Chapter 4 Early Flight ( 1914-1919)

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Chapter 4Early Flight ( 1914-1919)

• A Airships, Dirigibles, and Balloons
• B Military Airplanes
• C Aircraft Production
• D Armistice and Peace

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Section AAirships, Dirigibles, and Balloons

• World War I opened in 1914 when German troops
  stormed through Belgium and into France. Troops
  were moved by train, truck, car, horse, and on
  foot. Airplanes, balloons, dirigibles, and
  airships were used for observation and recon.

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German Airships

• At start of WWI, German Army had 6 operating
  airships, and the German Navy had 2.
• German had little strategy for the use of rigid
  airships, but the public, who were very
  aviation-minded, demanded that Zeppelins be used.
• The German Army was their airships for recon
  mainly, and occasionally drop a bomb or two.

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German Airships

• On 6 August 1914, the German airship Z6 bombed
  Liege, Belgium. Fire was returned, damaging the
  Z6, but it returned to base.
• Earliest documented use of an airship as a
  bomber.
• German Navy took lead when it can to buying,
  flying and using airships over the German Navy.
  The Army dismantled its airship program in 1916.
  Competitiveness between Armies and Navies
  occurred in many countries.
• German Airship designations
• Z Zeppelin made before the war
• LZ Wartime army Zeppelins
• L Wartime navy Zeppelins

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German Airships

• The German Army learned in the opening months of
  the war that airship were very vulnerable.
• They were large, highly visible, low-flying, and
  slow-moving targets.
• The Army reduced its use of airships over land
  and during the day over the Western Front.

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German Airships

• As the Army was curtailing the use of airships,
  the Navy increased the used of them.
• Peter Strasser, head of naval airship division,
  argued for increased use of airships in raids
  over England.
• First German raid on England in January 1915.
• Germany targeted British morale and property,
  also known as terror bombing. They were trying
  to force England into separate peace.

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German Airships

• At first the Terror Raid shocked Britain, but
  only succeeded in rallying support in England war
  effort.
• The British developed their own home defense
  system.
• Established observation patrols
• Installed searchlights
• Erected wires to entangle airships
• Designed and produced more powerful fighter planes

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German Airships

• In addition to Englands new home defense system,
  German airships had other problems Cold
  temperatures.
• Ice build-up added weight, so fuel was limited
• Cold temps thickened oil and froze coolant.
• Weather and mechanical problems downed more
  German airships than British anti-aircraft fire,
  airplane, and bombs combined.

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German Airships

• In 1917, the Army replaced the airship with new
  airplane bombers as the Navy continued the
  airships for coastal patrol.

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German Technology

• The German airship makers improved both the
  process and product during the war and thereby
  increased not only the number, but also the size,
  power, and speed of airships. By the end the war
  demonstrated the failure of the airships as a
  land bomber and its effectiveness as a naval
  recon craft.

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German Technology

• 80 airships could be built for the cost of a
  single battleship, but were expensive to maintain
  and operate in terms of money and manpower, ei
  crews, hangers, maint., Etc.
• Navy lost 53 of it 73 airships Army lost 26 of
  52
• In the end, the war demonstrated the failure of
  the airships as a land bomber and its
  effectiveness as a naval recon craft.

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French Dirigibles and Airships

• They were as vulnerable during daylight and
  overland as German lighter-than-air craft.
• the French dirigibles and airships flew mostly at
  night and mostly over water where they protected
  ship convoys and the coast by scouting for enemy
  vessels and mines.

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British Dirigibles and Airships

• Great Britain started the war with 4
  lighter-than-air craft.
• The dirigible proved highly effective for recon
  and surveillance of sea coast.
• Since Britain is an island nation, the airship
  was a naval weapon.

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British Dirigibles and Airships

• British innovations
• Sea Scout blimp small dirigible used for
  patrolling coast and spotting floating mines,
  subs, and other enemy vessels.
• British used a downed German Zeppelin as a model
  for the design of several rigid airships, but
  didnt quite match the quality of the German-made
  Zeppelins
• At the end of war, Britain had the largest fleet
  of lighter-than-air craft 103 craft.

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Drachen and Free Balloons

• Both the Allies and the Central Powers used
  tethered and free balloons during the war.
• Drachen was a balloon tethered to the ground or
  to a naval vessel on the water.
• They had the advantage of being connected by
  telephone line with forces on the ground, radios
  came later.
• Used for observation, sector recon, artillery
  spotting, battery ranging, and verification of
  demolition.

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Drachen and Free Balloons

• Caquot Balloons that dangled light cables down
  in order to entangle enemy airplanes
• Developed by the British, adopted by Germany and
  other countries.
• Britain had one that stretched 50 miles long
• France was the first nation equip its military
  balloonist with parachutes.

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End of Section A
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Section BMilitary Airplanes

• Most air forces entered WWI with aircraft and
  crews suitable for only reconnaissance. The
  airplanes were mostly two-seat and relatively
  low-powered biplanes with limited maneuverability
  and limited load-carrying capacity. But the
  military utilization of aircraft expanded to
  other missions and development of aircraft for
  the new military applications transformed
  military aviation into a specialized and
  diversified field during the course of WWI.

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Combatant Air Forces

• All combatant nations entered the war with small
  air forces of a few hundred or less operational
  aircraft.
• Germany Began the war with the largest military
  air force, divided among a large Army air branch
  and a small Navy air section, and with military
  flying schools in operation and military aircraft
  production underway in a growing German industry.
• Austria-Hungary - Produced too few aircraft,
  though an adequate number of airplane engines, to
  meet its wartime needs, and relied upon its
  German ally to supply its military aircraft.
• France Had the largest Allied air force at the
  start of the war and a centralized mechanism to
  coordinate the production and acquisition of
  military aircraft during the war.

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Combatant Air Forces

• Great Britain The British Royal Flying Corps
  flew its general purpose aircraft to France to
  provide recon support for the Allied effort, and
  the Royal Naval Air Service brought landplanes,
  seaplanes, and lighter-than-air craft to the
  conflict.
• Russia The Russian Army and Navy began the war
  with aircraft of many different models, including
  the domestic Sikorsky aircraft as well as many
  foreign types, some built in Russia under
  license, but with a few combat-ready airplanes.
• Italy The Italian Aeronautical Corps entered
  the war with limited combat experience from the
  Italo-Turkish War, and both the Army and Navy
  expanded acquisition of military aircraft bewteen
  the start of the war in Europe in 1914 and
  Italys joining the conflict in 1915.

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Combatant Air Forces

• United States The U.S. entered the war two
  years after Italy, but was still unprepared
  interims of production and combat ready
  aircraft.
• Some Americans were already fighting in the war,
  assuming different names so not to lose their
  citizenship. Some served in the Canadian Royal
  Flying Corps, and in the British Royal Flying
  Corps.

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Combatant Air Forces

• Some others enlisted in the French Foreign
  Legion, which allowed them to retain their US
  citizenship. Troops did not have to swear
  allegiance to France and trained in French flight
  schools.
• LaFayette Escadrille (Squadrons) Squadron of
  men trained and serving as an American Unit with
  the French Foreign Legion.
• When the US entered the war in 1917, most in the
  LaFayette transferred to the US Army Air Service
  or the US Naval Air Service, but one pilot
  didnt.
• Eugene Bullard the first black American military
  aviator.

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Expansion

• Germanys army air force maintained the dominant
  aerial position 1915-1916
• Germanys aircraft industrys ability to replace
  and produce new aircraft
• Militarys ability to train pilots, observers,
  and ground crew.

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Aerial Combat

• Pilots started to carry pistols for defensive
  purposes
• Pilots would occasionally fire at each other
• First air-to-air combat
• But shot from too far to do any harm

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Bombing And Artillery

• Favorite targets for enemy bombers of every
  nation in 1915 were trains.
• Britain Flying Corps used airplanes for artillery
  spotting.
• Pilots would radio to observers to guide gunners
  to enemy targets

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Forward Firing

• March 1915, Roland Garros
• Added metal deflector plates to his propeller
  blades and mounted a machine gun on the fuselage
  in front of the cockpit.
• Pilots now became fighters
• Ace - pilot with 5 or more victories

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Forward Firing

• Anthony Fokker
• Developed and produced a machine gun that was
  synchronized with the propeller by an interrupter
  gear.

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Gentlemans Warfare

• Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelck
• Became famous by late 1915
• Recorded the first victories (Immelmann)
• Became the first aces.
• Manfred von Ricthofen
• A.K.A The Red Baron
• 80 victories, 54 of them burns

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Bombers

• Giovanni Caproni and Igor Sikorsky
• 1914, demonstrated multi-engine airplanes
  designed to carry and drop bombs
• Bombers up to now were airships and dirigibles
• Bombing dominated French aviation during the war

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End of Section B
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