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This is a very reliable source because it tells us the characteristics of every plane used in the First World War, and it has the characteristic of telling us were the remaining war planes are now

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The Cold War period required that Britain keep a useful, highly-capable bomber arm to help preserve the peace in Europe and elsewhere.

The aircraft played a pivotal role for all sides of World War 1 when the conflict began in 1914. Early forms were typically unarmed and used in the reconnaissance role until personal weapons were added. From there, the machine gun was finally fixed to these aircraft to create the 'fighter' aeroplane. As the situation on the ground slowed to become Trench Warfare, it would fall to the men in the skies to provide a breakthrough and ultimately force air superiority on the enemy. Many aircraft types emerged from the fighting - scouts, night bombers, night fighters, ground attack - and these served to pave the way for new, post-war aircraft that followed.

There are a total of 207 World War 1 Aircraft (1914-1918) - Combat Airplanes of The Great War in the Military Factory. Entries are listed below in alphanumeric order (1-to-Z). Flag images indicative of country of origin and not necessarily the primary operator.

View Aces of World War 1.

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World War 1 Aircraft (1914-1918) - Combat Airplanes of The Great War

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The aircraft played a pivotal role for all sides of World War 1 when the conflict began in 1914. Early forms were typically unarmed and used in the reconnaissance role until personal weapons were added. From there, the machine gun was finally fixed to these aircraft to create the 'fighter' aeroplane.

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This a very reliable webpage because it is written by teachers from all over the world that have special studies on this from College

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World War I for Kids: Aviation and Aircraft of WWI

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Kids learn about aviation and aircraft of World War I. Airplanes were first used in WW1 for reconnaissance and bombings. Famous fighter pilots called aces fought each other in the sky.

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This is a very reliable source because real wittnesses that were present in the times of the First World War or fighted for their country.

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Citation: C N Trueman "Aircraft and World War One"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 17 Apr 2015. 20 May 2018.

At the start of World War One, aircraft were very basic and crude. By the time World War One had ended, aircraft had become far more sophisticated and had differentiated into fighters, bombers and long-range bombers. The development of aircraft was stimulated by the war's requirements, as was the way aircraft were actually used. At the start of the war in August 1914, British airmen were part of the British Army and commissioned officers had army ranks. By the end of the war in November 1918, the Royal Flying Corps no longer existed and was absorbed into the newly created Royal Air Force. This had its own command structure away from the army and introduced its own ranks.

The first recorded powered flight was in 1903 when the Wright brothers flew their aircraft. The first powered crossing of the English Channel was by Louis Blèriot in 1909. Therefore it could only be expected that in 1914 aircraft remained remarkably crude. In the autumn of 1914 a new recruit to the Royal Flying Corps had a greater chance of being killed during training than during combat. When British aircraft took off from England to fly to bases in France for the first time in the war, navigation was based on map reading while in the air and, if the lack of clouds allowed, looking out for landmarks on the ground to guide the pilots.

Initially aircraft were thought to be of little combat use. One unknown British general commented:

"The airplane is useless for the purposes of war."

As a result of this attitude they were initially mainly used for reconnaissance; for example, feeding back information for artillery strikes, recording German troops movements etc. If by chance German and Allied airmen came across one another, aerial combat was crude but deadly. Pilots flew in cramped cockpits so the carrying of parachutes was impossible even if it had been allowed. In fact, senior army commanders forbade the carrying of parachutes in case they diluted the fighting spirits of pilots. Unable to carry a parachute and fearing death by fire, the British ace Mick Mannock carried a pistol, which he claimed he would use on himself if his aircraft ever caught fire.

As World War One progressed, the military believed that aircraft had a far greater value than just aerial photography - though this aspect of their use became far more sophisticated as the interpretation of aerial photographs improved. Two entirely different forms of aircraft developed - the fighter and the bomber. By November 1918, there was no comparison between the aircraft that finished the war and the aircraft that had been at the start. In just four years the changes brought on by war were huge.

The British company Avro had produced one of the first aircraft used by the army in 1914 - the 504. In fact, the first British aircraft shot down by the enemy in World War One was an Avro 504 flown by Lieutenant V Waterfall. The first version was not popular but by version K, Avro had produced a reliable aircraft that developed a fine reputation - the Americans bought 52 of the Avro K. The Sopwith Camel also gained a good reputation as a fighter aircraft. However, in terms of reputation, the Fokker Dr. Triplane eclipsed all fighters. Its association with the German ace Manfred von Richthoften certainly helped its cause but its design gave the aircraft excellent manoeuvrability and its rate of climb gave it a major advantage over Allied fighters.

At the start of World War One bomb aiming was crude in the extreme. The pilot - or co-pilot if the aircraft carried two people - simply dropped a small bomb over the side of the aircraft in the general direction of a target. If a bomb dropped anywhere near a target it was through good luck more than anything else. By the end of the war aircraft that could be recognised as long-range bombers had been developed. Much larger than fighters, and far less manoeuvrable, their task was very specific - to carry to a target as many bombs as was feasible and to drop them on said target with a degree of accuracy. The Germans had the Gotha bomber while the British had the Handley Page bomber. While the deliberate targeting of civilians was not a new military tactic, bombers made an aerial attack possible. Also a nation's means of war production - mainly factories - could also be attacked from the air. Such a consideration would have been impossible in 1914. By 1918, it was a reality.

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Aircraft and World War One - History Learning Site

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At the start of World War One, aircraft were very basic and crude. By the time World War One had ended, aircraft had become far more sophisticated and had differentiated into fighters, bombers and long-range bombers. The development of aircraft was stimulated by the war's requirements, as was the way aircraft were actually used.

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Germany took a different approach to bombing by using lighter-than-air dirigibles, or zeppelins, to drop bombs on targets as far away as London and Paris. The slow-moving zeppelins, which had a long range and could carry a relatively large cargo of explosives, reached the peak of their success early in the war, during 1915. As the war continued, the giant airships became increasingly vulnerable to the rapidly improving capabilities of fighter planes: the zeppelins were filled with hydrogen, so only a small spark was necessary to cause the entire ship to explode in flames. As a result, Germany turned more and more to using airplanes as bombers.

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Bombing was an obvious offensive tactic for use in air warfare, but different countries approached the concept in different ways. Russia was the first to develop an airplane specifically for this purpose: the Murometz, a large four-engine airplane that Igor Sikorsky had developed in 1913 as a passenger plane, was adapted for use as a bomber in 1914 and was used successfully throughout the war.

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As aerial reconnaissance became more common, people needed ways to stop enemy observation planes. One way was by firing upon them from the ground, which was ineffective until guns could be better adapted for the purpose. The other way was to develop a means for one aircraft to attack another. The first such attempts were made using the observation aircraft themselves, as pilots and observers attempted to shoot at other planes using rifles and even pistols. The ideal solution was the machine gun, which could fire a continuous stream of bullets, significantly increasing the chance of hitting a target.

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Early in the war, military strategists realized that aircraft could be very useful for spying on enemy troop movements, and the idea of reconnaissance plane was born. These aircraft typically carried a pilot and an observer with a camera, who would photograph troop positions on the ground. The use of aircraft for reconnaissance grew rapidly during the first few months of the war and played an increasingly crucial role in

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In the summer of 1914, the airplane was less than eleven years old. Aviation was a new invention that had lots of expectations. Most airplanes of the time were slow, flimsy contraptions with barely enough power to lift one or two passenger. Numerous countries had shown an interest in military aviation, but the concept of using airplanes to wage war was still a fairly radical idea. All that changed during the course of World War I.