Aviation & Aeronautics, Thursday October 2, Period 2

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

Murdock had yet another dog with him in class today, deciding that making two trips this morning would be a bit more than his twisted knee was up for. Houston lay on the floor next to the desk, tail thumping and watching the students with interest as the class filed in.

"Don't mind him," Murdock smirked. "He's just a guest for the day. Houston's friendly though, if any of y'all want to meet him. Ain't ya boy?" Houston just wagged his tail further.

He got up and limped toward the chalkboard. "So let's get started. There's quite a bit of notes, since we'll be covering World War I."

(ocd up shortly)

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Ze Lecture, part 2.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Machine guns had been mounted on aircraft almost from the start of the war, but the effect of the extra weight was so detrimental to flight performance that these arms were immediately removed. The first step toward the development of real pursuit or fighter types took place when Roland Garros (http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/garros.htm) while with the French Escadrille M.S. 23 arranged for bullet deflection devices invented by Raymond Saulnier (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/morane-saulnier.html) to be attached to the propeller blades of his Morane-Saulnier Type N in March 1915. The bullet deflection wedges attached to the propeller blades permitted him to fire a Hotchkiss (http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/mgun_hotchkiss.htm) machine gun through the arc or 'disk', formed by the whirling prop without shooting off the blades. And believe me, you don't want that to happen." Not that he's ever had a problem with such a thing, no. Yah right.

"Copying the deflectors was easy, making them work was not. In German experiments, the gun simply shot the propeller off. So the German High Command turned to Dutch designer Anthony Fokker (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/Fokker/AP7.htm). Fokker rejected the deflection system and directed his staff to create a synchronizing system for the Parabellum machine gun (http://www.hegewisch.net/blindkat/voss/lmg.html) to be mounted on his new Fokker M 5K monoplane. The synchronizing system momentarily interrupted the fire of the machine gun whenever the propeller blades were in front of the muzzle, therefore no bullets could hit the blades except in hang fire. Eventually the Allies would develop their own device, the Constantinesco interrupter gear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Constantinescu), but not before Fokker's device gave Germany a significant advantage."

"Parceled out to various squadrons as they were built, they became the object of much desire for pilots. They were coined Eindeckers (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_fokker_eI.html) by the German High Command and by mid-1915 they had earned the nickname the 'Fokker Scourge'. Opposition to the Fokkers was light at first, the British were flying the slow B.E.2cs and Maurice Farman (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/farman.html) 'Box Kites' and sought some sort of mutual protection in formation flying. The French employed Morane-Saulnier Parasols (http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~worldwarone/WWI/Airplanes/index.html), Bleriots (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Bleriot/Aero47.htm), Farmans (http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/a_farman.html) and Voisins (http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/voisin.html). Their Caudron bombers (http://www.wwiaviation.com/bombers_allies.shtml) were soon retired to night duty after heavy losses during day raids. None were capable of standing up to the Fokkers, whose highbred pilots would stalk the front."

"As the air war spread, airplanes became significant even when used in small numbers. In 1915, British Short seaplanes began operations from the H.M.S. Ark Royal against the Turks in the Dardanelles. The Italians broke their alliance with Germany and entered the war on the side of the Allies on May 24, 1915 with just under 100 aircraft. The Italians then went on to engage the Austrians in pinprick air battles, primarily with seaplanes. In contrast, the Germans found that their fighters and other aircraft were more effective if grouped in homogeneous units. More than 80 individual sections of aircraft were deployed by the Germans by the end of 1915, including specially designated bombing squadrons. Such expansion demanded the creation of a chain of flying schools, training courses for observers and mechanics, and the establishment of tables or organizations of great size. By 1916, a 14-plane fighter group required 117 people to support it. That still kinda holds true," he turned to the class. "Even nowdays, it takes a lot of effort and resources to field an aerial unit. It's not a cheap or easy process."