Publication: Air Power History
Publication Date: 22-SEP-06
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Harvey, A.D.
Article Excerpt
It is frequently said that war has been a major factor in speeding up technological progress. For example, it is regarded almost as a truism that World War I, in a mere fifty-one months, was responsible for pushing manned flight from infancy to something like maturity.
As so often, the apparent truism turns out to be not quite true. When war broke out in August 1914 the existing air-speed, altitude, and endurance records had stood since the previous year. On September 29, 1913, Marcel Prevost had flown at 126.67 mph (203.85 kph) in a Deperdussin monoplane--1 mph less than the unofficial land-speed record established by Fred Marriott in the Stanley Rocket back in 1906. Seguin had flown a distance of 634.5 miles (1021.2 kin) in a Henry Farman on October 13, 1913. On December 28, 1913, Legagneux had reached a height of 20,300 feet (6,120 meters) in a Nieuport. All these records continued to stand as official records until after the war (an altitude record of 24,000 feet claimed by a German pilot, Olerich, in July 1914 was not recognized abroad). (1) During the war itself combat aircraft rarely operated at greater speeds and altitudes than the prewar records. The French SPAD XIII and the Italian SVA 5, both in service by late 1917, were 10 to 15 mph faster than Prevost's Deperdussin but the fastest German airplanes were capable of speeds less than 120 mph. And although in October 1918 the Canadian pilot W.G. Barker claimed to have shot down a German Rumpler C.VIII at 21,000 feet, aerial combat usually took place at much lower altitudes because of the lack of oxygen equipment. (2) As for the pre-1914 long-distance record, it seems to have been exceeded only once on a war mission.
At 9.30 p.m. on June 20, 1916, Sous-Lt. Anselme Marchal of the French Army took off in a Nieuport from an airfield near Nancy and after scattering leaflets over Berlin came down near Cholm, 63 miles short of the Russian...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
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