Aerial warfare

Military aviation is the use of aircraft for the purposes of warfare.

Before World War I

Although some minor use was made of balloons in the 19th Century, military aviation did not play a significant part in warfare until World War I. The armies of many countries evaluated the use of aircraft for observation. Several tests were made in which floatplanes were launched from ships at sea by catapault, and recovered by crane later. In 1910 an airplane was taken off and landed on a platform attached to the American cruiser USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4) in San Francisco harbour.

World War I

Initially during that war both sides made use of tethered balloons and airplanes for observation purposes, both for information gathering and directing of artillery fire. A desire to prevent enemy observation led to airplane pilots attacking other airplanes and balloons, initially with small arms carried in the cockpit, and later with machine guns mounted on the aircraft. Both sides also made use of aircraft for bombing, strafing and dropping of propaganda. The German military made use of Zeppelins to drop bombs on mainland Britain.

By the end of the war airplanes had become specialised into bombers, fighters and observation aircraft.

Between the Wars

Between 1918 and 1939 aircraft technology developed very rapidly. In 1918 most aircraft were biplanes with wooden frames, canvas skins, wire rigging and air-cooled engines. By 1939 most military aircraft were metal framed monoplanes, often with stressed skins and liquid cooled engines. Top speeds had tripled; altitudes doubled (and oxygen masks become commonplace); ranges and payloads of bombers increased enormously. Most industrial countries also created air forces separate from the army and navy.

Some theorists, especially in Britain, considered that aircraft would become the dominant military arm in the future. They imagined that a future war would be won entirely by the destruction of the enemy's military and industrial capability from the air.

Germany was banned from posessing a significant air force by the terms of the WWI armistice. The German military continued to train its soldiers as pilots clandestinely until Hitler was ready to openy defy the ban.

World War II

By contrast with the British strategists, the primary purpose of the German Luftwaffe was to support the ground army. This accounted for the presence of large numbers of dive bombers in the make-up, and the scarcity of long-range heavy bombers.

The aircraft carrier first became important in World War II, particularly in the Battle of Midway, where American aircraft sunk four Japanese carriers (at a cost to the Americans of one carrier sunk and one disabled, plus some other ships). In this battle, neither force was in visual contact with the other, and all fighting was carried out by aircraft--a military first.

See also

• Fighter
• Bomber
• Cargo
• Military
• Air Force
• Flying Heritage Collection