In the Air

When the Wright Brothers first flew over Kitty Hawk, they couldn't have imagined how far the airplane would come in the past 100 years.  In the 11 years moving forward, the airplane had yet to be embraced in any large scale capacity yet.  Planes were not yet large enough to carry more than a few people, and in terms of cargo they were not a cost effective way to move goods.  When the war broke out, few countries had organized air-forces, and even fewer had any idea of what to do with the crazy, dangerous flying contraptions?


Initially, they were used as scouts.  They would fly over enemy trenches and take pictures, and count enemy troops.  While they were flying over, enemy troops would fire on them with their machine guns.  Though these guns were not designed to shoot into the air, the airplanes early in the war were not fast, and could easily be shot down by these guns.  To escape this danger, faster and more powerful planes were built.  With these larger engines, they could carry more than just a single man.

Planes that could carry the weight were fitted with machine guns, and directed to shoot down the enemy observer planes.  These planes eventually came to be called Fighters.   Other, larger planes were fitted with more than 1 engine, and could carry massive payloads of explosives.  These planes were called bombers.  As the war progressed, these planes become more and more specialized.  They grew larger, faster, and more deadly.  

(An F-22 Raptor, the most advanced military aircraft in the world today.  IT is the end of the evolutionary line begun in World War 1)