The Aerial Arms Race

  • By Lexi Krock
  • Posted 10.07.03
  • NOVA

World War I was fought in two arenas: in the trenches and, for the first time, in the air. When war broke out in 1914, the airplane, just a decade old, was untested as a weapon. Yet over the course of the four-year conflict, fighters evolved from flimsy converted reconnaissance planes to powerful, deft machines of war. Here, witness the innovations in Allied and German aviation engineering during the Great War.

Launch Interactive Printable Version

See how fighter planes evolved during World War I, the first major conflict to engage aerial warfare.

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Who Killed the Red Baron?.

Credits

Photos

(all, except Albatros D. III and Fokker Dr. I)
Courtesy of Rosebud's WWI and Early Aviation Image Archive;
(Albatros D. III, Fokker Dr. I)
© Corbis Images

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