WW I and WW II
SSG Estes. It was a little more than a decade after the Wright brothers when the battle for military air supremacy began. In Max Hastings WW1 Planes: ‘Inventions of the Devil’(2013) “On August 25, 1914, staff at a Bavarian corps headquarters near Nancy in northeast France saw an airplane that circled overhead and dropped a brilliant light. While contemplating this seemingly harmless firework, the Bavarians found themselves under French shellfire. The light had been a flare dropped from the plane to mark their position.” After the Wright brothers first successful flight, many nations learned that aircraft could play a vital role in the war. The arms race for air supremacy led to aircraft design to evolve at an accelerated
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The fighters would now have the guns mounted in the wings, making the need for the interrupter gear obsolete. The first class fights of Brittan, Germany, and the United States required powerful aero engines suitable for compact low drag installation. The only exception to this was the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M, known as the zero. The Zero was so strong and light that it achieved first class performance with a second class engine. The aircraft of WW2 were now heavily armed. The German aircraft would be fitted with two 7.62mm guns in the cowling and two 20mm cannons in the wings. The 20mm cannon’s shells were exploding rounds, designed to be as destructive as possible against the new all metal aircraft. Some notable aircraft from 1942-43, fitted with newer more powerful engines and designed with the latest aerodynamic date, were the German Focke-Wulf, U.S. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Gruman F6F Hellcat, and the North American P-51 Mustang. By the wars end both radial and piston engines were at their peak potential. Air transport now plays a critical part in military aviation. The new transport aircraft were able to transport airborne troops and perform parachute operations (Taylor,