Early fighter planes

Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flight of an engine-powered airplane, the Wight Flyer in 1903.

The Wright brothers offered their design to the United States War Department as well as other governments and individual in Europe.

Within a few years the Wrights were supplying planes for the very first Army Air Service which later became the US Air Force.

With the outbreak of World War I, some believed that the plane could offer an advantage. At first airplanes were sent out over enemy positions to spot enemy formations and troop movements. Before that balloons had been used for aerial observation in the Civil War (1861-1865).

Airplanes could get around more quickly than balloons and could view positions above the range of artillery.

The first military planes were simple machines compared with today’s aircraft. They were just wooden frames covered with tough canvas fabric.

Fighters in the early years of the war were used in fighter to fighter combat. Many countries used fighter planes during World War I and the famous plane of that war was the Sopwith Camel. Sopwith Camel was a single engine and could reach the speeds of 115 mph.

The first army fighter of the post war period was the Thomas-Morse MB-3. It was first developed in 1918 by Thomas-Morse Company of Ithaca, New York.

The turbo jet engine was invented in 1930 and it can propel an airplane at high speed without propeller. It was not until May 1941 the first flight of airplane propelled by engine.

Early fighter planes