Anthony Fokker inspected the wreckage and improved the design by connecting the firing mechanism of the gun to the timing of the engine, to allow the gun to fire through the propeller without hitting it. He achieved three kills, but was shot down by ground fire, landing behind German lines. Roland Garros, working with Morane Saulnier Aéroplanes, was the first to solve this problem by attaching steel deflector wedges to the propeller.
įixed, forward-firing guns were found to be the most effective armament for most World War I era fighters, but were nearly impossible to fire through the spinning propeller without destroying it. The need to stop reconnaissance by enemy aircraft rapidly led to the development of fighter planes, a class of aircraft designed specifically to destroy enemy aircraft. The pilot, Feldwebel Wilhelm Schlichting, was shot with a hand gun wielded by observer Louis Quenault, riding in a Voisin Type 3 piloted by French Sergeant Joseph Frantz. The first aircraft to be shot down by another aircraft, which occurred on October 5, 1914, was a German Aviatik. Early aerial combat consisted of aviators shooting at one another with hand held weapons. Military aviation appeared in World War I where aircraft were initially used to spot enemy troop concentrations, field gun positions and movements.
0 kommentar(er)
