a pilot but not both. Most of the pilots found things to like in each plane, but one feature gave the Curtiss an edge over the originally contracted Wright’s. The Wright planes had a very counterintuitive throttle system that required you to push a pedal in order to decrease acceleration. The JNS-1 Curtiss plane had developed a throttle system which allowed you to increase the throttle by pushing on a pedal. Also, it seemed that either the pilots were more comfortable flying the Curtiss planes or they were more stable, but there seemed to be fewer accidents related to them. After receiving thirty nine planes of the Wright models A through F Lieutenant Dargue flew No. 39 a Wright F plane only seven times before advising that the Army drop it from its inventory. This ended a nearly ten year business relationship between the Wright’s and the Army, though personal friendships remained, however, it did not end the pursuit for an airborne military unit and development would not stop. Soon the plane was an infamous figure soaring through the skies of the first Great War.

On the eve of the Great War no one predicted that planes would have anywhere near the impact they did, most national forces entered the war with at most 300 air units. However, noticing the need for aerial superiority most countries quickly increased their production of airplanes. The Germans had a considerable advantage during the beginning of the war because of the aeronautical designer Anthony Fokker otherwise known as the Flying Dutchman. Fokker’s D7 was considered to be the best fighter plane of the first world war, outrunning and outmaneuvering