Examine The Role Played By The Airplanes During The World War I Era

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Examine The Role Played By The Airplanes During The World War I Era.
The First World War took place between 1914 and 1918 after the assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The war was between Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, who fought against the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Romania, and Italy (Wilkins, 72). During this period, vast development happened in the aviation industry, and some countries, such as Germany, gained superiority over the others. The development of aviation was significantly contributed by the high investment that was made by most of the European federal governments (Bernard, 106). Before the start of the World War, the countries used observation balloons for surveillance. However, at the beginning of the war, the states were able to develop the first fighter planes. The first fighter plane was known as the reconnaissance aircraft.
Historically, the First World War was the first global war to use aircraft. A few years after the start of the war, these planes become the most effective weapons against enemies. The jets played a significant role in the management of coordination between the air troops and ground troops during war attacks (Herris, and Pearson, 16).This is because the airplanes had some installed devices which enabled the pilots to drop messages to the soldiers on the ground. These devices included message streamers and message drop bags. On September 9, 1914, there was a battle in Berlin, and the pilots used the message streamers to drop the messages to the military troops. This resulted in the superiority of the attackers (Wilkins, 64). However, the First World War aircrafts lacked some installed devices such as the radio sets that could be used to communicate with the ground troops to attack their enemies. This made them less effective. Hence they required the fighting countries to come up with innovations that could help them in coordinating their planned attacks.
The countries invented the reconnaissance cameras, which were more complex to enable the pilots to accurately record what was happening in the ground, and send it to the ground military forces for better attacks (Herris, and Pearson, 27). Luckily, in early 1915, the countries realized that the aerial reconnaissance camera was the most effective and installed it to the warplanes. The camera helped the air force to take clear photographs of their enemies, which helped them in performing the strategic bombing (Bernard, 68). Moreover, they installed the radio sets, which were used as the primary communication channels between the air force and the ground army. Better communication and surveillance contributed to better raids and defense. However, it is only Germany, Britain, and the United Kingdom had the capability of using them. Some countries like Russia remained behind due to their low developing technology.
By early1915, most of the aircraft had been renovated and had extravagant and archaic designs. This was a result of the ever-increasing war that forced the airplane builders to change quickly to meet the immediate needed improvements (Bernard, 8). At the start of World War 1, there was only one type of airplane, which was known as the reconnaissance aircraft, which was used to fly military soldiers to the target locations to attack their enemies. Moreover, they were used to fight back the army enemies during attacks. At the end of the first few years of the war, the aviation industry had undergone through various development stages and had introduced other types of military airplanes (Herris, and Pearson, 32).These airplanes were divided into multiple classes and performed different tasks to aid attacks and defense. They included the plane of attack, bombers, and fighters.
These planes varied in various ways, for instance, in engine numbers, size, installed equipment such as the bomber, fire or navigation, and size of the crew. The first countries to experience aircraft development were France, England, and Germany (Keitch, and Blair, 4). This because their government supported them massively with funds, which enabled them to acquire the best quality materials and innovation. Later, Russia, Italy, and the United States followed due to their weak industrialization during that time. During the war, there was a hunter plane in France that was used as a scout. It played a significant role in preventing army enemies from entering the states (Herris, and Pearson, 18). These planes were mostly preferred since they were lighter and faster, thus meeting the country's demand. However, they lacked firepower, which was a vital tool during the war. Moreover, as time went by, they became more weak and prone to massive attacks.
Hence to respond to this challenge, France decided to improve country military aircraft, which could enable them to fight better. The country picked one of its fighter pilots and took him to German to unveil some secrets that had maintained its superiority (Keitch, and Blair, 6). They believed the secrets could help them in advancement. During that time, the France pilot met an aircraft expert installing different devices in the warplane known as Fokker scourge, which appeared on the battlefield in 1916. The aircraft was highly advanced as it was connected with an interrupter gear, which enabled it to discharge rapid fires from behind without hitting them to harm the plane. The French pilot carried this knowledge back to France, which helped them to make some developments in the hunters’ aircraft to improve its efficiency. At the same time, the Russian country invented a synchronized machine gun (Wilkins, 64). The machine gun played a significant role in fighting enemies since it could continuously release a hundred firearms without hitting the airplane. Thus, France decided to install it in its new, developed aircraft.
Additionally, machine guns not only helped Russia but also other countries in the prevention of the back attacks from their enemies. In 1916, the war had reached the home in front of many nations (Keitch, and Blair, 5). This was a result of the many raids that were done by the use of both airships and aircraft. The two devices caused a significant threat to most of the ordinary civilians and industries as more attacks were performed. For instance, Britain's government was filled with great fear when their enemies used the zeppelin airships to attack them. Britain had realized that most of its people had little or no knowledge of the use an...