Description

One of the most important breakthroughs in military technology associated with World War I and certainly the one that continues to capture the public imagination was the use of airplanes which were a virtual novelty a decade before While the war quickly ground to a halt in its first few months the skies above the Western Front became increasingly busy The great powers had already been acquiring aircraft for potential uses but given that aerial warfare had never been a major component of any conflict its understandable that few on either side had any idea what the planes were capable of doing Furthermore at the start of the war all sides aircraft were illequipped for combat mostly because the idea that planes might somehow fight was still a novel one and the adaptations had not yet been developed that would allow the aerial battles later in the war