Week 4

World War I Air Warfare

-This timeline highlights the major events of the entire World War I, also has events that happened before and after the war, and has plenty of hyperlinks to many different events that you might find interesting. This helps you paint a picture on how the war started and unfolded as it went on, also it gives some events that brought on the start of World War II.

Early Aviation

-The first aviation projects that took off were the lighter-than-air programs. The first balloons were of nonrigid design. Morrow (1993) points out that the first hot air balloon ascent took place in 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers. Europe was full of competitors in the lighter-than-air programs. British used hot air balloons in Africa and the Boer War for scouting and reconnaissance. During the Franco-Prussian War the French used balloons to carry people and mail out of Paris over the Prussian Siege (Morrow, 1993). During the American Civil War, both sides used balloons to scout each other. When the twentieth century was almost upon us, a man named Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany proposed a rigid airship design (Morrow, 1993). Some of the airships produced by the Germans in World War I would reach over 700 feet in length. In England 1906, a LZ4 (Zeppelin airship) flew from Germany to England for a demonstration and Press magnate Alfred Harmsworth had recognized that "England was no longer an island" (Morrow, 1993).

-When the lighter-than-air programs were just starting to get out of the experimental age, a new aviation program came into play. The heavier-than-air program (aircraft) started in France in 1892, but did not achieve success and it wouldn't be until the Wright Brothers on December 17, 1903, who came up with the first heavier-than-air machine to work. In The Great War in the Air, by J. H.Morrow Jr., explains how the Wright Brothers struggled to find a buyer of their new flying machine in Europe and the U.S. After the start of World War I, militaries soon found out how much potential aircraft could have in warfare and eventually put the airships in their shadow.

Aircraft

-Here are 127 aircraft ranked by speed. It is interesting to see the number of different aircraft the allies actually designed and built. Aircraft design and manufacturing changed by the month in World War I because it was a new machine and there was no tactics for air combat. Many of the early aircraft manufacturers were automobile and bicycle manufacturers. They soon found out that it was not the same as making a car or bicycle and that the design of the aircraft was constantly evolving. 

The Red Baron

-Manfred von Richthofen was the most famous of the World War I aces. An ace is a pilot that is credited with shooting down 5 or more enemy aircraft in combat. He was credited with the most combat kills of any others pilot in World War I with 80 confirmed kills. He was very well respected on both sides of the war and was given a full military funeral by the Allies when he was shot down towards the end of the war. 

Citation
-Morrow Jr., J. H. (1993). The Great War in the Air. Smithsonian Institution Press Washington and                       London