Fighter planes, originally Pursuit, and including undifferentiated early military types
One of the best fighters of World War One, widely used by French, American, and other Allied squadrons, 8,472 being produced.
In 1916 a new generation of German fighters threatened to win air superiority over the Western Front. The French aircraft company, Société pour l’Aviation et ses Dérives (SPAD), responded by developing a replacement for its [...]
The famed American volunteers of the French Lafayette Escadrille were flying the SPAD VII in February 1918 at the time they transferred to the U.S. Army Air Service, becoming the 103rd Aero Squadron. Several other U.S. units also used the SPAD VII, although most American Expeditionary Force (AEF) fighter squadrons were equipped with the improved version, [...]
Probably the most famous British aircraft of all time, the great fighter played a secondary role in the Battle of Britain to the less glamourous Hawker Hurricane. But the Spitfire’s elegant looks, excellent handling characteristics, and huge production give it a unique place in aviation history. There was a bit of happenstance in the Spitfire’s [...]
Here is a photo of an F-86D, with pilot Frank Malone, submitted for identification by his niece.
In 1920, the Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 29 was the fastest airplane in the world. Designed by the Nieuport firm for the French Aviation Militaire in 1918, the Ni-D 29 appeared too late for combat in WWI. Following its record-breaking performance in the 1920 Gordon Bennett Trophy race, when it flew 168 miles per hour, it was [...]
How do you fire a machine gun through the arc of a spinning propeller? Early in 1915, aviators engaged in the First World War wanted to solve that problem. Obviously, the bullets of the machine gun would smash a propeller to bits. So far in the war, German, French, and British airmen had fired [...]
This late variant of Nieuport’s biplanes was used mainly by American pilots, notably Eddie Rickenbacker, the French having switched over to Spads.
The Type 28 looked quite different from the earlier Nieuports: it had a longer, rounded fuselage; it dispensed with the sesquiplane configuration (and the associated V struts); and it had rounded, not angular wingtips. [...]
The most successful of the Nieuport biplanes of WWI, flown by the French, British, Americans, Italians, and Russians. Often referred to in contemporary sources as the “15 meter” Nieuport (based on its total wing surface).
During the summer of 1916, many months after the appearance of the Fokker, the French produced the Nieuport 17, armed with [...]
Early in World War Two, American fliers thought they were facing a “wonder weapon,” in the Pacific: Japan’s A6M2 Zero, the main fighter plane of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). It flew rings around the Brewster Buffalo’s, the Bell P-39’s, and (to a lesser extent) the Grumman F4F Wildcats. The Zero pilots were superb; [...]
With a distinctive large spinner, the Morane-Saulnier N looks, at least to the modern eye, better than the Parasol Type L, it met with much less success.
While the Type N was a graceful-looking aircraft, with an advanced, aerodynamic design, it was not easy to fly due to its stiff controls (using wing warping instead [...]
