Air planes in WW I

The advent of aircrafts for use in war during 1st World War required a genuine air defense. The Fighter
planes were primarily used to attack other aircrafts, observation balloons and airships, but could also  attack
ground targets with their forward-looking machine guns.
From the beginning  of the war, when the  machine gun was placed on top of a double cover's upper wing, the fighter pilot had to stand up to reload the machineguns.

Nieuport with its machineguns      mounted on the upper wing

Fokker with synchronized guns, able  to shoot between the propellar-blades

During the war, a synchronization between the machinrgun and the engine / propellar was invented. Now the
dual machine gun could be mounted on the fuselage just in front of the pilot and shoot through the propeller
blades without hitting them.
To many engines fell of, and to many bullets thrown back form the propellar blades hit plane and pilot.

To observe from the air was not new. Since the Napoleonic wars balloons had been used for this. This was
also the predominant when WW I started.

German Observer balloon

The observer planes needed to both observe and bring the intelligence back to their base.They was not supposeed
to engage anything,  other than defend themselves.On the other hand seemed both aircraft and balloons as good
observers for the artillery, and therefore it was quite important to shoot them down.
 For this the observer had a  rotatable machinegun mounted.
Already in 1915  the observation aircrafts had mounted cameras.

The Observer with his machinegun

From the start of the war the bombing was reserved airships. Both England and Germany had these ships.

Zeppelin Airship.        The first Zeppeliner was shot         down by an aircraft in 1915

Real bombers were at the beginning of the war just individual pilots or observers who took  hand grenades along
for the ride.
These could be used against ground targets, but also against enemy aircraft and balloons.
In 1914 a French pilot got the idea to mount detonators and tail fins on artillery shells, and dropped them from
his plane. Later special bombs to be thrown by hand were constructed.

Real bombers came to, as aerial technology allowed bigger and bigger payload on the planes.

Handley-Page V/1500 biplane, Englands             first 4-Engine aircraft. Equipped with 6             machine guns and able to lift two big             30 small bombs Only 35 of 225 ordered             came to be delivered in 1918.

Zeppelin Flugzeugwerke GmbH        4-7 machineguns and up to two tons        of payload. Builded 1917

As the war progressed, it was obvious that the aircraft had been a tremendous offensive weapon and ought to be taken serious.