Author Topic: The development of aircraft armament  (Read 3368 times)

Offline GTX_Admin

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The development of aircraft armament
« on: April 06, 2018, 02:48:10 AM »
I always thought (and had read) that the introduction of weapons onto aircraft, especially the the machine gun was a evolutionary process that started only after the first world war had begun.  The story being the first pilots started to encounter their opposition, then they started using pistols or rifles before eventually moving (once engine power allowed) to machine guns.  The key thing being that it was after the war had started.  This photo though (purported to be from March 21, 1914 - roughly 3mths before the war started) would seem to defy that story though:

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Offline jcf

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Re: The development of aircraft armament
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2018, 06:52:09 AM »
Original Caproni Ca.20 at MOF:
http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/caproni-ca20



Lewis MG armed in early 1914.
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Offline Volkodav

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Re: The development of aircraft armament
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2018, 06:53:50 PM »
I was certain I had seen a photo of a Wright Flyer fitted with an MG so I searched and found this.

http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Model_B.htm


Nonetheless, the Wright Model B was a popular aircraft and the exhibition pilots who flew them introduced much of America to aviation. The Model B also captured a great many aviation records and firsts:
First air freight – On 7 November 1910, Phil Parmalee flew two 50-pound (23-kilogram) bolts of silk from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, delivering them to Morehouse-Martens Department Store. He set a new cross-country speed record, beating a train traveling the same route.
First live aerial bombs – In January 1911, Phil Parmalee flew Lt. Myron S. Crissy over Selfridge Field in San Francisco to demonstrate the feasibility of aerial bombing.
First military aircraft radio message – On 21 January 1911 Phil Parmalee carried Lt. Paul W. Beck and a 29-pound (13-kilogram) radio telegraph to an altitude of 500 feet (152 meters). Beck tapped out the first air-to-ground military radio communications
First military reconnaissance – In the spring of 1911, Lt. Benjamin Foulois and Phil Parmalee flew scouting missions along the US-Mexico border.
First parachute jump from an airplane – Sometime in 1911, Grant Morton jumped out of a Model B piloted by Phil Parmalee and parachuted safely to the ground at Venice Beach, California.
First naval aircraft – On 19 July 1911 the U.S. Navy purchased its first airplane, a Wright Model B mounted on pontoons.
First American president to fly – On 11 October 1910 Arch Hoxsey took former President Theodore Roosevelt aloft.
First west-to-east flight across America – From October 1911 to February 1912 Robert Fowler hopped his Model B across the U.S. from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida.
First aerial weaponry – On 7 June 1912  Capt. Charles D. Chandler test-fired a Lewis machine gun in flight over College Park MD. Lt. Roy Kirtland was the pilot.

Offline jcf

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Re: The development of aircraft armament
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2018, 02:35:42 AM »
The first aircraft designed from the start as an armed aircraft was the Vickers E.F.B.1,
Experimental Fighting Biplane No.1, ordered by the Admiralty in 1912 and displayed
at the Olympia Aeroshow, February 1913, named the Destroyer. The majority of the
structure was steel, with fuselage covered with Duralumin.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1913/1913%20-%200149.html

http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft28731.htm

“Conspiracy theory’s got to be simple.
Sense doesn’t come into it. People are
more scared of how complicated shit
actually is than they ever are about
whatever’s supposed to be behind the
conspiracy.”
-The Peripheral, William Gibson 2014