In 1914, the aeroplane was far from being in a state of full combat readiness. In an attempt to turn their unarmed aircraft into fighters against enemy planes, the most daring and skilled pilots resorted to ramming.
On September 8, 1914, the famous inventor of the “loop-the-loop,” Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov, destroyed an enemy aircraft with a ramming attack. Monoplanes and biplanes, designed in the best traditions of prewar sporting aviation, were sometimes armed with ordinary infantry machine guns, the fire from which usually failed to hit the target. Most often, the firepower of the aircraft consisted of the pilot’s personal officer revolver. When they met in the sky, opponents exchanged chaotic gunfire and threatening gestures. Only in the spring of 1915 did the tally of truly downed aircraft begin: French Morane monoplanes began to destroy almost unarmed enemy aircraft. However, soon the Germans captured an intact Morane that had made a forced landing on enemy territory. Its pilot was none other than the inventor of a remarkable weapon — a machine gun rigidly mounted on the aircraft and firing through the propeller disc — the French pilot and inventor Garros. The blades of the Morane’s propeller were fitted with metal deflector plates that deflected 7% of the bullets fired. Six months later, the Germans released the Fokker aircraft, first with one, then with two and even three machine guns synchronized with the rotation of the propeller.
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| 7. “Nieuport XVII” (France, 1916). Engine: “Le Rhône,” rotary, 110 hp. Flight weight — 565 kg. Wingspan — 8.22 m. Length — 5.74 m. Speed — 177 km/h. Armament — 1 machine gun, caliber 7.62 mm. The aircraft is shown with Russian aviation identification markings. |
Thus the fighter aircraft was born — a combat machine designed to engage enemy aviation. The significance of this new weapon from the moment of its inception is most clearly illustrated by the statistics: of the 12,250 British, French, German, and Austrian aircraft shot down during World War I, 9,900 were destroyed by fighters. The remainder were downed by anti-aircraft artillery.
“The Sopwith Camel was a small, fierce beast,” wrote British newspapers of the time — an apt description for any member of this family of combat aircraft.
The transformation of the typical early war two-seat military aircraft (pilot and observer) into a true maneuverable fighter began with reducing and lightening the machine — it became single-seated. “Scouts” — as such aircraft were then called — trace their lineage back to high-speed racing planes like the “Deperdussin” and “Nieuport.”
In 1915, the “Nieuport XI” appeared, created specifically to combat enemy aircraft. It fully justified the name the Germans gave to such machines — “Jagdflugzeug” (“hunting aircraft”).
Having started the war as a monoplane, the “Nieuport” had now become a biplane. The rigid structure formed by its two wings allowed it to perform advanced aerobatic maneuvers without the risk of breaking apart. Excellent maneuverability, considered essential for a “scout,” required a large wing surface area. In this case, a monoplane wing would have to grow significantly in length and width and would not be able to withstand the sharp maneuvers of a fighter. The nimble “Nieuport” could easily take up a favorable position to shoot down the clumsy “Fokker E-1” monoplane.
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| 8. “SPAD VIII” (France, 1916). Engine: Hispano-Suiza, 150 hp. Wingspan — 8.20 m. Length — 6.30 m. Speed — 180 km/h. Armament — 2 machine guns, caliber 7.62 mm. |
The superiority of French fighters became even more evident with the appearance of the famous “SPAD VII” and “SPAD VIII” designed by Béchereau. The prototype of these aircraft was the prewar racing “Deperdussin.” However, responding to the demands of the time, Béchereau made the new aircraft biplanes.
Equipped with a 150-horsepower Hispano-Suiza engine, the “SPAD VII” reached speeds of about 180 km/h and proved to be the fastest military aircraft of its time. The biplane’s armament consisted of a single synchronized machine gun with a large ammunition supply — 500 rounds. It was the “SPAD VII” that was flown by the famous aces of World War I — Fonck (75 victories), Guynemer (53), and Nungesser (43).
German aviation was saved from total destruction by the “Albatros” — a series of biplanes and sesquiplanes with lower wing loading than the “SPAD VII.” German aircraft outperformed the French in rate of climb and service ceiling.
In 1916, the British Sopwith company released a very light (580 kg) biplane fighter, the “Pup,” with an unusually low wing loading (25 kg/m²). And although the aircraft was slower than the “SPADs” and “Albatroses,” its excellent maneuverability made it a worthy competitor to the German machines.
The further development of the fighter followed two paths: reducing aircraft weight and decreasing wing loading through the use of a third wing. In that same year, 1916, the “Sopwith Triplane” appeared, equipped with three wings of equal length, and in 1917, continuing the line of lightweight machines, came the “Sopwith Camel.” This extremely light fighter (600 kg) was designed to repel Zeppelin raids and German heavy bombers and was armed with two synchronized machine guns and one anti-aircraft machine gun mounted above the upper wing to cover the entire upper hemisphere.
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| 9. “Sopwith Triplane” (England, 1917). Engine: Clerget, 130 hp. Flight weight — 699 kg. Wingspan — 8.08 m. Length — 5.74 m. Speed — 182 km/h. Armament — 1 machine gun, caliber 7.62 mm. Some aircraft were equipped with one anti-aircraft machine gun above the top wing. |
The Germans showed great responsiveness and immediately countered enemy innovations by building improved machines. In doing so, they adopted the most important enhancements from enemy aircraft. This also happened with the triplane — in 1918, the Fokker company released the three-winged fighter “Fokker Dr.I”... This was the aircraft flown by and in which was shot down the most successful ace of World War I, Baron von Richthofen, nicknamed the “Red Baron” because of the color of his Fokker. Richthofen was credited with 80 official victories (confirmed by three or more eyewitnesses).
Nevertheless, triplanes did not catch on in fighter aviation — the optimal machine for maneuverable air combat at the time proved to be the biplane. In general, despite the variety of fighter types during World War I, the attacking scout aircraft had changed little by the end of the war. Even the number of ribs in the wing remained the same. Flight and combat performance improved mainly due to more powerful engines, the use of aerodynamic principles, and increased firepower. It seemed impossible to further improve or redesign the fighter: the machine was essentially “shaped” around the pilot, and this most conservative “element” of the aircraft dictated the established design of the single-seat machine.
Header image: “Albatros D.Va” (Germany, 1917). Engine: Mercedes, 170/185 hp. Flight weight — 937 kg. Wingspan — 9.05 m. Length — 7.33 m. Speed — 187 km/h. Armament — 2 machine guns, caliber 7.62 mm.