By early i mean 1909-1925
What do you know about early aviation warfare /his/?
Recommended books documentaries about the subject?
Who did Gunther Plüschow fire at over Tsingtao?
I'm interested as well
Literally pistol duels in the sky
>>962121
Biggles
>>962121
I Werner Voss was a complete badass who died before his time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CBx7x5GCI
>>964343
Shame he killed himself.
>>962121
Goodreads has a nice shelf dedicated to it, anon. Sadly that's all I know.
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/world-war-i-aviation
Who wants pictures of WW1 planes?
Was there ever engagements between airships?
>>965736
Not from what I've read. Germany was the only one who was really all that aggressive with their airships, and the vast majority of what they did was scouting.
The only real "combat" use of Zeppelins that we see are the occasional night raids on England and France.
Posting in a great thread
look at this 4engined son of a birch
Flying Circus
>>965893
Movie about them fucking when? Manfred von Richthofen, Werner Voss, Lothar von Richthofen (red baron's brother), Kurt Wolff, Karl Schafer, Herman Goering
>>965938
Theres that shitty american "flyboys" movie which features a no-celebrities-harmed flying circus, thats the only thing from recent time
>>963260
Only at the start, once they figured out synchronized mg's things got interesting
Worlds first air to air engagement was between two American mercenaries who were fighting for opposing side during the Mexican Revolution in 1913. They refused to kill one another despite being paid to do so and instead fired their pistols at one another's "general direction" an purposely missed.
What was your favorite WWI plane and why was it the Albatros D.III?
>>966687
Fokker Eindecker m8
also Spad
>>962121
Hey mate, If you want a cool narrative driven book that contains stuff about WW1 piloting and fighting try "Lords of the Sky" by Dan Hampton, an Ex F-16 Pilot.
He writes about the history of aerial combat starting with observer vs observer battles in WW1 right through the major conflicts of the 20th century.
In regards to the WW1 stuff in the book, he juxtaposes the Central Powers/Entente theories and engineering of the time and how their respective fighter aces developed early combat flight.
>>966687
Legitimate questions here, why is the albatros rarely mentioned in popular ww1 documentaries and books as opposed to the much more famous and popular fokker production lines? The albatros looks like it easily would out preform any other contemporary aircraft in terms of aerodynamics.
Also it's so pretty
>>962121
In the very early war they were not used for combat and instead rather just for scouting. So they still retained the name of "scout aircraft" rather than fighters even late war when they took on more offensive roles.
Was the job of WWI pilots assigned to be balloon busters really more dangerous than being a scout or fighter?
>>965956
There's also the movie the red baron... it's pretty good
>>966890
I'm pretty sure it was. Due to them needing to get within a certain range of the observation balloons before firing, which put them at risk of not just the massive amounts of flak from the AA guns defending them, but also potentially within the radius if the balloons fireball/explosion if hit with an incendiary round. They also sometimes booby-trapped observation balloons with explosives.
It seems like am easy, less glamorous job if you take it at name value, but it was in fact one of the most dangerous and ballsy missions a WWI pilot could take.
>>967211
Not to mention the passive defenses.
Kites with steel wires and even squadrons of fighter craft defending said balloon.
It was a crazy task, akin to Rogue Squadron trying to take down the Death Star.
And then you have the Balloon buster aces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Coppens
This unssuming fellow here is the Balloon buster Ace of Aces. Some highlights of his career:
>landing on balloons to not get shot
>bouncing off a balloon. The Balloon collapsed soon afer and exploded.
>waltzing straight into a trap ZE GERMANS set to take him out (explosives-packed balloon) and murderizing a ton of German Staff Officers who were watching
I can't make this shit up.
>>966881
i wish we could wear cloaks again
>>966798
I'm not sure what popular WW1 docs you're speaking about, but I'd say it's as well known as any WW1 airplane that's not the Fokker Dr.1 or Camel. It was a hugely important plane mid war, but it wasn't very innovative. It's sesquiplane wing layout was a copy of the Nieuport Scouts and was susceptible to breaking under stress as well. It also wasn't the first or only plane to use a shaped nose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkk6AxG8jaY
Have a Kermit Weeks video for your interest.
>>967376
Holy shit, this guy had balls of steel. And he survived the war too. Why doesn't he have a movie?
>>965938
>Herman Goering
you know full well why.
>>967385
we can, you're just a faggot who cares.
Fokker D.VII
Generally agreed upon to be the best fighter of WW1. It was designed by Reinhold Platz for Fokker. Note the cantilever wing design, eliminating the need for wire bracing, increasing durability in combat and ease of maintenance. Fokker didn't pioneer cantilever wing design, instead they got the idea from a brief period of forced cooperation with the Junkers design team. Also interestingly the designer Platz didn't have a formal engineering background, he started work with Fokker as a welder.
>>967614
sweet camo pattern tho
why don't you go show /k/?
>>967620
kys
sexiest biplane ever built
best documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkOh8ttVh14&list=PL5mXI7nSPo6iQuC54bNM7DSvB9fwfPS2h&nohtml5=False
>>965938
Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)
>>967620
It's actually WE WUZ MARIOS.
Willy Coppens fucken Mario stomped a balloon. And almost did it on another one.
>>967385
I know this feel
>>967634
>Sexiest biplane
>Not the Fokker albatross
>>967634
Quality post. Any background on the picture?, I notice and American is inspecting it. The American Air Service ended up getting "stuck" with later model Nieuports after they had past their prime.
Here's another interesting WW1 plane. The Sopwith Snipe was the final development of Sopwith's famous line of WW1 scouts. It was a real beast of a plane compared to early war types, with a 230hp engine. It saw limited action but scored significant victories over the Fokker D.VII. Despite the big increase in power the Snipe was starting to show the limitations of externally braced biplanes (biplanes in general) in terms of performance. Top speed was a not very exceptional 121 mph
I've always loved WWI dogfighting more than WWII and later jet-age stuff. WWII is full of cool stuff too, but there's something about the innovation of the plane as a weapon, the chivalry of the "knights of the sky", birth of the air ace and the lower speeds, closer encounters and open cockpits that make it seem so much more cool.
Anyone have any numbers on how dangerous it was to be a fighter pilot in WWI vs WWII? Obviously there were more aces and overall kills in WWII, but I expect WWI flying had an extra amount of damage due to the relatively recent invention of the airplane and the rapid push to use it for military purposes and to willingness to push things to see what all the aircraft of the time were able to do.
I'll share some pictures of Bulgarian aircrafts.
Scouting aeroplane Farman MF.7 near Edirne, 1912, First Balkan War
Aircraft Albatross, which dropped grenades over Edirne in October, 1912.
Scouting balloon, Edirne, 1912-1913.
So what did they manage to do with planes in the Mexican punitive expedition?
Aviators on a Albatros C.III scouting biplane, with a 7,92-mm MG 14 Parabellum machine gun, 1918.
>>967701
>Not loving the birdplane
>>967783
https://youtu.be/MNlBSDdjpT8?t=11m10s
https://youtu.be/MNlBSDdjpT8?t=30m56s
Can't give you exact numbers but just look up a pilot named Kermit Weeks. He has thousand of hours of flying and competed in numerous aerobatics competitions. Now imagine doing the stuff he did in a modern aerobatics plane designed with a decades of experience, advanced materials and CAD technology, with how he flies vintage airplanes. Even the aces of WW1 had a fraction of the experience he has yet they are pushing the aircraft equivalent of a Model T Ford to aerobatics that would be dangerous WITHOUT gunfire. That being said most successful pilots weren't complete maniacs defeating the enemy with spectacular displays of aerobatic performance, but it did happen.
>>967614
Not actually a canteliver wing. You're probably thinking of pic related.
>>968029
I'm trying to watch that video but it's just such a horribly American documentary.
>>968254
It actually is.
Check out the picture you linked. A DVII has the exact same upper wing attachment with no wires to support it. That's because the wing is internally braced. That's what makes it a cantilever. Reinhold Platz didn't come up with the idea (Junkers did) but he used it throughout the Fokker D series, from the Dr1 up through the DVIII you have pictured.
Notice the lack of bracing in this DVII
esign using a cantilever wing. The entire Platz designed Fokker D series used cantilever wings including the Dr.1.
>>968562
Those interplane struts are bracing. It may have reduced bracing, but that's not cantilevered.
Pic related is actually cantilevered.
>>968680
>>968680
>>968835
>wikipedia is always right
Cantilevered means that you've only got supports at the base of the wing. The D.VII's wings had interplane supports near the tips, meaning they very much weren't cantiliever.
>>968992
You're not even using the right terminology. The interplane "supports" are actually struts. The parasol wing of a D.VIII is also mounted with struts.
>>969069
>guy who doesn't understand what cantilever means complaining about others misusing terminology
>>965879
designed by Igor Sikorski
Frederick Rutland, hero in Jutland and later a spy for the japanese (or at least he gave them valuable information about carriers)
>>969080
> posting Platz D series as "counter examples"
>>969358
u wot m8
>>969080
That fucking shark is adorable.
