Page 81 - All About History - Issue 28-15

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From airships (the most famous On 21 June 1917, Orville Wright
probably being the German wrote in a letter: “When my
brother and I built and flew
Zeppelin) to fighter biplanes, the first man-carrying flying
World War I was the time when 05machine, we thought we
were introducing into the world an invention
aircraft came into their own that would make further wars practically
impossible…Wethoughtgovernmentswould
As aerial warfare took off, Vickers FB5 realise the impossibility of winning by surprise
dogfights became more common attacks.”Bythis,Wrightmeantthatplaneswould
over the Western front $PVOUSZ PG PSJHJO #SJUBJO be used for reconnaissance, so any large troop
8JOHTQBO GU JO
.BY TQFFE NQI movement would be immediately spotted. Indeed,
The Vickers FB5 (Flying Biplane) was reconnaissance was an important task throughout
the world’s first operational fighter thewar,butequallyimportantwaspreventing
aircraft. As the name suggests, it was
the fifth iteration of the concept and myfromdoingso.TheFrenchwerethe
first flew in action on Christmas Day an effective solution. On 1 April
1914. Although the plane was used lot Roland Garros took to the air
over the Western Front from February
1915, it was considered too slow for edwithamachinegunthatfired
purpose and was phased out during peller,andonhisfirstflightheshot
the following year. n observation plane. Purpose-built
bombersweresoonbeingdeveloped
sides, with dogfights becoming a
ular occurrence over European skies.
April 1917, the average lifespan of a
sh pilot was just 11 days. After the
Wright wrote: “The aeroplane has
ar so terrible that I do not believe
trywillagaincaretostartawar.”

n the air, new ways of
launchingthemwerequickly developed
The first Royal
Navy aircraft
carrier, a ship
adapted with
06 a flight deck,
was HMS Hermes in 1912. It carried
two seaplanes that were launched
on trolleys. Two years later, the
first attacks were launched from
the former Channel steamers
Empress, Engadine and Riviera at
anchor in Heligoland to bomb the
Zeppelin sheds at the naval base
of Cuxhaven. That year, the first
warship built as an aircraft carrier
(although not designed initially as such)
was HMS Ark Royal, which was 366 feet long.
The hangars below decks could accommodate
ten seaplanes. It was sent to the Dardanelles and
the first plane flew from it in February 1915. HMS
Furious was the first aircraft carrier for the use of
wheeled planes, however, planes were unable to
return and had to finish their mission at a land base.
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