History - War in the Air

War in the Air:

Who were the Wright Brothers?  They were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are 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.

To be considered an ace a pilot would have to shoot 5 or more enemy planes.

Germany's top ace during WWI was:    Manfred von Richthofen. He shot down 80  airplanes. He is considered the “ace-of-aces”. He was killed in the war in April of 1918 in a dog fight near the Somme River. The RAF credited Canadian Arthur ‘Roy’ Brown with shooting the Red Baron.

Canada's top ace during WWI was:   Billy Bishop. He shot down 72 airplanes. He was part of the Royal Flying Corps.  He was from Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. He survived the war. 

INFO:

At first planes were used to observe enemy troops/trenches. Eventually by 1915 planes were armed with machine guns and bombs. The biggest problem was mounting a machine gun onto an aircraft so that it could be fired forward, through the propeller, and aimed by pointing the nose of the aircraft directly at the enemy.  Until 1918 pilots usually did not have parachutes.  The life expectancy of pilots in dogfights was approx. 3 weeks.  

True or False?:   At the start of WWI Canada had no airplanes and no air force. TRUE

True or False?:   If Canadian men wanted to become pilots they would go to Britain to get trained and fight with the    

       Royal Flying Corps. Eventually during the war the RFC's was amalgamated to form a new service called the RAF. FALSE

RAF stands for:  Royal Air Force

The RCAF was established in: 1924

Dogfights were:

a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft. Usually this involved combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dog fighting first appeared during WWI,
and became more prominent in WWII with advancements in aircraft technology and tactics.