First War Planes, The

At the outbreak of the First World War, the aircraft ranged against each other were more akin in appearance to children’s kites than to the sleek, sophisticated planes of today. Also, in 1914, the role of aircraft in wartime was seen, above all, as an aide to reconnaissance, and only simply as a weapon in itself.

The story of these aircraft, and their development as a new weapon of war in the years to 1918 is all the more fascinating when seen in relation to the men who flew these first warplanes. The aircrew of those early days of combat flying were truly a pioneer band. Often cavalry officers whose mounts had become outmoded, they took to the air without parachutes to become the first fighter and bomber pilots and equipped the world’s military vocabulary with a new phrase – “Air Power.”

In this volume the authors present to the non-specialist reader a comprehensive and fully illustrated account of the development in aircraft design and armament, combat techniques, and military application during a period when the age-old dream of flight became a curiously chivalrous yet deadly reality over the battlefields of Europe.