The air force was still in it’s infancy during world war one. There was still so much to learn and do. War is a good motivators. Let’s look into the Airplanes of World War 1
Videos Watched
My son loves the great war channel so of course we started here. Airplanes were quite basic, but more effective aircraft were being developed.
This video introduced us to many planes and individuals. We followed up with a few of them. Those we didn’t are The Red Baron, the Sopwith Camel, the Vickers Biplane 1, Mick Mannock, .
Ansaldo (Italian plane) the best observation plane.
Which led us to this video listing the top aircraft of WW1
Handley Page was another important plane in the war. That led us on a round about search of ww1 airplanes which led us to this video.
Eindecker – machine gun synchronized to the propellor. About the five minute mark it starts to talk about the airplanes.
Ernest Udet was a German Flying Ace. We were looking for more information on him and only found long documentaries. This one intrigued us though with it’s talk of chivalry in the air.
Billy Bishop, a flying ace from Canada! William Avery Bishop, was a non-scholar who was good at shooting. His marksmanship was his saving grace. Was part of number 60 squadron.
The title of this video intrigued the lad who has an interest in physics. Airplanes plus physics… a total win!
This one popped up in my feed and was actually interesting to watch.
We learned a bit more about the triplane which was used by the Red Baron. It was neat to see the recreation of The Red Baron’s flying unit. The planes looked very neat in the air.
Reading Material
We found this fascinating website called the Military Factory. It lists the planes by name and year, and when you click on the image takes you to another pages with stats and a write up. We actually used this site to find names of airplanes and then look up videos on them. Like this Curtiss H16
Ducksters taught us what the planes were, how they were used, and what their different markings meant.
History hit told us about 12 aircraft from the war. 12 important aircraft from the First World War, including bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes.
Ranker lists the best of the world war one airplanes. The start of the world was with clunkers and ended with powerful bombers.
1600 airmen died in the World War 1 from Canada, Veterans Affairs talked about the brilliance of Canadian airmen in the war.
My son’s project
A friend of the family gave the lad an airplane model to put together for WW2, so we thought it would be neat to have an airplane of ww1 as well. We hope to stop at a model shop and get one for him to do.
Other posts about world war one
- Belgium
- Animals in World War One
- Soldiers in Training
- Assassination
- Pre_war Alliances
- War Starts
- Trench Warfare.
- Trench Foot Experiment.
- Eastern Front.
- Battles of WW1.
- Sea Battles.
- Submarines.
I’ll have to share this with my sons, especially my history buff.
oh, I hope they enjoy it. 🙂
I don’t know a lot about airplanes and their use in world war I but I do find this part fascinating. It is amazing how much things changed from WWI to WWII and the use of planes.
i know eh? They worked hard to make the planes safer for the pilots and more effective too.
One of the things that we found interesting at the two different Wright brother’s museums we visited is how they showed the changes that came after their initial work. The changes from early infancy of powered flight to what they were able to do in WWI was amazing. And the changes have continued from there.
it’s fascinating watching the progress isn’t it?
Great videos!
thank you Dawn, it’s great to find helpful videos.
So interesting!! I’ve never wanted to study the history of the World Wars all that much, but I’ve become very interested in the planes since my son joined Civil Air Patrol and we’ve had the chance to learn more about military planes.
what has been your favourite plane so far Kym?