Soaring Curiosity: The War that Began Airborne Travel Today

When we think of the first airplane, most of us think of the Wright Brothers sometime long ago with their rudimentary model that looked somewhat like airplanes today. Beyond that much, the average person cannot connect this event to how aviation came to today. The world-wide event that spurred the beginning of aviation shortly after its invention was the First World War. The need for airplanes for the war provided the reason for innovation. The Red Baron’s engine gives us a glimpse into how far aviation advancements have come since the beginning, but also how much progress was made during World War I.

Before the Great War began, the world had not recognized the aviation’s potential, giving it little to no funding or production capabilities. In 1910, Glenn Curtis paid for the training of two men to learn how to fly, and a year later the U.S. Navy bought two of his airplanes and another from the Wright Brothers (Gilbert & Cansiere 233). Funding for naval aviation was practically nonexistent before the war, and took the funding of individuals to motivate innovation. We would not know what life would be like without the aviation advancements and interest that came out of WWI, but based on the status before the war, it would not look hopeful. Another year later, the U.S. Marines were equally not equipped with airplanes, because of the recentness of the technology. When "[t]he first Marine to report for flight training [in May], 1912… there were no aircraft available for training. When he returned from a temporary assignment to expeditionary duty, there were still no aircraft…". Not only was funding nonexistent, but also airplanes themselves were scarce. There was no pressing reason for airplanes to be manufactured other than out of curiosity. This did not create the pressure to innovate until the Great War came to provide this urgency.

Before and during the beginning of the Great War, the design of aircraft was not ideal for learning aviators. "Dodge Bailey, a retired RAF pilot with over 20 years’ experience of flying WW1 aircraft, explains…: ‘The lack of standardisation between types of aircraft was a major difficulty. At the beginning there were no specifications for airplanes which usually meant that there was a lot less stability. The level of training was also a problem’" (Shaw). Since there was no set design, it was difficult for a pilot to be skilled in flying different aircraft. This barrier took time to overcome, especially in the nature of constant newcomer-training in war.

The major difficulty was not simply found in the differing designs of an airplane’s functions, but also inexperience in flying in general. The men who came in as volunteers had not had previous training, and if so, it was often for a total of several hours of air-time. Kenneth Collings puts it: "The British did not care whether you called an aviator a Marine, or a Siamese piccolo player, so long as he could fly. They were ‘jolly’ glad to have us" (Shaw). Any time that humanity pioneers into the world of new technology, there is the barrier of inexperience that can cause great setbacks that, once overcome, can open into greater advancements.

Despite the great difficulties that the aviators had to overcome while trailblazing the way through this new technology, the romantic and intriguing nature of the new technology motivated their efforts. The war created flying heroes that were praised and romanticized at home. The most famous of these is the Red Baron: a German soldier that took down 80 enemy planes and later controlled a group of elite fighter pilots (Keitch & Blair). At home the Red Baron was someone to be praised and imitated, because of his victories using the new technology. Many saw it as a glorious and futuristic way to fight that was more exciting than being stuck in the trenches. Since so many died from this dangerous new technology, they needed more men to become pilots. This drew in young men who would fuel this need for pilots in order for the technology to advance.

Though the loss of men was a massive, the number of planes crashed was similarly high, which provided a need for more to be built, and for shortcomings to be fixed. In 1915, the British Army wanted around 700 airplanes, and the Secretary of State for War ordered to double that. Three years later, this demand proved to create opportunities for aircraft advancements. "The aircraft in 1918 were clearly recognisable as direct descendants of their pre-war predecessors with open cockpits, no parachutes and wood and doped fabric construction. But they had reached a degree of sophistication in handling and engine performance which would make a sound platform for the developments that were to come in the inter-war years and on from then". The order and then loss of so many airplanes forced both sides of the war to continually fund their aviation programs as the war in the sky became more and more important. This also created circumstances for advancements in aviation to flourish. Out of this need came space for improvements to happen.

In addition to the demand for more airplanes from loss, the U.S. became interested when the threat of German submarines arose as a concern. How could aviation be vital to finding what would be many feet below? "The January 1913 fleet exercises at Guantanamo Bay, demonstrat[ed] that aviators could spot submerged submarines in the clear waters" (Gilbert & Cansiere). Without touching the water, the submarines could not attack at those flying above. This gave the U.S. the upper hand advantage, knowing that they would be able to scout from a safe place. This also provided room for aviation to grow, even though the need was not as high, given that the U.S. had not yet declared war.

Rather than out of fear, one of the greatest motivators in war is competition. World War I was not a war of the strength of men, rather the strength of the machines that they could produce. Innovations in aviation that could gain an advantage over the enemy was highly sought after. The aviation game changed once the French were able to mount a machine gun to their airplanes to shoot through the propeller, although it would eventually end up damaging it. On April 19, 1915, one of these planes fell onto enemy territory and the it inspired the Germans to improve the idea. A man named Fokker was assigned to inspect and replicate the technology, to which he came up with a better idea to control… [the stream of fire] by the turning of the propeller. This synchronization assured that the bullets would pass harmlessly through the empty space between the propeller blades". This event was one of many that caused advancements in aviation technology simply out of greed for victory.

From this greed to gain victory stemmed aviation combat through both bombing and ground support and air-to-air combat. At the beginning of aircraft technology, there was little to no need for communication between airplanes, because they were so scarce. In order to navigate landing, the pilot and the man on the ground would use hand gestures to communicate. Once the war came, and pilots need to communicate with each other about formation, tactics and directions, they came up with a way to put radios in the airplanes. Before 1917, they could only use Morse code, which proved difficult given that the pilot had to use both hands at all times. Then they came up with a way to communicate with their voices.

By the time that the war finally came to an end, the airplane had changed entirely from what the Wright brothers had created almost 15 years earlier. Their design was simply a foundational building block for the rest of aviation to build on top of. In fact, "there were over 50 different aircraft designs during WW1, with five distinct technological generations, according to American historian Richard Hallion". The war had served as a beginning for this futuristic form of transportation to blossom through many advancements that the war provided the resources for.