4 Between the Wars

Between 1918 and 1939 aircraft technology developed very rapidly. In 1918 most aircraft were biplanes with wooden frames, canvas skins, wire rigging and air-cooled engines. By 1939 most military aircraft were metal framed monoplanes, often with stressed skins and liquid cooled engines. Top speeds had tripled; altitudes doubled (and oxygen masks become commonplace); ranges and payloads of bombers increased enormously. Most industrial countries also created air forceAn air force is a military organization that primarily operates in air-based war. They typically use a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters and other aircraft. Most (but not all) armed forces make considerable organizational distinction between ts separate from the army and navy.

Some theorists, especially in BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, considered that aircraft would become the dominant military arm in the future. They imagined that a future war would be won entirely by the destruction of the enemy's military and industrial capability from the air. Others, such as General Billy Mitchell in the United States, saw the potential of air power to neutralize the striking power of naval surface fleets.

Germany was banned from possessing a significant air force by the terms of the WWI armistice. The German military continued to train its soldiers as pilots clandestinely until Hitler was ready to openly defy the ban.

5 World War II

Military aviation came into its own during the Second World War. The increased performance, range, and payload of contemporary aircraft meant that air power could move beyond the novelty applications of World War I, becoming a central striking force for all the combatant nations.

Over the course of the war, several distinct roles emerged for the application of air power:

• Strategic bombing

Strategic bombing of civilian targets from the air was a strategy first proposed by the Italian theorist General Giulio Douhet. In his book The Command of the Air (1921), Douhet argued that future military leaders could avoid falling into bloody World War I-style trench stalemates by using aviation to strike past the enemy's forces directly at their vulnerable civilian population. Douhet believed that such strikes would cause these populations to rise up in revolt and overthrow their governments to stop the bombing.

Douhet's ideas were paralleled by other military theorists who emerged from World War I, including Sir Hugh Trenchard in Great Britain.

In the interwar period, Great Britain and the United States became the most enthusiastic supporters of the strategic bombing theory, with each nation building specialized heavy aircraft specifically for this task.

• Tactical air support

By contrast with the British strategists, the primary purpose of the German Luftwaffe was to support the ground army. This accounted for the presence of large numbers of dive bombers in the make-up, and the scarcity of long-range heavy bombers. This 'flying artillery' greatly assisted in the successes of the German Army in the Battle of France (1940). Hitler determine that air superiority was a requirement for the invasion of Britain. When this was a not achieved in the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940 the invasion was cancelled, making this the first major battle whose outcome was determined primarily in the air.

• Naval aviation

The aircraft carrier first became important in World War II, particularly in the Battle of Midway, where American aircraft sunk four Japanese carriers (at a cost to the Americans of one carrier sunk and one disabled, plus some other ships). In this battle, neither force was in visual contact with the other, and all fighting was carried out by aircraft--a military first.

6 Post War

Military aviation in the post-war years was dominated by the needs of the Cold War. The post-war years saw the almost total conversion of combat aircraft to jet power, which resulted in enormous increases in speeds and altitudes of aircraft. Until the advent of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile major powers relied on high-altitude bombers to deliver their newly-developed nuclear deterrent; each country strived to develop the technology of bombers and the high-altitude fighters that could intercept them.

The Americans developed and made extensive use of the high-altitude observation aircraft for intelligence-gathering. The U-2, and later the SR-71 Blackbird were developed in great secrecy. The U-2 at its time was supposed to be invulnerable to defensive measures, due to its extreme altitude. It therefore came as a great shock when the Soviets downed one piloted by Gary Powers with a ground-to-air missile.

In the 70s and 80s it became clear that speed and altitude was not enough to protect a bomber against air defences. The emphasis shifted therefore to manouverable attack aircraft that could fly 'under the radar', at altitudes of a few hundred feet.

The development of the helicopter revolutionised the aerial support of ground forces. A helicopter could deliver troops quickly to areas inaccessible to fixed-wing aircraft - and, unlike paratroops, they could be recovered again. This led to an entirely new class of airmobile troops (which the US referred to as Air Cavalry), able to land unexpectedly, strike, and leave again. Such tactics played a major part in the Vietnam War.

7 See also

• Fighter
• Bomber
• Cargo
• Military
• Air Force
• Flying Heritage Collection
• Aviator Badge

Aerial warfare Military aviation

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