Air Power II

Air Power II

The Men, Machines, and Ideas Which Revolutionized War from Kitty hawk to Iraq.

Air Power

By Stephen Budiansky

In 1909, same year the Wrights offered to sell their flier for 100,000, Louis Bleriot, a French aviator, inventor, engineer and entrepreneur flew his Monoplane across the English Channel.  His plane boasted a 25 HP radial engine.  From that event, the British began thinking about how to protect themselves from attack coming from the continent.

Bleriot Monoplane

The Great War was but a few years in the future, July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918.  It was fought in the air by mainly biplanes not monoplanes like Bleriot’s.  The monoplane became prominent in the Second World War as it started.  This Part of the book is about the transition the Great War wrought on the uses and design of aircraft and vise versa.

The three roles of flying in those days were spotter, fighter, and bomber.  The first of which, spotter or reconnaissance, caught on immediately.  The war planners, who directed the ground war, needed the information the reconnaissance planes returned to visualize the activity of the enemy.  The reconnaissance role was essential.  It was the roll solidifying the use of heavier than air craft in war.  Soon the spotter aircraft were used for aerial photography.

Speaking of Heavier-than- air, reminds me to tell you that lighter-than-air craft, zeppelins, were also in operation before and at the beginning of the Great War.  They were flown and built by the Germans.  The Germans used them to drop bombs.  They could carry a heavy load for the time.  They continued to be a part of the battle until near the end of the GW.

Back to heavier than air.  The second role, fighter, was used to destroy the reconnaissance craft before they could return their information to the generals planning the ground war.  The fighter usage evolved beginning with revolvers, rifles, shot guns and machine guns.  Earlier, the fighter planes had two seats in line.  The rearmost seat was occupied by the photographer capturing images, or a gunner using a weapon, later a machine gun.

The third role started with passengers throwing incendiaries, grenades, and bombs over the side.  Soon, the problem became how to hit anything while doing this. This issue was addressed throughout the Great War.  People decided that a bomb site was needed to enhance the chances the bomb would hit the target.  This problem was also there for the zeppelins whose bombing was not considered a great danger of hitting the target by the British who received many bomb attacks from them.  Eventually the main British fear came from the populace.  It became known as morale bombing, because the bombers, Zeppelin or heavier than air craft, could not hit the target but it frightened the civilian population.

The problem, to bomb the target, was addressed throughout the Great War.  The culmination of the different bomb sites built and used during that period was the CSBS, Course Setting Bomb Sight, introduced by Wimperis from England.  This bomb site was used during the last two years of the Great War and into the 1920’s.  It was an improvement but not the solution. 

The author follows the development of bombing accuracy throughout the book.  He mentions many instances where science was applied after the fact to determine the accuracy of the bombing.  He cites science stating how many thousand bombs would need to be dropped to hit a target.  I, personally, have come to the opinion that “Daylight-precision-bombing” was a sham.  I think they sent many planes and men on the errand of bombing who were sacrificed to the cause.  The problem was not solved until much later.  Much later!

Another development happening during this period was expediting the use of the aircraft, fighter in this case, being used as an all in one weapon.  The pilot could fly his aircraft directly at a target and eliminate it if he had a gun aimed directly in the direction the plane was flying.  This would not work if the gun was too low because it would cut off the propeller.  Initially, they solved this problem my mounting the gun on top of the highest wing.  The pilot would then have to stand to clear jams in the bullet feeds, not an easy thing to do while being shot at in a dog fight.  Some pilots had their propellers covered with metal so they could not be cut off.  That development came from the French.  It was effective until the Germans shot a French plane down and discovered the modification.  The Germans than built their own plane with an interrupter which caused the gun to cease firing when the propeller was in front of the gun.  The name of the German plane with the interrupter was the Eindecker III aka E.III and it was built by Anthony Fokker.  It created a sensation in battle because the pilot could aim his plane at the target and shoot.  He could hit them more often.  The Eindecker was a monoplane.  And other than the interrupter, it was a difficult plane to fly in combat.

During the Great War the men found it difficult to agree on the use of air craft in war.  In many countries both the Navy and the Army had aircraft.  The Army wanted ground support on call for the troops as the action progressed.  The Navy had a more progressive viewpoint.  They wanted enemy ships sunk by heavy bombers.

The builders of the aircraft sent representatives to the front lines to ask the pilots what they needed in a plane.  The pilots who had the most clout were those who shot down five or more enemy planes and were aces.  One of them could walk into a factory and request certain modifications and additions for their particular plane and they got it even if it they wanted their favorite gun accommodated in the plane.  The Army and Navy were constantly squabbling about funding.

Near the end of the Great War, the RAF gained independence from the Army and Navy.  The independence was financial as well as administrative.  That was a big change to occur during a world war!

The problem of bombs hitting the target was an ongoing problem throughout the war as I mentioned before.  The USA came into the war in 1917.  The main basis for bombing was the daylight precision bombing which was in direct opposition to the British carpet bombing.  As bomb delivery developed during the war the Germans fielded a two engine Gotha bomber.  It could carry a lot of weight and traveled speedily alongside Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, a four engine bomber.  The British populace having been morale bombed demanded that the government retaliate with a large fast bomber.  It was in the works when the war ended in Nov. 1918 but was never deployed.

As a sort of summary of this section, Budiansky says, “It has often been said that the effect of the First World War on aviation was greater than the effect of military aviation on the war.  Aviation played a vital but never decisive role, though it came closest in the last great battles, when the Allies gained overwhelming air superiority through concentration and force of sheer numbers.

Next time we’ll talk about the inter war years and their developments.