Zach Schermer
Mrs. Wahl
Revolutions
December 15, 2013
The Flight of the Airplane During WWI By the beginning of the 1900s WWI had broke out, along with countless other innovations; planes came crashing into present warfare. The use of them had started off small but eventually grew to the height of the war and the county. The death and destruction of the First World War was so immense at first planes didn’t seem like they would be noticed but by the end I can assure you that they were! It all started in the year 1905 when the Wright brothers finally caught air and flew around the North Carolina town Kitty Hawk. They had both worked day in and day out on this revolutionary invention, hoping that they would be first to fly! Starting in the mid 1890s they took ideas from highly educated engineers and scientists and started towards their own modifications. Their first plane was constructed in 1900 with a 17-foot wingspan only flying like a kite. Eventually with wind tunnel testing, still on Kitty Hawk they upgraded to a 32-foot wingspan plane in 1903, that would eventually give them the ultimate goal, sustained flight. Once they had full ownership of the airplane by the year 1907 they had calls coming in from the US Army showing extreme interest in their invention the airplane. After talking over why and when they needed this revolutionary tool, they decided on a deal. “A price of $25,000 was set for the brothers’ airplane if they could meet the performance criteria in actual flight trials” (Unknown: Aerial). Eventually next year Orville and Wilber had split up the oldest going overseas to show off to the French. While Orville stayed behind to start flight trials with Lt. Selfridge at Fort Myer. During flight both Orville and his copilot had a propeller malfunctions and crashed, Orville only surviving. Jumping right back on the horse, he finally met the requirements of the Army, going 42 miles and hour for 2 miles in June of 1909. Getting paid a hefty prize of $30,000 and a call from the Navy; wanting use of the plane too, but with the ability to land in water, the Wright Brothers had now introduced the airplane into the world of war. There was no stopping its progression now. WWI wasn’t just a few battles, wasn’t just a couple years like the leaders on each side thought. It dragged on for a long time with millions of deaths, during this the planes attributes changed tremendously for the better. Jumping from surveillance to dropping grenades off the side of these bi-planes. The main use of the now world know invention, the plane, was dog fighting. It manly didn’t kill a lot of people like trench fighting did. It was more of a mental fighting showing momentum and confidence to your countrymen. Almost every country had well known dog fighters but the Germans had a single man who is in the record books and was prayed to by every German, young and old in the war. His name was Manfred Von Richtofen, “Richthofen was most commonly associated and that led to an enduring English nickname for the German pilot—the Red Baron” (Unknown: Red Baron). Having over 80 victories in just a few years! It all started by deciding he wasn’t fit for the Calvary and would sit better in a cockpit for the German Air Service. He had transferred into the ‘Jasta II’ in 1916 and was quickly realized as a fighter pilot. After a struggling start where he crashed many aircrafts training he eventually got it and decided even to fly through a thunderstorm. Almost killing him he would never do anything of that nature again. After countless surveillance flights he was in a dogfight with his partner where he shot down his first kill, though not confirmed he started on a roll. By January of the next year he had 16 confirmed kills and was apart of the ‘Flying Circus’ where he then painted his plane the legendary red. Leading into April of 1917 he had the bloodiest month known in history with over 22 British confirmed kills. Not ranked very highly but nevertheless