The Air War

Early air activity

• Observation balloons, Kite balloons
• 1903- First powered flight
• RFC founded 1912
• RNAS founded 1914
• Planes slow, unreliable, pilots killed due to faults
• Little investment due to lack of reliability
• Private ownership
• 100 aircraft in military 1914, mainly for reconnaissance
• Zeppelins designed 1900, first used 1906
• Zeppelins slow, large, but hard to take down until incendiary bullets were invented

Pilots and Reconnaissance

• 1914- Less than 1000 people employed in aeronautics. 1918- 350,000
• 1914- 100 aircraft, 1918- over 22,000
• Pilots better-fed, get better accomodation than infantry, seen as heroes
• 'Knights of the Air' loved by women and schoolboys
• Allied planes increased morale, enemy planes decreased morale
• Roles in 1918 include artillery spotting, aerial combat, ground attacks, reconnaissance, bombing (tactical=battlefield; strategic=home)
• Difficult to see what is happening in muddy trenches

Observation

• Identification markers prevented friendly fire
• Hand signals, dropped notes, morse code, flag signalling, and post-landing reports were early communication forms
• Radio tech used by the end of 1914, but heavy and only one way as pilots cannot hear
• Early 1915- lightweight radios and 'zone call' system to pinpoint artillery
• Cameras bulky and hand operated by observer to begin with
• 1915- cameras mounted…