World's Greatest Warplanes

By Colin Higgs

The World's Greatest Warplanes are the ones that get the job done. Visionary engineers and inventors have created some of the most impressive fighting machines. RJ Mitchell's Spitfire and Sydney Camm's Hurricane fought for control of the skies against Kurt Tank's FW190 and Willy Messerschmitt's Bf 109. Roy Chadwick's Lancaster and Boeing's mighty B-17 Flying Fortress battled to take the attack to the enemy in dangerous skies. In the Cold War great names such as the RAF's Lightning and Vulcan, the US Air Force's Sabre and Phantom were up against the best from Mikoyan and Gurevich's Mig factory. And in the last decades the skies have been dominated by the powerhouse American aviation industry. The F-16 is the defender of choice for the West and the amazing B-52 Stratofortress and B2 Spirit stealth bomber provide awesome offensive capability.In this ebook you will discover all these great military aircraft and many more, aircraft that have dominated the skies for more than a century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G2 Rights
• Release date: Apr 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781782819080

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Fokker EI-III Eindecker

The air services of the opposing powers consisted of a motley collection of different aircraft at the outbreak of war in August 1914. The thought of true aerial combat was a long way from the minds of army commanders and any aviation considerations were purely for observation and reconnaissance. If two enemies happened to meet in the air then a few wayward potshots with a pistol or rifle would show that it was virtually impossible to actually shoot down the enemy.

There were, however, experiments with machine guns on all sides but the problem was that the propellor would get in the way of any forward-firing gun mounted for the pilot to shoot. The British approach was to mount guns on the upper wing of a biplane making aiming almost impossible. Otherwise it was a two-seater aircraft with the gunner in the back firing anywhere but straight forward. The French tried a forward firing gun and attached steel plates to the propellor blades in case a bullet hit. In Germany, however, Dutchman Anthony Fokker’s company was developing an interrupter gear that would allow the machine gun to be synchronised with the turning propellor ensuring that bullets would never strike the blades.

Illustration

Oswald Boelcke, perhaps the greatest Eindecker ace

Illustration

Kurt Wintgens’ Eindecker pictured in 1915. On 1 July Wintgens shot down an enemy aircraft using an interrupter gear for the first time

At the same time Fokker was building a monoplane light aircraft, the M.5, and he persuaded the German army to test one of these with his new synchronisation gear. The aircraft was tested in actual air combat but had continual problems as the gear kept jamming. It wasn’t until some modifications were made that the true value of this new system could be shown. Some existing orders for M.5s were adapted and the new variant, including the gear and the machine gun, was called the Fokker E.1 or Eindecker which simply meant ‘one wing’.

It was planned that they should be used as escorts for reconnaissance aircraft so no squadron received more than a single aircraft. It would be 1 July 1915 before the first ‘kill’ was claimed when Leutnant Wintgens shot down a French Morane-Saulnier Type L fitted with the new French system of armoured propellor blades. Three days later he shot down another.

Illustration

The first production Fokker E.II

Illustration

The engine of a Fokker E.I showing the synchronizer gear rod

And so began the ‘Fokker scourge’ as British and French pilots described it. Neither had anything that could take on the Eindecker. As victories mounted so the Germans ordered higher powered variants, the E.II and E.III.

The two most successful, and most famous Eindecker pilots were Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelman. Both flew with the same unit, Feldflieger Abteilung 62, which literally means Field Flying Company the forerunner of the Luftwaffe squadrons. Boelcke shot down 19 enemy aircraft flying his Eindecker and went on to score 40 aircraft in total before he was killed in October 1916. Immelman was shot down and killed soon after scoring his 17th victory in June 1916. Both these German aces were early exponents of fighter tactics, something that had never really been thought of before, and drilled the other pilots in the best ways to attack. Among them was Manfred von Richthofen, the famous Red Baron, who would go on to shoot down 80 enemy aircraft and always credited Boelcke’s training with much of his success.

More than 400 were built but only 180 Eindeckers reached the Western Front. The Eindecker was the world’s first purpose-built fighter but it was a simple aircraft, a single seater made with steel tubing and bracing wire. However its dominance over the battlefield for nine months from Summer 1915 to Spring 1916, and its long-term influence on air warfare was incalculable.

Illustration

Max Immelmann and his Fokker E.II on 26 October 1915

CHAPTER 2

Sopwith Camel, Bristol F2b Fighter, SE5A

In wartime it’s vital that you stay one step ahead of the enemy and in the early months of 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was definitely behind the German Air Force in effectiveness of their aircraft. However everything was about to change.

Illustration

Bristol Fighter of the Shuttleworth Collection pictured at Old Warden in 1967

Illustration

The Shuttleworth Collection’s SE5A F904

British aircraft designers had been working to get new improved machines ready to re-equip the front line squadrons fighting in France.

In the space of just a few months at the end of 1916 and early 1917 three new aircraft took to the skies for the first time, aircraft that would enhance the strength of the Royal Flying Corps in its struggle for air supremacy.

The Bristol Fighter, officially the F2b, flew first in September 1916. It was a two-seater with the forward firing machine gun used by the pilot together with a gunner for defence against attacks from behind. It could withstand tremendous punishment but initially the aircraft was not a success due to outdated tactics. By revising these tactics and treating the F2b as a single seat fighter it became hugely successful.

Second to fly was the Royal Aircraft Factory’s single-seat SE5A designed by Henry Folland and John Kenworthy at Farnborough. This was a strong and manoeuvrable aircraft which crucially was able to maintain its performance at high altitude. It was also faster than most German fighters and