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An effective response and a worthy adversary to the Fokker Eindekkers, the F.E.2b appeared in September, 1915. It was a two-seater, pusher biplane, that was quite speedy and allowed for two machine guns, one firing forward, and one (albeit awkwardly) firing rearward over the upper wing. The ‘pusher’ concept would soon be out-moded, but in late 1915 and early 1916, the F.E.s served the R.F.C. well. Continue reading
This is the airplane that ushered in fighter combat. Before Tony Fokker fashioned his famous synchronizing gear to a machine gun so that it could fire through the prop, aerial combat was a hit-or-miss proposition. After his E.III swept the skies in 1915, air fighting developed into a deadly serious skill. Continue reading
THE 1912 B. E. (BRITISH EXPERIMENTAL)
In 1912 the British Government, realizing the importance of the airplane as a war-machine for scouting purposes, established the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farmborough, with Geoffrey de Havilland, one of the early British experimenters, as designer. Machines of his invention have been called D. H.’s. His 1912 airplane, the B.E.2, contained some of the ideas embodied in the Avro, Breguet, and the Nieuport. The machine had the lightness of a Nieuport, the streamline of a Breguet, and the stability of an Avro. It was very light for its size and capacity, and with a 70 horse-power Renault engine it attained a speed of about 70 miles an hour, and responded in the air and on the ground in a manner never before attained. It was the prototype of a long line of Royal Aircraft Factory (R.A.F.) designs, through all the range of B. E.’s on to the R. E. series and the S. E. series. Continue reading
In 1915, when the British Empire forces (mostly Indians and Australians) attacked the Turks in Mesopotamia, they needed aircraft. Or wanted them; perhaps it was a matter of national pride, that every modern army ought to have air support. At any rate, the Rajah of Gwalior underwrote the expense of the air contingent – a handful of outdated bombers, among them 2 Maurice Farman M.F. 7s. The desert heat and sand were tough on the Renault engines, and the “Longhorns” spent a lot of time in the shop. Continue reading
On the morning of October, 5, 1914, French Sergeant pilot Joseph Frantz and mechanic Corporal Quenault in their Voisin biplane spotted a German Aviatik flying at about 3500 ft. He closed on until Quenault found the range and opened fire with a light machine gun. The Aviatik dove away, but Frantz followed, Quenault firing intermittently. The Voisin overshot the quarry; the Aviatik pilot banked and tried to run; Franz reversed and got behind him.
The Deperdussin, along with the Bleriot and Morane-Saulnier, was another speedy French monoplane that dominated the air races in the years leading up to World War One.
A very small monoplane, designed by MM. Bechereau and Koolhoven for the Deperdussin firm to compete in the James Gordon Bennett race, proved to be the fastest machine built to the close of 1912. Continue reading
A stream of gasoline burst forth as Gustav Hamel flew over the Thames River on September 20, 1913. The last thing any aviator needed in a wood and cloth monoplane with a barely-covered, hot, sparking, rotary engine a few feet away was gasoline in the cockpit. It was a mortal danger for any pilot, and surely the end of the race for Gustav Hamel, competing in the Daily Mail’s Aerial Derby around London. Continue reading
Some of the largest machines thus far built are of the Caproni Ca.4 type, fitted with three powerful motors, two of which drive tractor propellers while the third is a pusher and is located between the other two. Two cars are fitted and, on some of the trial flights made in this country, a large number of passengers have been taken up at a time. To prevent having to use excessively large control units in the form of single surfaces, these units are subdivided. For example, the rudder consists of three interconnected units. These big machines have a tremendous load-carrying capacity and are used largely for bombing expeditions. Continue reading
Known to Allied aviators as the German “Spad,” the Albatros D.I, Appearing in 1916, is a high-speed type of machine, technically termed a destroyer and armed with two machine guns. The one shown in Fig. 48 was shot down in the British lines. It is a conglomerate copy of the French Nieuport and MorÃ
The Halberstadt biplane, was used in large numbers by the Germans during 1916, but, as it was almost invariably downed by French and British flyers, it apparently has since been abandoned. A brief review of its salient points shows that it would tend to be unstable to a degree unknown in any of the existing French or British types, which may account for the frequent occasions on which it has been known to end the career of its pilot by a spiral dive. Continue reading