War in the Air Essay Example for Free

War in the Air Essay If there was a war today, aircraft would be used for the following reasons, parachuting soldiers into enemy lines, bombing enemy countries, transporting supplies to troops, spying on the enemy, observe aircraft carriers to gain valuable information about operations in the enemy lines. In 1914 planes were not as useful and were mainly used to watch enemy activities. The only weaponry used by aircraft were the guns which pilots carried to shoot down enemy planes this was very dangerous as pilots risked hitting the propeller and having the shot rebound and killing themselves. Later in 1915 a man called Anthony Fokker a Dutch designer working for Germany designed a machine gun timed to fire between the airplanes propellers. The invention made air combat more deadly and lead to dogfights which was clashes with enemy aircraft. Another source of weaponry used by pilots was small hand bombs which were dropped by hand; these bombs had little effect on the enemy and outcome of the war. In 1914 planes resources disabled the aeroplanes from transporting supplies to troops and operating attacks on the enemy. During 1914 planes were extremely unreliable and very dangerous, they were mostly used for observing the enemies lines, spying and collecting valuable information. At later stages Germany developed the Gotha it was one of the first bomber aircraft, these aeroplanes were very valuable as they collected information from the enemy lines they took valuable photographs. These aeroplanes were a great help for sailors and troops. The Zeppelins were not much use for attacking this was due to them not being able to carry enough bombs to do serious damage. These were a valuable weapon for war at sea and the Germans had the most advanced ones. In the earlier stages of war the important aircraft were the airships, the airships were gas powered by engines with massive bags of Hydrogen. The airships were mainly used by the British army for accompanying ships and tracking down u-boats. They spotted u-boats on the surface of the water and they gave a warning to allied troops. However Germany had an advantage as their airships were the Zeppelins they were an important weapon but more so to the war at sea. The Zeppelins flew higher and travelled at a greater speed.