The United States entered World War I in April 1917 with no suitable combat aircraft. They turned to three allies for suitable designs, British, French and Italian. By 1918 the best and fastest fighter (or pursuit) designs had abandoned the faithful rotary engines for liquid-cooled in-line engines.
The Germans flew the Fokker DVII, a very advanced design from one of the most talented Dutch designers to ever sit at a drawing board. The French advanced the SPAD, the British the SE-5. The Americans flew both the SPAD and SE-5, building a respectable number of the latter.
Along with the Liberty engine and the JN-4 trainer the only American aerospace contribution in World War I was the British-designed de Havilland DH-4, but American fighter pilots joined the fight in several allied designs, including the Nieuport and Sopwith Camel, but very successfully in both the SE-5 and SPAD.
Imagine yourself in a leather helmet and goggles, no parachute, in a WWI fighter. Which one?
2007-10-20
19:05:05
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4 answers
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asked by
Warren D
7
in
Military