Was the Airplane Effective in Wwi

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Was the Air War in World War I an Experiment? Submitted by: Tyler Barnes Course code: CHC 2D Submitted to: Mr.Fuciarelli Due Date: Tuesday, May 21st,2013 Was an airplane ever thought to be an effective weapon in war or was it just an experiment? The airplane could be the most useless part of World War I. As the Allied forces thought it could be a turning point in the war it became known that the airplane resulted in numerous deaths in World War I. At the beginning of the war numerous pilots died even during recon. At the beginning of World War I planes were used for recon. But these pilots had to be taught very quickly because the first plane was built only eleven years before. The plane was new and had not been properly equipped with the right machinery. “Life in the air was turbulent, confined and freezing cold. Often, airmen who had just returned from a reconnaissance mission were so numbed and dazed from prolonged exposure, that they literally had to thaw out before they could report their observations in a coherent and intelligible manner.” Was stated by Del Kostka. Even for the most basic acts of war, airplanes continued to kill or injure their own soldiers even though it continued to give some information. The results of these events were tragic but the Allies and the Germans continued to believe that it would help win the war. The effectiveness of planes was dramatic and resulted in predicting the enemy’s tactics but there was always a negative. Both militaries equipped there pilots with rifles to shoot down enemy recon planes. The Allies and the Germans continued to find was to shoot down recon planes. “Greater horsepower and an engine-forward "tractor" design provided the scouts more speed, more agility and higher rates of climb then their pusher style adversaries.” (Kostka) The fight in the sky had just begun. As many members of both armies

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