The First War in the Sky │WW1 Plane History

[Music] [Music] the great war changed a great deal in the ways of warfare not only on the ground where soldiers fought and died in the muddy trenches and fell victims to the inventions of mechanized warfare and the seas where europe's imperial navies clashed in massive naval battles machine guns flame throwers poison gas artillery dreadnoughts and of course tanks saw their first major implementations during world war one all the while a whole new front had developed in the sky a battle for air superiority the new invention of the motorized aeroplane had only been around for 11 years with its invention by the wright brothers and saw its biggest development during world war one this is the story of the first war in the sky before i begin this video i'd like to say a special thanks to onesie games who provided me with a copy of flying circus vol 1 for the making of this video but more on that later in the early stages of the war in 1914 most of europe's army generals especially the more senior members were skeptical of the usefulness of aircraft in war quickly though they saw the usefulness of planes in the field of reconnaissance as more traditional scouts on horseback were getting mowed down by machine guns not only were the planes in less danger of being shot down but they were also logically able to observe larger surfaces and travel longer distances more quickly at the outbreak of the war france russia and germany were the only nations to have a considerable air force the german army though mainly relied on zeppelins whilst french and russians had built up a considerable collection of aeroplanes albeit the russian selection was more antiquated on top of that most belligerent nations also used observation balloons the first big success enjoyed by reconnaissance planes was during the invasion of france on the 22nd of august 1914 when british captain charlton and lieutenant wadham reported the german army under general klook was preparing an encircling maneuver which would have led to the death or capture of the british expeditionary force in turn the simple act of reconnaissance managed to save the lives of over 100 000 soldiers reconnaissance airplanes proved themselves once again in the battle of the man where gaps in the german lines were found which the antarent could exploit as you probably know the battle of the man was the turning point of the early war in western europe these events proved once again the potential and usefulness of planes in warfare as a result more if not most belligerent nations saw to upscale their aerial operations when it came to reconnaissance aircraft observation balloons had already been employed in many wars prior and were used throughout the great war they were mainly used for spotting targets and calculating the range for artillery guns it is important to note that these balloons were never abandoned during the war and remained valuable assets throughout observation balloons would usually be set up a few miles from the front lines and were heavily guarded by anti-aircraft guns to keep away fighters and machine guns on the ground to deter infantry sometimes there were even fighters patrolling the surrounding area of the observation balloons due to these fortifications attacking an observation balloon was considered a very dangerous task nevertheless many pilots enjoyed the challenge of sending these balloons to the ground in a blaze pilots with a distinct talent for downing these balloons were nicknamed balloon busters the most successful balloon buster being willie coppens friedrich fondrt frank luke and leon boujard just to name a few a little known fact about these observation blooms was that the crews were the first to be equipped with parachutes pilots and zeppelin crews started using these parachutes shortly thereafter back to the topic of reconnaissance planes the first planes used in the great wall were used solely for reconnaissance and were quite primitive at best most of them were quite slow with top speeds of around 100 kilometers per hour or 60 miles per hour had open cockpits and lacked any navigational tools which led to pilots getting lost on a regular basis early on there were some instances of pilots who would land in fields and ask locals for directions or pilots who flew low by train tracks to read the station signs to find out where they were before the development of proper aerial cameras it wasn't uncommon for pilots to land close to the nearest commander and convey his findings verbally this as you can probably imagine wasn't terribly accurate and attempts were made to equip planes with cameras and direct means of communication for a time the pilots tried to take photographs from the sky these photographs were often of poor quality and couldn't really be used for a short period the idea of having a crew of two on reconnaissance planes circled one pilot and one camera operator this also proved impractical as a camera operator had to fiddle about and switch out delicate glass lenses and required the pilot to fly very steadily as a result of these poor methods a direct solution had to be found and in 1913 the first aerial cameras were developed they were pioneered by germany and remained superior throughout the war germany's ally austria hungary also profited from these advances the french and on a much smaller scale the british followed suit these aerial cameras were pointed vertically to the ground and were often fixed to the side of the cockpit outside of the plane and could be operated by the pilot some planes also had a seat for a designated aerial camera operator these provided a much better image quality and were overall more effective at the outbreak of the war the most common planes in the sky were the french pleguel the german talbot the british royal aircraft factory be2c and the russian labet 7. reconnaissance planes stayed in service throughout the war and were seen as valuable targets by fighters in fact more than half of the red baron's victories were against reconnaissance aircraft the most effective reconnaissance planes of the war proved to be the german humpler c7 which distinguished itself with the ability to fly long distances and reach high altitudes of up to six thousand four hundred meters or twenty one thousand feet the british re-8 the german yunkaz j-1 which specialized in flying low as it was the first fully metal constructed armored aeroplane which could withstand small arms fire from the battlefield the russian four-engine tsikorsky ilya muromets which had exceptional range the french farmer mf-11 and breguet 14. and last but not least arguably the best reconnaissance plane of the entire war the ansaldo sva-5 which could reach speeds of up to 230 kilometers per hour or 140 miles per hour the sheer speed of this plane made it nearly impossible for enemy fighters to intercept on top of its impressive speed it could also climb up to 6 000 kilometers or 20 thousand feet and had an impressive range of six hundred and fifty kilometers or four hundred and thirty miles this allowed the plane to cross the alps into germany and austria-hungary the zeppelin named after count ferdinand fonzepalin also saw wide usage during the great war mainly on the side of germany though throughout the war they were used for reconnaissance and bombing the bombing itself wasn't terribly effective and was to a large extent carried out over london and other civilian locations despite being an appalling war crime it proved to be relatively useless as only few resources had to be diverted from the front lines and only served to terrorize the british populace zeppelins were susceptible to small arms fire anti-aircraft artillery and fight planes if they weren't at high altitudes they would be more often than not shot down by ground forces on the whole zeppelins weren't terribly useful and were only really good for reconnaissance if anything despite being invented fairly recently world war one would mark the end of military zeppelin usage in the very early phases of the war hostile reconnaissance planes would cross each other with nothing more than a wave or a smile as the war progressed and the situation on the ground got more serious the relationship between rival pirates got increasingly more hostile pilots started throwing stones grenades and even grappling hooks at each other hilariously enough all these methods proved unsurprisingly useless the first incident in which a plane was downed by another enemy plane occurred on the 8th of september 1914 in the skies of galicia when russian pilot piotr nesterov decided to ram a rival austrian reconnaissance plane this to the bewilderment of no one ended in both planes crashing and all occupants dying pilots also started carrying pistols like the mauser or the nagant revolver with which they would attempt to shoot enemy pilots these proved to be far too inaccurate rifles although more accurate fighting slowly to be useful in the sky on the 5th of october 1914 the french pilot luis genoa mounted a machine gun to his plane and fired upon a german aircraft although he didn't manage to destroy the enemy plane the era of air combat had begun aircraft manufacturers raced to find a practical way to mount machine guns to planes many two-seater planes mounted machine guns to the rear of the plane and would be operated by the passenger this was a good defensive solution and not much more as it required the pilot to fly side by side or in front of an enemy plane which wasn't exactly an easy task it was clear that the machine guns had to face a direction of travel to be practical as all the pilots would then have to do is aim their plane in the direction of their enemy this way the plane could actively shoot at the plane it was pursuing this would also eliminate the need for a gunner as a pilot could operate both the machine gun and the plane early attempts at forward-facing machine guns included machine guns mounted on the top of the wings of biplanes operated either by the pilot or the gunner although being a big improvement these planes had some considerable flaws if the pilot were to operate the gun he would have to take at least one hand off his control stick the machine gun's angle would also not line up with what he was facing forcing him to tilt his plane down slightly and estimate the right angle doing that whilst pursuing a moving target was extremely difficult another problem this created was that of reloading and clearing jams if the gun were to jam or needed to be reloaded it was rather difficult to reach sitting down for a lone pilot and standing up was not your best option to counteract this problem models were built where the gun could be lowered down to the pilot on a rail although an improvement it still wasn't the ideal solution top mounted machine guns that were operated by gunners had the problem that the gunner often had to stand up to operate the gun now you can probably imagine the problems that are caused when pursuing a plane that is doing a base of maneuvers the other problem gunners faced was the limited area from which they could shoot as a propeller could easily get in the way and what might be the most obvious downside of having a gunner is the added weight of the gunner himself and his compartment the logical result of which is lower speed and maneuverability another solution to mounting machine guns was using pusher type aeroplanes the british arms manufacturer vickers had been experimenting with possible solutions since 1912 they developed a prototype called the vickers experimental fighting biplane one catchy name i know and many other prototypes throughout the war these prototypes were pusher-type planes what that means is that the engine is behind the pilot and facing backwards and is pushing the plane along much like the wright brothers plane the alternative being a tractor type where the engine is mounted in front of the pilot dragging the plane along what the pusher type provided was an optimal placement for the machine guns completely unobstructed by propellers and possible to aim with the aircraft the main problem with this type of plane was a reduced performance pusher planes would be much slower than tractor planes with the same engine this was mainly due to the added weight needed to stabilize the engine in the center of the plane and moving the gravitational center to a less optimal place these pusher fighters were used until 1917 with planes like the fe2d but became obsolete due to their low speed making it impossible for them to intercept their targets they were of a time where vision was valued over speed in fighter aircraft it was only in 1943 that pusher planes saw anything close to a comeback with the swedish saab j-21 finally aircraft manufacturers saw to mount their machine guns between the pilot and the propeller on a pusher-type plane making it much easier to aim fire and reload the machine gun and made it much easier to clear jams and stoppages all without compromising speed the only problem being the propeller firing the machine gun through a propeller came with the chance of shooting the actual propeller off or having a bullet ricochet towards the pilot the engine or other parts of the aircraft all of which would of course be most problematic in april of nineteen fifteen the more soundier company put together a prototype plane with so-called deflector blades which were simply armoured propeller blades with slanted armoring designed to make impacting bullets slide off the propeller the french pilot holland gaho tested this in the field and even managed to score multiple aerial victories gahor was forced to land behind enemy lines mid-flight due to engine malfunctions that were most likely caused by shrapnel from the bullets or even bullets finding the way into the plane's engine shortly after landing gahor and his plane were captured by the german army german high command then swiftly passed the captured plane onto german aircraft manufacturer fokker who had already produced similar prototypes focker was ordered by german high command to copy the design yet the deflector system proved entirely incompatible with german steel-jacketed munitions this forced the engineers at foca to revisit the idea of synchronizing the propeller with the machine gun this system would only allow the machine gun to fire when it was impossible for the bullet to hit the propeller finally in the spring of 1915 they premiered the fokker eindekar fighter which featured the shtangensteirhong system which was of course an interrupter despite being rather mediocre in most aspects excluding the firing mechanism foca having proven their concept standardized the design and mass produced it under the name focker airins the e standing for eindheker germany also made steps towards creating pure fighter specialist units known as kampf einzitza commando or keck for short i'm not joking they were set up in various locations along the western front and acted as a type of aerial guard in march of 1916 german aerial tactician oswald bulker came up with the idea of having forward-facing observers these were planes that patrolled close to the front lines and tried to spot incoming antart aircrafts these new tactics and fighters ushered in a period of german air superiority and both were an overall success the antarent named this period the focker scourge these irondeckers rained hell on untaunt reconnaissance aircraft and forced the anton to upgrade their air force you might wonder why didn't they just mount the machine guns on the sides of the wings like most world war ii aircraft well this has many reasons the main one being that early machine guns often had jams and stoppages having them near the pilot also allowed for mid-air reloading mounting machine gun on the wings also came with the issue of harder aiming as the guns would have to be set up at an angle where the bullets would converge after a certain range staying in that sweet spot was an added challenge to this design philosophy by late 1915 germany with the help of its superior planes and pilot training had achieved air superiority having such a technological advantage helped forge many of the first ever flying aces aces were pilots with five or more aerial victories aerial victories had to be confirmed and witnessed by a fellow pilot if not it did not count the term was coined by the french for the pilot adolf boujou these aces were heralded by the press propaganda like knights of old in an effort to make the war seem more noble and not as grim and futile as trench warfare the most successful flying aces of the war were the german manfred von richthofen also known as the red baron who scored a total of 80 aerial victories making him the most successful pilot of the war the french rene funk with 75 confirmed victories although he claimed to have shot down 142 this makes funk the most successful pilot ever on the side of the allies and last but not least the canadian billy bishop with 72 victories making him the most successful pilot the raf and the british empire would ever see this german air superiority had in some cases major implications on the battlefield below for instance at the battle of verdun the german army was able to achieve a mighty surprise over the french since the french air force was no longer able to track german troop movements as most of you know the battle of badan was particularly costly for the french army later on in the battle the french managed to regain air superiority though things luckily started to look up for the untant with the production and implementation of the pusher style british two-seater fe-2b and single-seater dh2 in september of 1915 by the royal air corps which could fire forward without engine synchronization with these planes the antant finally had a match for the fokker e1 the french aeronautic militare also followed up with a newport 11 in january of 1915 a tractor design with a gun outside of the propellers apex with these new planes the antart finally managed to regain air superiority before the battle of the somme in june 1916 ending the fokker scourge and kept air superiority until the end of the battle the main goal of most of these fighters was to shoot down enemy reconnaissance aircraft and protect friendly reconnaissance planes despite not being the noblest fight it was tactically more valuable than shooting down another enemy fighter fighters were also used as formally mentioned to protect and hunt observation balloons and bombers strafing trenches with machine gun fire was also common practice as surface-to-air defenses were quite primitive and ineffective at the time an increasing trend for all planes was a change in maneuverability and stability for those of you who are somewhat familiar with aeroplane engineering might know that the more stable an airplane is the less maneuverable it is on the whole in the early phases of the war stable planes were preferable to the high command of europe's air forces the stable planes were much easier to fly and most pilots at the time didn't receive much training before flying into battle in some cases only having three to four hours of flight experience towards the end of the war this changed more and more as planes became more maneuverable which was essential and could mean life or death in a dogfight managing to out-turn your enemy could often decide a pilot's fate the downside of making planes more maneuverable was a decreased stability more maneuverable planes were easier to stall and bring into a death spiral having lost their air superiority germany saw once again to innovate on its air force and aircraft design to rework germany's air force the flight troppendestarchen the german air force completely reorganized itself under oswald bulke into the luftstein crafter which would take up a more defensive strategy to make up for germany's numerical inferiority this rework was finished in october of 1916. this reorganization would lead to the first german strategic bombing squadrons along with close support squadrons known as schlecht dufflin meaning battle squadrons these constellations gave the british quite a bit of trouble at the battle of cambre and during the german spring offensive of 1918 the most impressive element to germany's new air force was its new line of justice standing for jagstafflin translating to fighter squadrons these yastas followed belka's eight rules for fighter pilots the dicta bulker one try to secure the upper hand before attacking if possible keep the sun behind you two always continue with an attack you have begun three open fire only at close range and only when the opponent is squarely in your sights 4. always try to keep your eye on your foe and try not to be deceived by faints 5. in any attack it is of utmost importance to pursue your foe from the rear 6. if your foe dives on you try not to fly around his attack but fly to meet it 7. in enemy territory always remember your own line of retreat 8. it is better to attack in groups of six or four if the formation is to break up into single dogfights make sure that no one target is being pursued by two fighters among bulkers close students his cubs with whom he would fly into combat with personally was the best known pilot of all time the legendary manfred albrecht freyja von richthofen the red baron after bulky's death the red baron would lead yester 11 whose nickname you're probably more familiar with the flying circus this nickname comes from the bright colors the squadron's planes had in the great wall planes were highly visible and therefore didn't require any camouflage in order to be able to recognize and distinguish each other more easily each plane of yasa 11 had a unique paint job these paint jobs were often very bright and flashy the red baron's plane of course being bright red giving him his other nickname deartikamfliga richthofen enjoyed this distinction as he wanted his enemies and allies alike to recognize him in the skies and on the ground the sight of the red baron's red albatross was a horrifying sight for the rookie rfc pilots in the early days of the yastas they were equipped with d2s germany's first biplane shortly thereafter germany introduced a new series of synchronized tractor biplanes the fokker d series these new biplanes were making quite the impact in the skies thanks to the improved handling and firepower the albatross d1 was the first plane to come with a devastating dual machine gun setup and was used by the red baron later the older models were also updated to bear this upgraded armament the new line of planes was well on its way to re-establish german air superiority it's important to note the new lovestrikecrafter still employed aerial guard tactics with patrolling reconnaissance planes which would spot enemy aircraft and report their position to the ground this strategy helped keep their pilots and planes in better condition as they would only be used when they absolutely had to be in early 1917 the asta were asserting their dominance in the skies and giving the anton planes hell during the first half of 1917 the rfc suffered much higher losses than germany but it was also during this time that the first anton synchronized tractor fighters were coming into service like the sopwith pup the sopwith triplane and spad s7 these suffered however as they were in far fewer numbers than their german counterparts and also had inferior firepower only being equipped with a single machine gun as opposed to the now german standard twin setup at the time there were still many two-seater squadrons on the side of the antonte with planes like the b2e which were quite unsuited for air-to-air combat this disparity in aerial strength and germany's new albatross d3 and the offensive strategy of the rfc versus the defensive strategy of the luftwaite crafty led to what would be known as bloody april in this month the rfc suffered very heavy losses losing approximately a quarter of its strength in bloody april the rfc had lost 245 planes with 211 airmen dead or missing and 108 were taken as prisoners of war meanwhile the germans had only lost 66 planes resulting in a 4-1 victory ratio for the germans that month a british replacement pilot's life expectancy clocked in at a woeful 11 days during bloody april yasta 11 racked up a grand total of 89 aerial victories with the red baron alone scoring 21 victories including four on a single day despite these heavy losses the rfc still succeeded in its mission of providing up-to-date information photographic reconnaissance and artillery spotting although devastating to the rfc it made a big difference for the troops on the ground it's also worth mentioning that most of bloody april was fought in german territory after bloody april s superiority would slip away from the germans once again and fall into the hands of the british with the mass production of new planes like the british legendary sop with camel the se5a and the french spad s13 which were all equipped with twin front-facing machine guns the antant could finally match the german planes the two-seater category also saw new planes like the re-8 fk8 and bristol f2b which still weren't exactly brilliant but did a much better job than their antiquated predecessors the sopwith camel alone is a rather unique plane it used a rotary engine which works in reverse i'd say to a normal engine instead of having the engine fasten to the plane and only having the propeller spin the engine and propeller would spin together making the entire engine spin with the propeller spinning this much mass made a notable difference in the way the plane handled rolling the plane with the engine was faster and pushed the nose down drawing the plane against it was slower and pushed the nose up in the hands of an experienced pilot these traits could be highly useful the problem was that the rfc was more focused on numbers so there were always more fresh recruits than experienced pilots what this engine did provide was a power to weight ratio and torque superior to other designs meanwhile the germs were producing more and more disappointing aircraft like the albatross d5 the false d3 and last but not least the fokker dr-1 the dl1 despite being probably the most recognizable plane of the great war and one of the most recognizable planes ever in that respect for many structural problems which were mainly manifested in the wings of the plane what the plane did provide however was a very fast roll rate by dividing the plane's wing surface into three layers it allowed for a shorter wingspan which in effect lowered the moment of inertia and increase the maneuverability this came to cost though by having more wings the drag was increased putting more pressure on the wings in turn requiring more stable wing material this is exactly what the dr-1 lacked leading to many incidents of dr-1s falling apart in the sky the reason for the waka d1's legendary status comes from its unique design and the fact that it was famously flown by the red baron many people believe that this was the baron's main plane this couldn't be further from the truth though richtofen's main plane throughout the war was the albatross d2 and d3 hechtorphen only scored 19 out of his 80 victories in the dl1 and let's not forget that the dr-1 was a plane in which the red baron was shot down so yeah on the whole it wasn't by any means the greatest plane of the war after russia had surrendered in march of 1918 germany launched what would be known as the german spring offensive of 1918 on march 21st they launched multiple attacks on the british hoping to crush them forcing the in their eyes mutiny ridden french to surrender before america could properly intervene unfortunately for germany however the new fokker d7 could not reach the front lines in large enough numbers leaving the german jagstafflin at a technological disadvantage thanks to thorough planning however these early offensives saw success which in turn led to record territory gains for germany on the ground since 1914 around the time of the red baron's death on the 21st of april most of these offensives had once again come to a standstill despite having destroyed many british airfields this april also saw the royal flying corps split off from the royal navy becoming the royal air force the first air force in the world to be its own self-organized entity in this light period of the war germany was still producing new models like the [ __ ] up falz and hollande but was becoming increasingly unable to field and mass produce them due to supply shortages within the central powers the volatile-based oil they were forced to use instead of the standard castor oil drastically reduced the lifespan and reliability of the plane's engines at this point the antant was keeping its air superiority more by force of numbers when america finally joined the war in 1917 their aircraft were extremely obsolete and american squadrons mainly used spare on tante aircraft which were usually also somewhat obsolete this meant that your chances as an american pilot weren't exactly great with time though they would receive planes that were on par with their allies and would manage to hold their own in the sky towards the end of the war it would be the americans with the help of the brits french and italians who would launch the largest aerial operation in the war at the battle of samiel with 701 fighters 366 reconnaissance planes 323 daytime bombers and 91 nighttime bombers right up until the november 11th armistice the antart kept its air superiority now to the topic of bombers in the great war the importance of bombers was not as great as one might imagine fighters and reconnaissance planes proved to be more important throughout the war on the whole the earliest instance of bombing occurred when pilots threw objects out of their planes hoping to hit troops down below in the very early stages of the war there were accounts of pilots throwing hilariously enough bricks but also grenades and even large steel darts called flechettes onto the soldiers below early bombers were hybrids between reconnaissance planes and bombers and were very easy targets for enemy fighters but they would soon evolve into their own class of aeroplane these early bombers were often two-seaters and despite being slow and somewhat unmaneuverable they had the distinct advantage of being able to fire both forwards and backwards these bombers on the other hand were quite dangerous targets for fighters as approaching them from behind put you in direct sight of the rear gunner the task of bombing had long been held by zeppelins but with the emergence of planes like the gota g bomber and the tiplin stachen r-7 giant four engine bombers this shifted once again the ant ant also came up with bomber designs of its own the most famous probably being the british handley page 0-400 biplane bomber which could carry bomb loads of up to 900 kilograms which was quite an impressive load for planes at the time plane also flew at a speed of up to 156 kilometers per hour and could fly for up to eight hours at a time on the whole bombers weren't all too useful and were usually used for tactical bombing of key military and civilian logistical structures air defenses and anti-air artillery also saw large improvements during the great war the first war in the sky would change warfare forever and would together with tanks define blitzkrieg and the second world war and every major conflict thereafter never again would airplanes see such vast technical advances in such short periods of time after the great war planes were essential in every army and still are to this day and the names of the men who flew these machines have been forever immortalized well if you've made it this far into the video i'd like to say thanks a lot for watching and another special thanks to onesie games if you're a big fan of aeroplanes from the late stages of the great war i would certainly recommend flying circus vol 1 to you the game comes with 13 highly detailed warplanes with very accurate flight models two scripted campaigns single player and multiplayer modes vr support and on top of all that a ten thousand square kilometer map of the era sector including towns like gambre if it sounds like something you're interested in i left some links to where you can buy this game in the description these are not affiliate links if you enjoyed this video please consider leaving a rating and subscribing for future content please consider sharing the video with people you think might also be interested in the topic if you'd like to see any specific future content do me the favor of telling me in the comments in the description of this video i have some links to other videos on the topic that i would highly recommend that you watch and once again thanks for watching pilots started throwing stones grenades and even grappling hooks at each other hilariously enough when russian pilot piotr nesterov decided to ram a rival austrian reconnaissance plane

Channel: Leandro Capstick

Views: 207,470

Keywords: WWI, The Great War, Planes, Warplanes, Military History, Aviation, History, world war one, Fighter Planes, Bombers, Reconnaissance Planes, Zeppelin, Observation Balloon, The Red Baron, Fokker Dr.I, Sopwith Camel, Handley Page, Bloody April, Ansaldo SVA V, European History, World War 1, World War 1 Planes, WW1, WW1 Planes, WW1 Plane Histiory, World War 1 Plane History

Id: cKUJhMgo47k

Length: 36min 27sec (2187 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Bb53091]

Very nicely done!

[u/[deleted]]

This is put together very well. Liked and subd.

[u/j_chiari]

Very gut!