"Significant Aircraft of WWI" Topic

While I understand looks are important, what are the most significant aircraft of The Great War.

This link is to my blog to get the conversation rolling.
link

Tell me what you think.

Jon

DFW C.V – backbone of the German air force for much of the war, and their most-produced aircraft by a hefty margin. Invariably overlooked in favour of the fighters…. ;-)

I really have to vote for the SE5a, it was well ahead of its time.

British: Camel, Se-5a, Bristol Two-seater

French: S.P.A.D VII, S.P.A.D. XIII

German: Taube, Albatross III, Fokker Dr I, Fokker DVII

I think Rich really hit the nail. I'd add the Albatros D.V and the Fokker DVIII. In addition, although the bombers didn't really play a major role, they were significant in that they opened to the doors to what was to come in WWII the Gotha IV and V and the Handley Page HP O/400. With many of the other a/c it was their role that was innovative more than the a/c.

Fokker EIII, the Eindecker, really kicked off the spiral arms race whcih saw so many great aircraft seize hegemony for a while before being superceded. Its what makes the Great War so interesting in the air, you have real variation each year.

And often the variations were coming seasonally.

The RAF B.E.2 and R.E.8.

Reconnaissance and artillery spotting was the primary mission of aircraft during the Great War. All the aforementioned scout aircraft existed purely to enable (or deny) the recon aircraft doing their jobs.

The Breguet Br.14..

Workhorse of the Aviation Militaire.

Big, sturdy, fast, heavily armed (normally 1 front and twin rear lewis), 300 kg bomb load and made with advanced building techniques involving a lot of aluminum.

Almost 8000 built and it filled a lot of roles but it really shone as a light bomber and recon platform.

Aprt from that i second the DFW C.V .. another unsung workhorse.

Two Brits – BE2 and F2 'Biff' and two Boche – Albatros D.III and DFW C.V.

However, I doff my cap in recognition of the Felixstowe F2 flying boat.

(Snoppy?) You'll edit your title in a moment, I am sure. :)

Most hideous design (that saw combat service) of the Great War: Spad A2

Most advanced design: Junkers monoplanes

Most produced: Sopwith Camel

Easiest to fly: Fokker D7

Best all around performer: Fokker D7

Most ubiquitous: Albatros D types

Most lethal (hardest to fly) for the pilots: Sopwith Camel

Most aesthetically pleasing symmetry: Nieuport scouts

Longest service period: RE8

Biggest: Staaken Giants

Smallest: Fokker DR1

Most hyped by legend: Fokker DR1

Most unpopular: BE2c

Most kills: Sopwith Camel, Allied side: Albatros D5 Central side.

Longest service period after the war: Bristol F2b

Most replicated full-scale type to date: Fokker DR1

Most comfortable/warm to fly: SE5

Highest service ceiling: Rumpler with oxygen

Heaviest bomb load for its size: Breguet 14

Most heavily defensively armed: Handley Page O400

Fastest climber: Fokker DR1

Fastest on the flat: SE5 Wolseley Viper engined

Fastest in a dive: Spad 13 (reputation only: in actual fact, if tests were possible, probably the Fokker D7 would equal or exceed the Spad 13's terminal velocity; almost certainly the Fokker D8 and any of the Junkers monoplanes would also)

The significant ones were the Morane Saulnier Parasol and Fokker Eindekker which started the fighter plane thingy

"Longest service period: RE8"

Translated as "plane kept flying longest after it was obsolete despite better aircraft being available" :)

"Longest service period after the war: Bristol F2b"

Probably a toss up between that and the Breguet 14, both were used into the 1930's

What about the Avro504 or the Sopwith Strutter?

Nice informative post Great War Ace!

I would go with any two seater in reconnaissance or artillery spotting roles. In World War One the unglamorous photo recon and artillery missions were far more significant to the overall war effort than flyboy Aces buzzing around each other.

"Most comfortable/warm to fly: SE5"

I would have thought that the Ilya Muromets, with a centrally heated enclosed crew cabin was more comfortable.

"Longest service period: RE8"

The BE2 series had a fairly long service history – 1914 to at least 1917.

The RE8 is merely a redux of the BE2, with all the annoying, deadly pieces moved around and "fixed".

I was thinking of open cockpit single and twoseaters….

Albatros D.III and the Spad VII in their prime.

Most produced: Sopwith Camel

Shouldn't that read "most produced in the UK ?" ;-) 5700 Camels is impressive but slightly less than the 8470 or so Spad XIIIs produced during WW1. <G>

For a slightly less English-centric (and admittedly more French-centric) view, these definitely have their place in a short list of most significant aircraft of The Great War (not necessarily the best):

- Morane-Saulnier Type L: very first operational fighter aircraft with fixed machine guns that really kicked off the arms race

- Nieuport 17: the best allied fighter plane when it came out, used on all major fronts by all allied air forces. Copied by the Germans and flown by the RFC, which goes to say…

- Spad XIII: Most produced plane of WW1. Flown by the French, American, British, Italian, Belgian and Russian air services. Nuff said…

- Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter: fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, shipborne, single seater, two-seater this was a jack of all trades (and master of none) that gave good service on all fronts. Flown by the French, American, British, Belgian and Russian air services.

"8,470 or so" Spads 13: yes, including production in 1919. How many were in service by November 1918? By 1 April 1918 there were still only 764 Spads 13 completed and only 290 in operational service. There were 2,582 Camels in operational service at the end of the War.

I should have phrased that , "Most in operational service"….

As to the SPAD XIII there were boatloads in service by wars end. At that point a full 893 had been delivered to the USAS and it equipped around 14 USAS squadrons ,1 belgian, 4 full italian squadrons plus 110 French squadrons.

In other words: Heaps…

By the end of the war the engine problems vere largely solved, production output was massive and the SPAD VIIs role as a reserve plane when the S.XIIIs could not fly was in most part stopped.

If the definition of significent is to mean Important and having an Influence, then I would vote for theEindecker for the Germans, although as a design it was not that good, but it was significant in that the allies had to react.
For the British, it is for me the BE2c. It served for almost the entire war, influenced the RE8, BE12, and to a lesser extent the SE5, caused an uproar in Parliment, and was responsible for the deaths of many airmen. It also was the vehicle for a few Victoria Crosses.
But the MOST significant aircraft (in MHO) is the Neiuport 11. It influenced the whole N series, and the Albotross DIII and DV, and to some degree the Pfalz DIII series. It caused quite the panic in German Aerodromes.

Runners up; Sopwith Triplane (influenced the DRI), Fokker DVII (banned by treaty) Brisfit, basic design can be seen in the Swordfish, Albacore and others successors, and the BR 14, which made the Breguet company a major player in the French Air Force for the generation.

How is the BE2 and SE5 connected?

Royal Aircraft Factory designs, and the SE5 grew out of everything they had learned about the BE line. The extreme dihedral in the SE5's wings is one direct connection to the BE. Another is the general symmetry of both aircraft….

Vickers Gunbus!

Fastest climber: SS D.III?

Faster climbing than the DR1? I don't think so. But climb rates are a tricky statistic, because sometimes you are looking at "sustained climb" and other times a rapid climb. Impossible to say which just looking at the stats because they don't say which. Then there is the bugbear of aircraft condition, which can of course alter the tested aircraft's stats a lot….

Both the Pfalz D.VIII and the SSW D.III had a better climb to 5000 meters than the Dr.I.

According to some sources the difference was 20 minutes for the Dr.I and 13.5 for the D.III Another sources cites the Dr.I at 15.5 minutes for the Dr.I (still slower).

The nominal output of 160 Hp (210 hp actual) of the S-H as opposed to the 110 of the Ursel on the Dr. I made a big difference.

"Initial" climb rate and sustained climb rate are different fish. At altitude the DR1 seems to have them beat. But again, the good figures are lacking and a lot is conjecture….

I've been reading a bit, and it does seem that the SSW D3 and D4 are a tad better (less than half minute difference to altitude) than the DR1, so Gilmore is right. "Sustained" climb goes to the SSWs. However, the eyewitness account of a British pilot encountering the new German planes was not impressed by their "zoom" capacity, while commenting favorably on their dogfighting capabilities. As the SE5 had a noticably inferior "zoom" climb compared to the DR1, it is likely that an SE5 jocky would not think the SSW's "zoom" was unimpressive if it was anywhere near as good as a DR1's. So I am going to suggest that the DR1's climbing rep was based mostly on how it went up "like a monkey on a string" during dogfights….

Good point on the climbing abilty.. I also think that it should be remembered that the Dr.Is reputations was build in late 1917 when the RFC still flew Pups, Nieuport 17 and 24 along with the arriving Se5 and Camels.

Of course, Camels and SE5s were the mainline Brit fighters right up to the end of the War.

The Spad had a better "zoom" than an SE5 or Camel, yet the DR1 was noticably better at climbing than the Spad, which Charles Biddle made clear in his description of a dogfight he had with one in May 1918. (So rare were tri-planes even then that he thought it was a "new machine"….)