Airplanes in WW1

The First World War was monumental in history because of all the new technology that was introduced. One particular area that developed during the Great War was the use of airplanes by the German and Allied militaries. In comparison, they both had different mentalities towards an invention that was only made successful less than a decade before the outbreak of war in 1914 by the Wright Brothers in North Carolina, United States. The German Military welcomed the idea with open arms, investing in its potential for military uses, whereas the Allies remained reserved and hesitant, claiming that aircraft could not be used for anything more offensive than reconnaissance missions. These differences in opinions later affected the development of each air force. The German military kept making consistent improvements to their equipment whereas the allied pilots were slow in their respective air force evolution. However, there was a common progression that both militaries had which was the slow phasing out of the cavalry on either side due to the effectiveness of the aircrafts reconnaissance and battle capabilities. During the World War One, the German military took advantage of the new technology available to them, which gave significant results, whereas the Allies had a more traditional mindset and followed behind at a slower pace.

The Central Powers have accepted new technology within their history without much opposition. One example of this fact is based on how prepared the German military was when World War One erupted. By 1914 the German military had 230 aircraft listed on paper with at least 180 of them manufactured and ready. Which when compared to the ninety (three squadrons of thirty) that the British contributed, was almost twic...

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...n, despite their mobility issues in the trenches and across the front lines. The French had the best idea of incorporating airplanes into the cavalry and artillery divisions so that there would be a far greater benefit than if the three units worked alone. However, as aircraft slowly proved their versatility and practical uses for reconnaissance and defense, the need for the Cavalry on both sides diminished and was retired after the First World War. Nonetheless, even though there were similar evolutionary changes in the development of the smaller reconnaissance to fighter airplanes, the Germans were always a few steps ahead of the Allies, and were consistent in their improvements because as soon as the French planes caught up to their standards, a new piece of machinery was introduced to the German fleets that widened the performance gap between the two air forces.