"For all practical purposes the warplane came into being at the end of 1914, with the adoption of the machine gun. In the early stages of the war reconnaissance planes, used for observation of enemy troop movements and of artillery fire, used to come into close confrontation with each other. Air craft of world war one An amazing array of aircraft were used during the course of the Vietnam conflict. Below you'll find a partial listing of American aircraft (as well as allies) and enemy aircraft. Pictures of the air planes and helicopters may be viewed by clicking the link in their descriptions. List of Aircraft Used During the Vietnam War The B-17 was primarily employed in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in Operation Pointblank, to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord.[4] The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent, in the War in the Pacific, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping. THE EARLY BIRDS OF AVIATION A History of RAF Organisations The Aviation History On-line Museum World's Armed Forces Forum The Golden Age of Aviation TENNESSEE MUSEUM OF AVIATION A history of RAF Aircrew American Aircraft of World War II The Spitfire and Bf 109E were well-matched in speed and agility, and both were somewhat faster than the Hurricane. The slightly larger Hurricane was regarded as less "twitchy" and provided a more stable gun platform, as Luftwaffe bombers would later find out to their cost. The RAF's preferred tactic was if possible to deploy the Hurricane's concentrated firepower against formations of less-agile bombers, and to pit the Spitfires against the fighter escorts waiting to pounce from higher altitude. The Spitfires one-piece sliding moulded canopy gave the best visibility, the pilot having a better chance of spotting an enemy over the Bf 109E and its heavy framed hinged hood. The Emil's main armament was two MG-17 (Maschinengewehr 17) 7.92 x 57 mm machine guns on the engine decking and two Oerlikon / Mauser MG FF 20 x 72RB mm autocannons in the wings. Although the explosive cannon shells had more destructive power, the FF's low muzzle velocity and limited ammunition carried meant the cannon was not markedly superior to the Hurricane and Spitfire's eight proven Browning .303 (7.7 x 56R mm) machine guns. Whilst the British were not the first to make use of heavier-than-air military aircraft, the RAF is the world's oldest air force of any significant size to become independent of army or navy control. It was founded on 1 April 1918, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. After the war, the service was cut drastically and its inter-war years were relatively quiet, with the RAF taking responsibility for the control of Iraq and executing a number of minor actions in other parts of the British Empire. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed "Article XV squadrons" for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from these countries, and exiles from occupied Europe also served with RAF squadrons. The most famous fighter aircraft used in the Battle of Britain were the British Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E (Emil). Although nowadays the glamorous Spitfire is often thought of as the main British fighter, in fact the Hurricanes were at first more numerous (by a factor of about 5:3) and (especially in the early part of the battle), were responsible for most of the German losses. There are approximately 44 Spitfires and a few Seafires airworthy worldwide, although many air museums have static examples. For example, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has paired a static Spitfire with a static Ju 87 R-2/Trop. Stuka dive bomber. The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire maintains and operates five Spitfires (of various marks) for flying display and ceremonial purposes. A Spitfire XIVe, MV293 owned by The Fighter Collection at Duxford is marked as MV268, JE-J, flown by Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson OC 127 Wing, Germany May 1945. There are regularly more than a dozen Spitfires on site at Duxford. Whilst some of these are under restoration in a private hangar many flying and static examples can be seen in hangars one to 5. The Temora Aviation Museum in Temora, New South Wales, Australia, has two airworthy Spitfires: a Mk VIII and a Mk XVI, which are flown regularly during the museum's flying weekends. A Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk XVIE is on display in the Polish Aviation Museum. The Hellenic Air Force Museum own and displays a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc. Kennet Aviation, a British company specializing in ex-military aircraft has a Seafire XVII and a number of Seafire projects at its home airfield at North Weald Airfield. 1917 Curtiss JN-4D The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both the other competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract due to the prototype's crash, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 B-17s. The B-17 Flying Fortress went on to enter full-scale production and was considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft, eventually evolving through numerous design advancements, from B-17A to G. The Royal Air Force Memorial on the Victoria Embankment, London, commemorating RAF personnel killed in the two world wars When The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund was founded by Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard, it was named The Royal Air Force Memorial Fund because one of its earliest objects was to raise a memorial to airmen who died in the First World War. The Royal Air Force MemorialThe memorial was completed in 1923. A simple monument in Portland stone, it is surmounted by a gilded eagle and on sunny mornings railway passengers arriving at London's Charing Cross terminal can glimpse it glinting in the sunlight from its riverside position on the Victoria Embankment. The original intention was for Mr W. Reid Dick's sculpted eagle to face inwards to the embankment road traffic, but Sir Reginald Blomfield, the Fund's consultant architect, altered his design to allow the eagle to face across the river, symbolically to France. In the summer of 1923 the memorial was unveiled by a youthful Prince of Wales who spoke prophetically of 'our cloud armies of the future'. When the flags fell away from the memorial a Royal Air Force guard of honour crashed into the 'present arms', and a carefully marshalled contingent of twenty-seven small boys lifted their caps. The boys had come from Vanbrugh Castle, where the Fund had already established a school at Blackheath in south-east London. They were the sons of airmen who had died in the Service.

Welcome on the British Aircraft of World War II site, providing data and photographs of hundreds of different types of British airplanes. British Aircraft of World War II is a reference to all known types of aeroplane of British origin that saw military service during the Second World War. Next to that, British Aircraft of World War II contains data and photos of Commonwealth aircraft, being aircraft types that originated in the countries of the British Commonwealth, including types that were designed in the USA but were subject to extensive development by licensees in the British Commonwealth. British Aircraft of World War II contains a range form the famous fighters and bombers of frontline units, such as the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mosquito and Lancaster, to trainers, civilian impressed aircraft and experimental aeroplanes that were tried and tested between 1939 and 1945. British Aircraft of World War II The Wright brothers, Orville (August 15, 1871 January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 May 30, 1912), were two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made mechanical fixed wing flight possible. The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of "three axis-control", which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method became standard on fixed wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on unlocking the secrets of control to conquer "the flying problem", rather than developing more powerful engines as some other experimenters did. Their careful wind tunnel tests produced better aeronautical data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers more effective than any before. Their U.S. patent claims the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulates a flying machine's surfaces British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in June 1919. They flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador to Clifden, Ireland, which became the second aircraft (and the first landplane) to fly across the Atlantic. (Two weeks earlier, the first trans-Atlantic flight had been made by the NC-4, a United States Navy flying boat, commanded by Lt. Commander Albert Cushing Read, who flew from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, to Plymouth, England with a crew of five, over 23 days, with six stops along the way. The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2) was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight, the progenitor of all modern rockets including the Saturn V moon rocket. Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets in World War II. As many as 20,000 slave labourers died constructing V-2s compared to the 7,000 military personnel and civilians that died from the V-2's use in combat The Lancaster and Spitfires The National Archives has a huge collection of records British Aircraft of World War II Are you trying to identify a vintage wooden airplane propeller? In the Battle of Britain in the late summer of 1940, during the Second World War, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the German Luftwaffe, helping foil Hitler's plans for an invasion of the British Isles, and prompting Prime Minister Winston Churchill to say in the House of Commons on August 20, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". The largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While RAF bombing attacks against Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war, from 1942 onwards, under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris, these attacks became increasingly devastating as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available. Controversially, the RAF adopted a policy of night-time area bombing that saw raids on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden. Other units, however, developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the "Dambusters" raid by No. 617 Squadron Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts and is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first true aviation company in the world, and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s and 1930s and throughout the Second World War. In the immediate post-war period they received orders for several military and experimental aircraft; from the 1960s Shorts turned primarily to the production of cargo aircraft. In 1989 the company was bought by Bombardier. Within Bombardier Aerospace, Shorts designs and manufactures nacelle systems, fuselages and flight controls. Shorts is the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland. Today the company's products include aircraft components and engine nacelles for its parent company Bombardier Aerospace, and for Boeing, Rolls-Royce Deutschland, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Spitfire The Black Spitfire is a black-painted Spitfire which belonged to Israeli pilot and former president Ezer Weizman. It is on exhibit in the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatserim and is used for ceremonial flying displays. Kermit Weeks, keeps a restored Mk XVI at his Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida. The "Asas de Um Sonho" Museum, located in São Carlos, Brazil, owns the only airworthy Spitfire in South America, a Mk IXc donated to the museum by Rolls Royce and painted in the colors and markings of RAF ace Johnnie Johnson. One of the newest Spitfires to fly in Canadian skies is Michael Potter's Supermarine Mk XVI Spitfire SL721/N721WK/C-GVZB, refinished in the markings of No. 421 Squadron RCAF and is now registered in Gatineau, Quebec as part of the Vintage Wings of Canada Collection. A Seafire 47, the final aircraft in the long and distinguished line of aircraft, is airworthy with Jim Smith in the U.S. after being restored by Ezell Aviation. The Shuttleworth Collection maintains and displays an airworthy Mk Vc, AR501. One Spitfire Mk IX is on display at the "Vigna di Valle Museum" (Italian Air Force Museum) Bracciano, Rome, Italy. In aerodynamics, the sound barrier usually refers to the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a grab-bag of unrelated aerodynamic effects. The term fell out of use in the 1950s when aircraft started to routinely "break" the sound barrier. Refer to the speed of sound for the science behind the velocity referred to as the sound barrier.