Russian aviation in the First World War. Armament of aircraft of the First World War Russian aviation in the First World War

Emblem and identification mark of the Russian Imperial Air Force

Air forces were used on all fronts of the First World War. Aviation at this time was represented by airships, airplanes and balloons. But in this article we will only talk about airplanes.

Aircraft of that time were of archaic design, but their design improved rapidly as the war progressed. The leading world powers had good aviation and used it for reconnaissance, bombing and destruction of enemy aircraft.

Russian aircraft

At the outbreak of World War I, Russia had the largest air fleet in the world.

The combat path of Russian aviation began during the Italo-Turkish and two Balkan wars, in 1911-1913. The success of Russian pilots in the Balkans resulted in the creation of a special aeronautical department under the Main Engineering Directorate of the General Staff, which developed a plan for the creation of a domestic air force. By August 1, 1914, there were 244 aircraft in service in 39 air squadrons.

On the same date, Germany had 232 airplanes in 34 detachments, France - 138 in 25, England - 56 first-line aircraft, Austria-Hungary - about 30 aircraft. Considering that the states of the German bloc concentrated the majority of aircraft on the Western and Serbian fronts, the Russian Air Force received a numerical advantage over the enemy at the beginning of the war.

Nesterov's feat: ram

Most of the Russian aircraft were built at seven domestic factories. During the war, five more factories came into operation. But the disadvantage of aircraft manufacturing was that the Ministry of War actually removed itself from coordinating the production of aircraft, so in most cases airplanes of foreign designs were produced (16 foreign models and only 12 domestic ones). Foreign firms were in no hurry to transfer their latest technical developments to the Russians, sharing only outdated ones. But the inventions of talented Russian designers - Sikorsky, Stenglau, Gakkel - were never put into mass production. The same was the case with the most modern at that time devices for aerial photography systems of S. A. Ulyanin and V. F. Potte. Ulyanin, for example, in 1914 proposed to the War Ministry the world's first project of an apparatus for remote control of an aircraft, which was successfully tested in the naval department, but did not receive support from domestic bureaucrats. He went to London and continued his work there.

Insufficient aircraft production in Russia was compensated by purchases abroad. And only in the summer of 1916 were funds finally allocated for centralized procurement. Supplies were carried out with great interruptions, and after the battles near Verdun they sharply decreased. In total, until November 1, 1916, 883 aircraft and 2,326 engines were received from abroad. Of these, 65% of aircraft and 90% of engines were purchased in France, 10% in England, 25% of aircraft in Italy, but not all of them were of high quality. In Russia itself, only 511 aircraft engines were produced during the entire war.

By the beginning of the war, there were an average of two pilots per plane. The pilots studied at two largest schools - Gatchina (with a branch in Warsaw) and Sevastopol. During the war, additional aviation schools were organized: in Moscow, Odessa, and Petrograd. But Russia was the only one of the warring countries that did not have a plan for the mobilization of civilian pilots - all these shortcomings were eliminated during the war.

There was not a single repair plant in Russia - aircraft that needed major repairs were sent to the construction site, which ultimately affected the production of new aircraft. Minor repairs were carried out at airfields, more complex repairs were carried out in aviation parks.

The absence of a unified leadership, the relative weakness of industry and repair base, and the lack of qualified personnel immediately put Russian aviation in an extremely difficult situation, from which it could not get out throughout the war.

Fighting

Despite all these difficulties, Russian aviators fought successfully. By the summer of 1916, there were already 135 air squadrons. Artillery detachments were created already during the war, when the positional nature of the battles predetermined the need for more accurate adjustment of artillery fire. On July 20, 1917, there were three active and one emerging artillery detachment. According to the state, each of them was supposed to have 22 aircraft. The fighter squads formed 4 air groups, which consisted of 196 aircraft and 81 fighters to cover the reconnaissance aircraft.

Throughout the war, the main task of aviation was reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment. Initially, aerial reconnaissance was ineffective due to imperfect aircraft designs, which increased the risk of landing on enemy territory. Already in August 1914, pilot A. A. Vasiliev and General A. K. Makarov, conducting aerial reconnaissance, were forced to land behind the front line and were captured.

World War I: in the sky

Aerial reconnaissance provided enormous assistance in organizing major attacks by Russian troops. Preparing the breakthrough of the Austrian Front in April 1916, A. A. Brusilov demanded in all orders the massive involvement of aviation. The pilots were able to photograph the location of all Austrian units - as a result, the Russian army suppressed the enemy’s long-term fortifications and firing points in a few hours.

Bombing also came from reconnaissance: when going on a flight, pilots often took bombs with them in order not only to photograph, but also to destroy enemy targets. The aviation armament consisted of bombs of 4, 6, 10, 16, 32 kg - for fighters and reconnaissance aircraft; in 1915, bombs of 48.80, 160, 240 and 400 kg appeared for aircraft of the Ilya Muromets type. The bombing's initial effectiveness was low, but it had an extremely strong moral impact. There were no special sights for bombing, there were no bomb racks - accordingly, there were no bombers as a special type of combat aircraft. In addition to bombs, Russian aviation also used the so-called “arrows” designed by V.L. Slesarev - lead bullets (four times larger than usual) with a tin stabilizer, which were dropped on the enemy by manually overturning a plywood box. "Arrows" were especially effective against cavalry.

"Arrows" designed by Slesarev

By dropping “arrows” on the enemy, the pilot could cause significant damage to his ground forces. They were especially effective against cavalry.

Russia was the only country that had long-range bomber aircraft at the beginning of the war - the Ilya Muromets airships, created in a special laboratory at the Russian-Baltic Plant headed by I. I. Sikorsky. In October 1914, the Muromtsevs were united into the Airship Squadron under the command of Major General Shidlovsky. The squadron was based in the village of Staraya Yablonna in the North-Western Front. Each aircraft was armed with 2 machine guns and 1 carbine with 360 rounds of ammunition and 500 kg of bombs. The plane's crew consisted of 3 people - a commander, a co-pilot and an observer officer.

The planes were quite vulnerable to fire from fighters and ground assets. Therefore, in the Muromets developed in 1916, only particularly important targets were provided; for flights, special flights of 2-4 machines were created; It was forbidden to fly without fighter cover. In 1917, there were already 5 Murom divisions with a total of 38 vehicles, which were directly subordinate to the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The squadron's personnel consisted of 1,350 people. It had its own weather station, repair shops, darkroom, garage and park, as well as an anti-aircraft battery. Shidlovsky's squadron managed to fight on all fronts - from Staraya Yablonna it was redeployed to Bialystok, from there to Lida, Pskov, Vinnitsa, and everywhere it received only positive feedback.

In the First World War, the main targets were primarily fortresses and long-term fortified areas, and to a lesser extent, household facilities: transport hubs, warehouses, airfields. In 1915, in preparation for the assault on Przemysl, the Muromets dropped 200 heavy bombs on the fortress, and in 1917, the Russians managed to defeat the German seaplane base on Lake Angern near Riga.

But the bombing of enemy forward positions in the First World War did not receive much development.

Fighter aircraft were formed to fight enemy aircraft. But in the beginning, airplanes did not have built-in on-board weapons; It was recommended that “having noticed an enemy plane, fly towards it and, flying over it, drop a shell on it from above.” The “projectile” was darts, weights, or simply bars of metal, with which they tried to damage the plane or kill the pilot. It was also proposed to “use a skillful maneuver near a flying aircraft to create air vortices that threaten it with disaster.” In the first air battles, rams were actively used. In this case, the pilots usually tried to break the fuselage or wings of the enemy aircraft with the wheels of their own aircraft. The ram was first used on September 8, 1914 by the Russian ace P.N. Nesterov. As a result, both planes fell to the ground. Unfortunately, this ram was his last. In March 1915, another Russian pilot, A.A. Kazakov used a ram for the first time without crashing his own plane and returned to base.

It is impossible to ignore these heroes. A few words about them.

Petr Nikolaevich Nesterov

Petr Nikolaevich Nesterov

Russian military pilot, staff captain, founder of aerobatics (Nesterov's loop) was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1887 in the family of an officer-educator of the cadet corps Nikolai Fedorovich Nesterov. He graduated from the same corps, and then from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.

His passion for aviation began in 1910, when Nesterov met a student of Professor N.E. Zhukovsky, P. Sokolov, and soon became a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Aeronautics Society. In 1912, Nesterov passed the exams for the ranks of aviator and military pilot, and already in September 1912, 25-year-old lieutenant Pyotr Nesterov made his first independent flight, and in 1913 he graduated from the course in the aviation department of the Officers' Aeronautical School. He was assigned to an aviation detachment that was being formed in Kyiv. Soon P. Nesterov became the commander of the detachment. Before being sent to a new duty station, he was sent to Warsaw for training on a Nieuport aircraft, which was then adopted by the army.

Model of the Nieuport aircraft on which Nesterov performed the "loop"

Having become an experienced pilot, Nesterov was also involved in design activities, he built a glider and flew on it. Later, based on studying the flight of birds, he developed a design for an original aircraft without vertical tail. The military department rejected the project. In 1913, Pyotr Nesterov developed a research design for a seven-cylinder engine with a power of 120 hp. With. air cooled. Later he was engaged in the construction of a single-seat high-speed aircraft, the completion of which was prevented by the war.

Possessing deep knowledge in the field of mathematics and mechanics, and having sufficient piloting experience, P. N. Nesterov theoretically substantiated the possibility of performing deep turns and put them into practice. After being appointed commander of the detachment, Nesterov introduced training in flights with deep turns and landing with the engine turned off on a pre-designated site.

He also developed issues of interaction between aviation and ground troops and air combat, and mastered night flights.

idea of loop originated with Nesterov even before 1912, but it was in this year that he already theoretically proved the possibility of a “dead loop”. “Air is a medium completely homogeneous in all directions. It will hold the plane in any position if it is controlled correctly,” he wrote. He made a loop in Kyiv at the Syretsky military airfield on August 27, 1913 at 6 o'clock. 15 minutes. evenings.

Here is how the modern magazine “Sparks of Resurrection” wrote about Nesterov on September 7, 1914: “Nesterov adored his aviation, he saw in it not only a technical victory over the air. He was a poet at heart, who looked at aviation as a special form of art. He did not accept standard methods. The “dead loop” attracted him, like new beauty, like new world opportunities. Nesterov was a very cheerful person, a connoisseur of theater and literature, who greedily loved life. He often said: “What a joy it is to live, what a pleasure it is to breathe, fly and move!” Along with practical training at the airfield, P. N. Nesterov, who had very significant knowledge of technology and mechanics, devoted all his free time to the theoretical development of aeronautics issues. It was these theoretical works that led him to the idea of ​​​​the possibility of making a turn in the air in a vertical plane, or the so-called “dead loop”. “I had not yet fully completed the theoretical development of this issue,” P. N. Nesterov later said, “when I learned that the French aviator Pegu was also preparing to perform a “dead loop.” Then I gave up theoretical calculations and decided to take a risk. To do a “loop” was a matter of pride for me, because for more than six months I studied this question on paper.” As you know, P. N. Nesterov brilliantly completed the task he set for himself: on August 27 last year at the Kiev airfield, in the presence of fellow pilots and press representatives, he described a complete “dead loop” of enormous diameter in the air. Nesterov performed this puzzling experiment on an old Nieuport apparatus, which did not have any special devices. Nesterov’s right to primacy in this regard was publicly attested by the king of the “dead loop” Pegu himself during his last stay in Moscow. “Dead Loop” made Nesterov widely famous not only in Russia, but also abroad. As soon as the war began, Staff Captain Nesterov, who was about to resign in order to devote himself to designing airplanes, was one of the first to go to the front lines, where he met a glorious death.”

Alexander Alexandrovich Kazakov

Alexander Alexandrovich Kazakov

Born into a noble family in the Kherson province in 1889. He graduated from the Voronezh Cadet Corps in 1906. In 1908 he graduated from the Elizavetgrad Cavalry School and was released into the army as a cornet. He served in the 12th Belgorod Uhlan Regiment, and became a lieutenant in 1911. In January 1914, he began flight training at the first Russian Officer Aeronautical School in Gatchina. In September 1914, he qualified as a military pilot, but then spent some time improving his skills at the Military Aviation School.

After graduating from school in December 1914, he served in the active army on the fronts of the First World War. The first aerial victory was in 1915, he made the second air ram after Pyotr Nesterov, in which he shot down a German Albatross-type aircraft, and landed safely. For this feat he was awarded the Arms of St. George. He was recognized as the most successful Russian fighter pilot during the First World War.

True to his military oath, Kazakov did not accept the October Revolution and was removed from command. But in the spring of 1918, he was registered as a military specialist and warned about possible enlistment in the Red Army. Not wanting to serve the Reds, in June 1918 he secretly left for Murmansk. When the formation of the 1st Slavic-British aviation detachment began in Arkhangelsk in August 1918, Kazakov was appointed its commander. Moreover, only he was awarded the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, and the rest of the Russian pilot officers were enlisted in the detachment with the rank of privates.

He fought in the civil war in the North, together with the troops of the Northern Army and parts of the Entente troops. In January 1919, he was wounded in the chest by a bullet and distinguished himself many times in reconnaissance and bombing missions. On August 1, 1919, Kazakov died in a plane crash, crashing at his airfield. According to the general opinion of eyewitnesses to this accident, Alexander Kazakov committed suicide, overshadowed by the evacuation of British troops from Murmansk that began two days earlier. This version is also supported by the following facts: a few days before, Kazakov refused the post of commander of the Dvina aviation division, and two days before his death, he refused the offer to evacuate to the UK.

So, let's continue the story about the combat actions of pilots in the First World War.

It was practiced to force the enemy to land. At the same time, they tried to either drive him too high so that his engine would freeze, or pin the enemy to the ground to deprive him of the ability to maneuver. They tried to throw a lasso or “cat” on the enemy plane in order to stop the operation of the propeller. Sometimes smoke or dynamite bombs were attached to the "cat".

Then the pilots began to be armed with pistols and carbines: the pilot had to successfully fly up to the enemy and shoot him. Then they began to install machine guns on aircraft. Vladimir Hartmann and Pyotr Nesterov pointed this out back in 1913, but the French pilot Roland Garro was the first to install a machine gun on his fighter. The Garro machine gun had a device that allowed it to fire through a screw (synchronizer).

After some time, the French shared their discovery with the allies. Soon the Germans also learned about the synchronizer. To do this, they needed to shoot down Garro and take him prisoner. The Germans transported the pilot and the remains of his plane to Berlin, where Garro's device caused a real sensation. By 1916, the aviation of all warring countries had fighters with built-in on-board weapons.

Russian aviation virtually ceased to exist along with the “old” army at the end of 1917 and beginning of 1918. A significant part of the aviation property went to the Germans during the offensive to the east on the eve of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Many pilots, along with their airplanes, went over to the side of the whites. But the Soviet government managed to preserve the backbone of the Russian air fleet.

Russian aircraft during the First World War

Olkhovsky fighter

Olkhovsky "Torpedo" fighter

The creator of one of the first domestic fighters was a professional aviator, military pilot, staff captain of the Russian army Vladimir Mikhailovich Olkhovsky(1889-1929). During the period 1916-1917. he, being the commander of the 5th Aviation Park near Bryansk, carried out multifaceted work in the workshops (SVARM) of this military unit.

The main task of SVARM was the repair of aircraft that failed in combat or due to operational failures. Having received permission from the command, V. M. Olkhovsky, in addition to repair work, on his personal initiative launched activities to refine and improve the designs of aircraft entering the workshops in the usual manner.

Having a natural inclination towards technology, a bright head and golden hands, Olkhovsky could repair and bring absolutely anything to a suitable condition. The reconstruction process itself interested him no less than the result of the work, and sometimes more, especially in those cases when he encountered this or that apparatus for the first time. From one-time repair work, V. M. Olkhovsky quickly moved on to improvement, and then to the creation of new aircraft.

One of his first works was equipping the French monoplane Nieuport-IV with the so-called “Olkhovsky wings”. These are ailerons introduced to replace the gauching system, i.e., skewing the ends of the wing due to their tension with control cables. The device was flown by the designer himself in July 1916 and handed over to the troops. A rework of the crippled Voisin IA soon followed: the crew nacelle, rudder and landing gear were changed.

"Torpedo" by Olkhovsky

The plane was lightweight and aerodynamics were improved. In the second half of the war, other work was carried out, but the most useful was the experience of modifying the Moran-Saulnier-I production aircraft.

The flight characteristics of Olkhovsky's Moran have improved compared to the characteristics of the original model. The device was in many ways the basis for a new, original layout and design, called “Torpedo”, or “Monoplane-Torpedo”. It was a high-wing braced aircraft designed for multi-purpose use. In the two-seat version, the aircraft could be used as an aerial reconnaissance aircraft or light bomber, as well as a two-seat fighter. In a single seat (with a free rear seat) - like a fighter armed with a synchronized machine gun.

Russian fighter "Tereshchenko No. 7"

Fighter "Tereshchenko"

There have been simply paradoxical episodes in the history of aviation. Thus, among the designers you can find the name of a famous Ukrainian sugar manufacturer of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, who lived near Kyiv in the village of Chervonoye, Fedor Fedorovich Tereshchenko. The Kiev Aeronautical Society existed with his contributions. In addition, Tereshchenko simply built a Bleriot-type aircraft at random, according to the drawings. In the village of Chervonoye there were workshops in which aircraft were repaired and built on order... of the All-Russian Military Department.

Russian fighter "SKM" captain Modrakh

Fighter "SKM"

Along with the widespread use of foreign military equipment at the height of the First World War, the army's aircraft fleet began to be replenished with domestic fighters. The SKM fighters, which appeared at the turn of 1916-1917, were full-fledged combat aircraft of this class.

Heavy aircraft "Ilya Muromets" (Russian-Baltic Carriage Works, 1915)

The idea to create a heavy multi-engine aircraft came from I.I. Sikorsky in 1912 after he headed the aviation design department of the RBVZ. Having received approval from the plant management, he began designing a twin-engine aircraft. On April 27, 1913, the world's first heavy airship, the S-21 Grand, was lifted into the air by Sikorsky himself. For that time, the aircraft had very impressive dimensions: the span of the biplane box was 27 m, the length was 20 m. Two in-line engines were installed on the lower wing (the cylinders were combined into a common block, placing them in rows) Argus (140 hp) with pulling air screws. The long fuselage began with a balcony, which could be accessed during the flight, followed by a large cabin for the crew and passengers, where there were straw chairs. The lower wing of the biplane box was significantly shorter than the upper. The chassis consisted of twin wheels, as well as anti-mud and anti-slip skis. Soon the aircraft was renamed “Russian Knight” (series A) and two more Argus engines (80 hp) were installed on it.

"Ilya Muromets"

"Ilya Muromets" was an excellent tool for long-range reconnaissance and bombing. The flight duration with a bomb load was 5 hours and about 10 hours without bombs. The bomb load was composed of many small bombs or large ones weighing 160,240,400 and even 640 kg. The bomb sight was quite accurate: 60-90% of the bombs hit the target. Other devices allowed the Muromets to make night flights from the very beginning of the war.

Throughout 1915, the Muromets carried out about 100 combat flights, dropping up to 22 tons of bombs on the enemy. In 1916, the Ilya Muromets pilots had already completed 156 combat missions, dropping up to 20 tons of bombs on the enemy. Throughout 1917, heavy aircraft made about 70 combat flights, dropping up to 11 tons of bombs on the enemy. In total, 51 warships arrived at the front, about 40 of them fought. They flew up to 350 sorties, dropping about 58 tons of bombs.

I. I. Sikorsky was the designer of the most famous Russian aircraft of the First World War - the giant aircraft Ilya Muromets and the S-16 fighter.

Reconnaissance aircraft "Anatra-D"

Reconnaissance aircraft "Anatra-D"

In 1916, the Russian Air Force received another reconnaissance aircraft. - “Anade” (“Anatra-D”). The development of this aircraft began back in 1915 at the aircraft manufacturing plant founded by Arthur Anatra. The design of the aircraft was a two-seat, two-strut biplane with a 100 hp Gnome engine. A small number of aircraft were equipped with the Cklerget engine, which developed power up to 110 hp, and then the aircraft was called Anakler. The name “Dean” also applied to him.

The design of the aircraft was simple and rational. The fuselage had a tetrahedral cross-section, slightly rounded at the top, was covered with plywood in the front part, and canvas in the rear part. Ailerons were installed only on the upper wings, and the stabilizer was almost triangular in shape.

The aircraft controls - the steering wheel and pedals - were located only in the pilot's cockpit, and therefore the observer from his seat could not influence the flight even if the pilot died. He could only observe and protect the pilot on whom their lives depended during a meeting with enemy aircraft. To do this, he was armed with a machine gun mounted on a rotating stand. In addition, he had at his disposal 25-30 kg of bombs, which, if necessary, could be dropped on enemy territory.

The Anade was first tested in the air on December 19, 1915. The first production aircraft was handed over to the state commission on May 16, 1916. In total for 1916-1917. 170 copies were produced, with differences in individual series. The Anade aircraft was widely used in World War I combat and later participated in the Russian Civil War.

The assessment of the flight characteristics of this aircraft changed during the war. At the end of 1915, it was considered advanced and even the best among a number of foreign aircraft. By 1918, the Anade was already outdated and was used primarily as a training aircraft. For this purpose, in 1917, a training “Anade” was produced with dual controls and a pair of wheels in front, preventing capsizing during landing. This plane was very stable in flight. On the Anade plane it was even possible to perform the “Nesterov loop”. For example, military pilot Staff Captain D.A. Makarov performed two very clean “loops” on May 31, 1917.

Fighter "S-16"

Fighter "S-16"

Perhaps the most famous fighter of the First World War was the airplane "S-16", created by I.I. Sikorsky in 1915. Initially, it was intended to escort the Ilya Muromets airships and protect airfields from enemy aircraft. The first three vehicles were successfully tested in the airship squadron, and on September 24, 1915, the Russian-Baltic Carriage Plant received an order for the production of 18 S-16 aircraft.

This is how I.I. spoke about the new aircraft. Sikorsky in his memo, Major General M.V. Shidlovsky: “The S-16 devices are the fastest... They are equipped with a device for firing through a screw from a Vickers machine gun.” "Sikorsky-Sixteenth" with a machine gun can be a serious threat to enemy airplanes."

"S-16" became the first fighter of I. I. Sikorsky, equipped with a synchronized machine gun for firing through the propeller.

In addition to heavy bombers, I. I. Sikorsky also developed light aircraft. Since 1915, the small S-16 biplane began to be mass-produced, first as a reconnaissance aircraft and then as a fighter-interceptor. The two-seat fighter and reconnaissance aircraft S-17 continued the development line of the S-6 and S-10 aircraft. The twin-engine S-18 was an escort fighter.

Then Sikorsky created the first domestic attack aircraft, the S-19. The last aircraft built by the designer in Russia was the single-seat S-20 fighter, which was superior in its characteristics to similar foreign models. Total in Russia in 1909-1917. I. I. Sikorsky created 25 types of aircraft and 2 helicopters.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky- Russian and American aircraft designer, scientist, inventor, philosopher. Creator of the world's first four-engine aircraft "Russian Knight" (1913), passenger aircraft "Ilya Muromets" (1914), transatlantic seaplane, serial single-rotor helicopter (USA, 1942). Born in 1889 in Kyiv in the family of a famous psychiatrist, professor at Kyiv University - Ivan Alekseevich Sikorsky.

He studied at the St. Petersburg Maritime School and the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.

In 1908-1911 built his first two simple helicopters. The carrying capacity of the apparatus, built in September 1909, reached 9 pounds. It was presented at a two-day aeronautical exhibition in Kyiv in November of the same year. None of the helicopters built could take off with a pilot, and Sikorsky switched to building airplanes.

In January 1910 he tested a snowmobile of his own design.

In 1910, the first aircraft of its design, the S-2, took off into the air.

In 1911 he received a pilot's diploma.

During the First World War he worked for the benefit of Russia, but did not accept the October Revolution and on February 18, 1918, he left Russia through Arkhangelsk, first to London, and then to Paris. In Paris, he offered his services to the French military department, which gave him an order to build 5 bombers. However, after the armistice on November 11, 1918, the order was canceled as unnecessary and Sikorsky’s aircraft design activities in France ceased.

In March 1919, Sikorsky emigrated to the United States and settled in the New York area, initially earning money by teaching mathematics. In 1923, he founded the aviation company Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation, where he served as president. The beginning of his activities in the USA was very difficult. Thus, it is known that the outstanding Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov personally participated in his enterprise, holding the position of vice president. To save Sikorsky's company from ruin, Rachmaninov sent a check for $5,000 (about $80,000 in 2010 terms). In 1929, when business at the company improved, Sikorsky returned this money to Rachmaninov with interest.

Until 1939, Sikorsky created about 15 types of aircraft. Since 1939, he switched to the design of single-rotor helicopters with swashplate, which became widespread.

The first experimental helicopter, the Vought-Sikorsky 300, created by Sikorsky in the USA, took off from the ground on September 14, 1939. Essentially, it was a modernized version of his first Russian helicopter, created back in July 1909.

His helicopters were the first to fly across the Atlantic (S-61; 1967) and Pacific (S-65; 1970) oceans (with in-flight refueling). Sikorsky machines were used for both military and civilian purposes.

In exile, he headed the Tolstoy and Pushkin societies, studied philosophy and theology.

In 1963 he was awarded the highest scientific award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers - the ASME Medal.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky died in 1972 and was buried at the Greek Catholic cemetery of St. John the Baptist in Stratford (Connecticut).

Continuing the theme of the First World War, today I will talk about the origins of Russian military aviation.

How beautiful the current Su, MiG, Yaks are... What they do in the air is difficult to describe in words. This must be seen and admired. And in a good way envy those who are closer to the sky, and with the sky on first name terms...

And then remember where it all began: about “flying bookcases” and “plywood over Paris”, and pay tribute to the memory and respect of the first Russian aviators...

During the First World War (1914 - 1918), a new branch of the military - aviation - arose and began to develop with exceptional speed, expanding the scope of its combat use. During these years, aviation stood out as a branch of the military and received universal recognition as an effective means of fighting the enemy. In the new conditions of war, military successes of troops were no longer conceivable without the widespread use of aviation.

By the beginning of the war, Russian aviation consisted of 6 aviation companies and 39 aviation detachments with a total number of 224 aircraft. The speed of the aircraft was about 100 km/h.

It is known that tsarist Russia was not completely ready for war. Even the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” states:

“Tsarist Russia entered the war unprepared. Russian industry lagged far behind other capitalist countries. It was dominated by old factories and factories with worn-out equipment. Agriculture, in the presence of semi-serf landownership and a mass of impoverished, ruined peasantry, could not serve as a solid economic basis for waging a long war.”

Tsarist Russia did not have an aviation industry that could provide the production of aircraft and engines in the quantities necessary for the quantitative and qualitative growth of aviation caused by the growing needs of wartime. Aviation enterprises, many of which were semi-handicraft workshops with extremely low productivity, were engaged in assembling aircraft and engines - this was the production base of Russian aviation at the beginning of hostilities.

The activities of Russian scientists had a huge impact on the development of world science, but the tsarist government was dismissive of their work. Tsarist officials did not give way to the brilliant discoveries and inventions of Russian scientists and prevented their mass use and implementation. But, despite this, Russian scientists and designers persistently worked to create new machines and developed the foundations of aviation science. Before the First World War, as well as during it, Russian designers created many new, completely original aircraft, in many cases superior in quality to foreign aircraft.

Along with building airplanes, Russian inventors successfully worked on creating a number of remarkable aircraft engines. Particularly interesting and valuable aircraft engines were built during that period by A. G. Ufimtsev, called by A. M. Gorky “a poet in the field of scientific technology.” In 1909, Ufimtsev built a four-cylinder birotative engine that weighed 40 kilograms and operated on a two-stroke cycle. Acting like a conventional rotary engine (only the cylinders rotated), it developed power of up to 43 hp. With. With birotation action (simultaneous rotation of the cylinders and shaft in opposite directions), the power reached 80 hp. With.

In 1910, Ufimtsev built a six-cylinder birotative aircraft engine with an electric ignition system, which was awarded a large silver medal at the international aeronautics exhibition in Moscow. Since 1911, engineer F. G. Kalep successfully worked on the construction of aircraft engines. Its engines were superior to the then widespread French Gnome engine in power, efficiency, operational reliability and durability.

In the pre-war years, Russian inventors also achieved major achievements in the field of flight safety. In all countries, aircraft accidents and disasters were then a frequent occurrence, but attempts by Western European inventors to make flights safer and create an aviation parachute were unsuccessful. The Russian inventor Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov managed to solve this problem. In 1911, he created the RK-1 backpack aviation parachute. Kotelnikov's parachute with a convenient suspension system and a reliable opening device ensured flight safety.

In connection with the growth of military aviation, the question arose of training personnel and, first of all, pilots. In the first period, flight enthusiasts flew airplanes, then, as aviation technology developed, special training was required for flights. Therefore, in 1910, after the successful holding of the “first aviation week,” an aviation department was created at the Officers’ Aeronautical School. For the first time in Russia, the aviation department of the aeronautical school began to train military pilots. However, its capabilities were very limited - initially it was planned to train only 10 pilots per year.

In the fall of 1910, the Sevastopol Aviation School was organized, which was the main educational institution in the country for training military pilots. From the first days of its existence, the school had 10 aircraft, which allowed it to train 29 pilots already in 1911. It should be noted that this school was created through the efforts of the Russian public. The level of training of Russian military pilots was quite high for that time. Before starting practical flight training, Russian pilots took special theoretical courses, studied the basics of aerodynamics and aviation technology, meteorology and other disciplines. The best scientists and specialists were involved in delivering lectures. Pilots from Western European countries did not receive such theoretical training; they were only taught to fly the aircraft.

Due to the increase in the number of aviation units in 1913 - 1914. it was necessary to train new flight personnel. The Sevastopol and Gatchina military aviation schools that existed at that time could not fully satisfy the army’s needs for aviation personnel. The aviation units experienced great difficulties due to the lack of aircraft. According to the property list that existed at that time, corps air squads were supposed to have 6 aircraft, and serfs - 8 aircraft. In addition, in case of war, each air squad was supposed to be equipped with a spare set of aircraft. However, due to the low productivity of Russian aircraft manufacturing enterprises and the lack of a number of necessary materials, the aviation detachments did not have a second set of aircraft. This led to the fact that by the beginning of the war, Russia did not have any aircraft reserves, and some of the aircraft in the detachments were already worn out and required replacement.

Russian designers have the honor of creating the world's first multi-engine airships - the first-born of heavy bomber aircraft. While the construction of multi-engine heavy-duty aircraft intended for long-distance flights was considered impracticable abroad, Russian designers created such aircraft as the Grand, Russian Knight, Ilya Muromets, and Svyatogor. The emergence of heavy multi-engine aircraft opened up new possibilities for the use of aviation. The increase in carrying capacity, range and altitude increased the importance of aviation as air transport and a powerful military weapon.

The distinctive features of Russian scientific thought are creative daring, a tireless striving forward, which led to new remarkable discoveries. In Russia, the idea of ​​​​creating a fighter aircraft designed to destroy enemy aircraft was born and implemented. The world's first fighter aircraft, RBVZ-16, was built in Russia in January 1915 at the Russian-Baltic Plant, which previously built the heavy airship Ilya Muromets designed by I. I. Sikorsky. At the suggestion of famous Russian pilots A.V. Pankratyev, G.V. Alekhnovich and others, a group of plant designers created a special fighter aircraft to accompany the Muromites during combat flights and protect bomber bases from enemy air attacks. The RBVZ-16 aircraft was armed with a synchronized machine gun that fired through the propeller. In September 1915, the plant began serial production of fighters. At this time, Andrei Tupolev, Nikolai Polikarpov and many other designers who later created Soviet aviation received their first design experience at the Sikorsky company.

At the beginning of 1916, the new RBVZ-17 fighter was successfully tested. In the spring of 1916, a group of designers at the Russian-Baltic Plant produced a new fighter of the “Two-Tail” type. One of the documents from that time reports: “The construction of the “Dvukhvostka” type fighter has been completed. This device, previously tested in flight, is also sent to Pskov, where it will also be tested in detail and comprehensively.” At the end of 1916, the RBVZ-20 fighter of a domestic design appeared, which had high maneuverability and developed a maximum horizontal speed at the ground of 190 km/h. Also known are the experimental Lebed fighters, produced in 1915 - 1916.

Even before the war and during the war, designer D.P. Grigorovich created a series of flying boats - naval reconnaissance aircraft, fighters and bombers, thereby laying the foundations for seaplane construction. At that time, no other country had seaplanes equal in flight and tactical performance to Grigorovich’s flying boats.

Having created the heavy multi-engine aircraft "Ilya Muromets", the designers continue to improve the flight and tactical data of the airship, developing its new modifications. Russian designers also worked successfully on the creation of aeronautical instruments, devices and sights that helped carry out targeted bombing from aircraft, as well as on the shape and quality of aircraft bombs, which showed remarkable combat properties for that time.

Russian scientists working in the field of aviation, headed by N. E. Zhukovsky, through their activities provided enormous assistance to the young Russian aviation during the First World War. In the laboratories and circles founded by N. E. Zhukovsky, scientific work was carried out aimed at improving the flight and tactical qualities of aircraft, solving issues of aerodynamics and structural strength. Zhukovsky's instructions and advice helped aviators and designers create new types of aircraft. New aircraft designs were tested in the design and testing bureau, whose activities took place under the direct supervision of N. E. Zhukovsky. This bureau united the best scientific forces of Russia working in the field of aviation. N. E. Zhukovsky’s classic works on the vortex theory of the propeller, aircraft dynamics, aerodynamic calculation of aircraft, bombing, etc., written during the First World War, were a valuable contribution to science.

Despite the fact that domestic designers created aircraft that were superior in quality to foreign ones, the tsarist government and the heads of the military department disdained the work of Russian designers and prevented the development, mass production and use of domestic aircraft in military aviation.

Thus, the Ilya Muromets aircraft, which, according to flight-tactical data, could not be equaled by any aircraft in the world at that time, had to overcome many different obstacles before they became part of the combat ranks of Russian aviation. “Chief of Aviation” Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich proposed to stop the production of Muromtsev, and use the money allocated for their construction to purchase airplanes abroad. Through the efforts of high-ranking officials and foreign spies who made their way into the military ministry of tsarist Russia, the execution of the order for the production of Muromets was suspended in the first months of the war, and only under the pressure of indisputable facts testifying to the high combat qualities of the airships that had already participated in the hostilities, The Ministry of War was forced to agree to the resumption of production of the Ilya Muromets aircraft.

But in the conditions of tsarist Russia, building an aircraft, even one that clearly surpassed existing aircraft in its qualities, did not at all mean opening the way for it to fly. When the plane was ready, the bureaucratic machine of the tsarist government came into action. The plane began to be inspected by numerous commissions, the composition of which was replete with the names of foreigners who were in the service of the tsarist government and often carried out espionage work in the interests of foreign states. The slightest design flaw, which could easily be eliminated, caused a malicious howl that the plane was supposedly no good at all, and the talented proposal was put under a bushel. And after some time, somewhere abroad, in England, America or France, the same design, stolen by spy officials, appeared under the name of some foreign false author. Foreigners, using the help of the tsarist government, shamelessly robbed the Russian people and Russian science.

The following fact is very indicative. The M-9 seaplane, designed by D. P. Grigorovich, was distinguished by very high combat qualities. The governments of England and France, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to create their own seaplanes, in 1917 turned to the bourgeois provisional government with a request to transfer them the drawings of the M-9 seaplane. The provisional government, obedient to the will of the English and French capitalists, willingly betrayed the national interests of the Russian people: the drawings were placed at the disposal of foreign states, and according to these drawings of the Russian designer, aircraft factories in England, France, Italy, and America built seaplanes for a long time.

The economic backwardness of the country, the lack of an aviation industry, and dependence on supplies of aircraft and engines from abroad in the first year of the war put Russian aviation in an extremely difficult situation. Before the war, at the beginning of 1914, the War Ministry placed orders for the construction of 400 aircraft at a few Russian aircraft factories. The tsarist government expected to obtain most of the aircraft, engines and necessary materials abroad, having concluded appropriate agreements with the French military department and industrialists. However, as soon as the war began, the tsarist government’s hopes for help from the “allies” burst. Some of the purchased materials and engines were confiscated by Germany at routes to the Russian border, and most of the materials and engines provided for by the agreement were not sent by the “allies” at all. As a result, of the 400 aircraft that were eagerly awaited in the aviation units, which experienced an acute shortage of material, by October 1914 it turned out to be possible to continue the construction of only 242 aircraft .

In December 1914, the “allies” announced their decisions to sharply reduce the number of aircraft and engines supplied to Russia. The news of this decision caused extreme alarm in the Russian Ministry of War: the plan to supply aircraft and engines to units of the active army was disrupted. “The new decision of the French military department puts us in a difficult situation,” wrote the head of the main military-technical department to the Russian military agent in France . Of the 586 aircraft and 1,730 engines ordered in France in 1915, only 250 aircraft and 268 engines were delivered to Russia. Moreover, France and England sold obsolete and worn-out aircraft and engines to Russia, which had already been withdrawn from service in the French aviation. There are many cases where French identification marks were discovered under the fresh paint that covered the sent aircraft.

In a special certificate “On the condition of engines and airplanes received from abroad,” the Russian military department noted that “official acts testifying to the condition of engines and airplanes arriving from abroad show that in a significant number of cases these items arrive in faulty form... Foreign factories send already used devices and engines to Russia.” Thus, the plans of the tsarist government to receive material from the “allies” to supply aviation failed. And the war demanded more and more new aircraft, engines, and aviation weapons.

Therefore, the main burden of supplying aviation with materiel fell on the shoulders of Russian aircraft factories, which, due to their small numbers, acute lack of qualified personnel, and lack of materials, were clearly unable to satisfy all the growing needs of the front for aircraft. and motors. During the First World War, the Russian army received only 3,100 aircraft, of which 2,250 were from Russian aircraft factories and about 900 from abroad.

The acute shortage of engines was especially detrimental to the development of aviation. The military department's leaders' focus on importing engines from abroad led to the fact that, at the height of hostilities, there were no engines available for a significant number of aircraft built in Russian factories. Airplanes were sent to the active army without engines. It got to the point that in some aviation detachments, for 5-6 aircraft there were only 2 serviceable engines, which had to be removed from some aircraft and transferred to others before combat missions. The tsarist government and its military department were forced to admit that dependence on foreign countries put Russian aircraft factories in an extremely difficult situation. Thus, the head of the organization of aviation in the active army wrote in one of his memos: “The lack of engines had a disastrous effect on the productivity of airplane factories, since the calculation of domestic airplane production was based on the timely supply of foreign engines.”

The enslaving dependence of the economy of Tsarist Russia on foreign countries brought Russian aviation to disaster during the First World War. It should be noted that the Russian-Baltic Plant successfully mastered the production of domestic Rusbalt engines, with which most of the Ilya Muromets airships were equipped. However, the tsarist government continued to order worthless Sunbeam engines from England, which continually failed to fly. The poor quality of these engines is eloquently evidenced by an excerpt from a memorandum from the department of the general on duty under the Commander-in-Chief: “The 12 new Sunbeam engines that had just arrived in the squadron turned out to be faulty; there are defects such as cracks in the cylinders and misalignments of the connecting rods.”

The war required continuous improvement of aviation equipment. However, the owners of aircraft factories, trying to sell already manufactured products, were reluctant to accept new aircraft and engines for production. It is appropriate to mention this fact. The Gnome plant in Moscow, owned by a French joint-stock company, produced obsolete Gnome aircraft engines. The Main Military-Technical Directorate of the War Ministry proposed that the plant's management move to the production of a more advanced rotary motor "Ron". The plant's management refused to comply with this requirement and continued to impose its outdated products on the military department. It turned out that the director of the plant received a secret order from the board of a joint stock company in Paris - to slow down the construction of new engines by any means in order to be able to sell the parts prepared in large quantities for the outdated design engines produced by the plant.

As a result of Russia's backwardness and its dependence on foreign countries, Russian aviation during the war fell catastrophically behind in terms of the number of aircraft from other warring countries. An insufficient amount of aviation equipment was a characteristic phenomenon for Russian aviation throughout the war. The lack of aircraft and engines disrupted the formation of new aviation units. On October 10, 1914, the main directorate of the main headquarters of the Russian army reported on a request about the possibility of organizing new aviation detachments: “... it has been established that aircraft cannot be built for new detachments before November or December, since all those currently being manufactured are being replenished significant loss of apparatus in existing detachments" .

Many aviation detachments were forced to conduct combat work on outdated, worn-out aircraft, since the supply of new brands of aircraft had not been established. One of the reports of the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Western Front, dated January 12, 1917, states: “Currently, the front consists of 14 aviation detachments with 100 aircraft, but of these, only 18 are serviceable devices of modern systems.” (By February 1917, on the Northern Front, out of the required 118 aircraft, there were only 60 aircraft, and a significant part of them were so worn out that they required replacement. The normal organization of combat operations of aviation units was greatly hampered by the diversity of aircraft. There were many aviation detachments, where all available The aircraft had different systems, which caused serious difficulties in their combat use, repair and supply of spare parts.

It is known that many Russian pilots, including P.N. Nesterov, persistently sought permission to arm their aircraft with machine guns. The leaders of the tsarist army refused them this and, on the contrary, slavishly copied what was being done in other countries, and treated everything new and advanced that was created by the best people of Russian aviation with distrust and disdain.

During the First World War, Russian aviators fought in the most difficult conditions. An acute lack of material, flight and technical personnel, the stupidity and inertia of the tsarist generals and dignitaries, into whose care the air force was entrusted, delayed the development of Russian aviation, narrowed the scope and reduced the results of its combat use. And yet, in these most difficult conditions, advanced Russian aviators showed themselves to be bold innovators, decisively paving new paths in the theory and combat practice of aviation.

During the First World War, Russian pilots accomplished many glorious deeds that went down in the history of aviation as a clear evidence of valor, courage, inquisitive mind and high military skill of the great Russian people. At the beginning of the First World War, P.N. Nesterov, an outstanding Russian pilot, the founder of aerobatics, accomplished his heroic feat. On August 26, 1914, Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov conducted the first air battle in the history of aviation, realizing his idea of ​​​​using an aircraft to destroy an air enemy.

Advanced Russian aviators, continuing the work of Nesterov, created fighter squads and laid the initial foundations of their tactics. Special aviation detachments, whose goal was to destroy enemy air forces, were first formed in Russia. The project for organizing these detachments was developed by E. N. Kruten and other advanced Russian pilots. The first fighter aviation units in the Russian army were formed in 1915. In the spring of 1916, fighter aviation detachments were formed in all armies, and in August of the same year, front-line fighter aviation groups were created in Russian aviation. This group included several fighter aviation squads.

With the organization of fighter groups, it became possible to concentrate fighter aircraft on the most important sectors of the front. The aviation manuals of those years stated that the goal of fighting enemy aviation “is to ensure your air fleet freedom of action in the air and constrain the enemy. This goal can be achieved by incessantly pursuing enemy aircraft for their destruction in air combat, which is the main task of fighter squads.” . The fighter pilots skillfully beat the enemy, increasing the number of enemy aircraft shot down. There are many known cases when Russian pilots entered into an air battle alone against three or four enemy aircraft and emerged victorious from these unequal battles.

Having experienced the high combat skill and courage of Russian fighters, German pilots tried to avoid air combat. One of the reports from the 4th Combat Fighter Aviation Group stated: “It has been noticed that recently German pilots, flying over their territory, are waiting for the passage of our patrol vehicles and, when they pass, they are trying to penetrate our territory. When our planes approach, they quickly retreat to their location.”.

During the war, Russian pilots persistently developed new air combat techniques, successfully applying them in their combat practice. In this regard, the activity of the talented fighter pilot E.N. Kruten, who enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a brave and skillful warrior, deserves attention. Just over the location of his troops, Kruten shot down 6 planes in a short period of time; He also shot down quite a few enemy pilots while flying behind the front line. Based on the combat experience of the best Russian fighter pilots, Kruten substantiated and developed the idea of ​​paired formation of fighter combat formations, and developed a variety of air combat techniques. Kruten has repeatedly emphasized that the components of success in air combat are surprise of attack, altitude, speed, maneuver, caution of the pilot, opening fire from extremely close range, persistence, and the desire to destroy the enemy at all costs.

In Russian aviation, for the first time in the history of the air fleet, a special formation of heavy bombers arose - the Ilya Muromets squadron of airships. The tasks of the squadron were defined as follows: through bombing, destroy fortifications, structures, railway lines, hit reserves and convoys, operate on enemy airfields, carry out aerial reconnaissance and photograph enemy positions and fortifications. The squadron of airships, actively participating in the hostilities, inflicted considerable damage on the enemy with their well-aimed bomb attacks. The pilots and artillery officers of the squadron created instruments and sights that significantly increased the accuracy of bombing. The report, dated June 16, 1916, stated: “Thanks to these devices, now during the combat work of ships there is complete opportunity to accurately bomb the intended targets, approaching them from any direction, regardless of the direction of the wind, and this makes it difficult to target ships enemy anti-aircraft guns."

The inventor of the wind gauge - a device that allows one to determine the basic data for targeted dropping of bombs and aeronautical calculations - was A. N. Zhuravchenko, now a Stalin Prize laureate, an honored worker of science and technology, who served in an airship squadron during the First World War. Leading Russian aviators A.V. Pankratiev, G.V. Alekhnovich, A.N. Zhuravchenko and others, based on the experience of the squadron’s combat operations, developed and generalized the basic principles of targeted bombing, actively participated with their advice and proposals in the creation of new modified aircraft ships "Ilya Muromets".

In the fall of 1915, the pilots of the squadron began to successfully conduct group raids on important enemy military targets. Very successful raids by the Muromites on the cities of Towerkaln and Friedrichshof are known, as a result of which enemy military warehouses were hit with bombs. Enemy soldiers captured some time after the Russian air raid on Towerkaln showed that bombs had destroyed warehouses with ammunition and food. On October 6, 1915, three airships made a group raid on the Mitava railway station and blew up fuel warehouses.

Russian planes successfully operated in groups and alone at railway stations, destroying tracks and station structures, hitting German military echelons with bombs and machine-gun fire. Providing great assistance to ground troops, the airships systematically attacked the enemy’s fortifications and reserves and hit his artillery batteries with bombs and machine-gun fire.

The squadron pilots flew on combat missions not only during the day, but also at night. Night flights of the Muromets caused great damage to the enemy. During night flights, aircraft navigation was carried out using instruments. The aerial reconnaissance conducted by the squadron provided great assistance to the Russian troops. The order for the Russian 7th Army noted that “during aerial reconnaissance, the Ilya Muromets 11 airship photographed enemy positions under extremely heavy artillery fire. Despite this, the work of that day was successfully completed, and the next day the ship again took off on an urgent task and performed it perfectly. As during the entire time that the airship “Ilya Muromets” 11 was in the army, the photography on both of these flights was excellent, the reports were compiled very thoroughly and contain truly valuable data.” .

The Muromets inflicted significant losses on enemy aircraft, destroying aircraft both at airfields and in air battles. In August 1916, one of the squadron's combat detachments successfully carried out several group raids on an enemy seaplane base in the area of ​​Lake Angern. Airship crews have achieved great skill in repelling fighter attacks. The high combat skill of the aviators and the powerful small arms of the aircraft made the Muromets low-vulnerable in air combat.

In battles during the First World War, Russian pilots developed the initial tactics for defending a bomber from attack by fighters. So, during group flights when attacked by enemy fighters, the bombers took over the formation with a ledge, which helped them support each other with fire. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Russian airships Ilya Muromets, as a rule, emerged victorious from battles with enemy fighters. During the entire First World War, the enemy managed to shoot down only one aircraft of the Ilya Muromets type in an air battle, and that was because the crew ran out of ammunition.

Russian army aviation was also actively bombing enemy personnel, railway structures, airfields and artillery batteries. Thorough aerial reconnaissance carried out before the raids helped the pilots to timely and accurately bomb the enemy. Among many others, a successful night raid by planes of the Grenadier and 28th aviation detachments on the Tsitkemen railway station and the German airfield located near it is known. The raid was preceded by thorough reconnaissance. The pilots dropped 39 bombs on pre-designated targets. Accurately dropped bombs caused fires and destroyed hangars with enemy aircraft in them.

From the very first days of the war, Russian aviators showed themselves to be brave and skillful aerial reconnaissance officers. In 1914, during the East Prussian operation, pilots of the aviation detachments of the 2nd Russian Army, through thorough aerial reconnaissance, collected data on the location of the enemy in front of the front of our troops. Conducting intensive reconnaissance flights, the pilots relentlessly monitored the Germans retreating under the attacks of Russian troops, supplying headquarters with information about the enemy.

Aviation reconnaissance promptly warned the command of the 2nd Army about the threat of a counterattack, reporting that enemy troops were concentrating on the flanks of the army. But the mediocre tsarist generals did not take advantage of this information and did not attach any importance to it. Neglect of aerial intelligence was one of the many reasons why the offensive against East Prussia failed. Aerial reconnaissance played a significant role in preparing the August 1914 offensive of the armies of the Southwestern Front, as a result of which Russian troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian armies and occupied Lvov, Galich and the Przemysl fortress. Carrying out reconnaissance flights over enemy territory, the pilots systematically supplied headquarters with information about the enemy’s fortifications and defensive lines, about his groupings and escape routes. Air reconnaissance data helped determine the direction of attacks of the Russian armies on the enemy.

During the siege of the Przemysl fortress, on the initiative of advanced Russian pilots, photography of fortifications was used from the air. By the way, it should be said that here, too, the highest ranks of the tsarist army showed stupidity and inertia. Representatives of the high command of aviation were staunch opponents of aerial photography at the beginning of the war, believing that it could not bring any results and was a “worthless activity.” However, Russian pilots, who systematically carried out successful photographic reconnaissance, refuted this point of view of the dignitaries.

The Brest-Litovsk fortress and 24th aviation detachments, operating as part of the troops that took part in the siege of Przemysl, conducted intensive aerial photographic reconnaissance of the fortress. So, on November 18, 1914 alone, they took 14 photographs of the fortress and its forts. The report on the work of aviation in November 1914 indicates that as a result of reconnaissance flights accompanied by photography:

"1. A detailed survey of the south-eastern area of ​​the fortress has been completed.

2. An engineering survey was carried out of the area facing Nizankovitsy, in view of information from the army headquarters that they were preparing for a sortie.

3. The places where our shells hit were determined by photographs of the snow cover, and some defects were identified in determining targets and distances.

4. The enemy’s reinforcement of the northwestern front of the fortress was clarified.” .

The 3rd point of this report is very interesting. Russian pilots cleverly used aerial photography of the places where our artillery shells exploded to correct its fire.

Aviation took an active part in the preparation and conduct of the June offensive of the troops of the Southwestern Front in 1916. Aviation detachments assigned to the front troops received certain sectors of the enemy's location for aerial reconnaissance. As a result, they photographed enemy positions and determined the locations of artillery batteries. Intelligence data, including airborne intelligence, helped to study the enemy’s defense system and develop an offensive plan, which, as we know, was crowned with significant success.

During the fighting, Russian aviators had to overcome enormous difficulties caused by the economic backwardness of Tsarist Russia, its dependence on foreign countries, and the hostile attitude of the Tsarist government towards the creative pursuits of talented Russian people. As already indicated, Russian aviation during the war lagged behind the air forces of its “allies” and enemies. By February 1917, there were 1,039 aircraft in Russian aviation, of which 590 were in the active army; a significant portion of the aircraft had outdated systems. Russian pilots had to compensate for the acute shortage of aircraft with intense combat work.

In a stubborn struggle against the routine and inertia of the ruling circles, advanced Russian people ensured the development of domestic aviation and made remarkable discoveries in various branches of aviation science. But how many talented inventions and undertakings were crushed by the tsarist regime, which stifled everything brave, smart, and progressive among the people! The economic backwardness of Tsarist Russia, its dependence on foreign capital, which resulted in a catastrophic lack of weapons in the Russian army, including a lack of aircraft and engines, the mediocrity and corruption of the Tsarist generals - these are the reasons for the serious defeats that the Russian army suffered during the First World War,

The further the First World War dragged on, the clearer the bankruptcy of the monarchy became. In the Russian army, as well as throughout the country, the movement against the war grew. The growth of revolutionary sentiment in the aviation units was greatly facilitated by the fact that the mechanics and soldiers of the aviation units were mostly factory workers drafted into the army during the war. Due to the lack of pilot personnel, the tsarist government was forced to open access to aviation schools to soldiers.

Soldier-pilots and mechanics became the revolutionary core of aviation detachments, where, as in the entire army, the Bolsheviks launched a great deal of propaganda work. The Bolsheviks' calls to turn the imperialist war into a civil war and to direct weapons against their own bourgeoisie and the tsarist government often met with a warm response among the aviator soldiers. In the aviation units, cases of revolutionary actions became more frequent. Among those sentenced to court-martial for revolutionary work in the army were many soldiers from aviation units.

The Bolshevik Party launched powerful propaganda work in the country and at the front. Throughout the army, including in the aviation units, the influence of the party grew every day. Many aviator soldiers openly declared their reluctance to fight for the interests of the bourgeoisie and demanded the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The Revolution and Civil War were ahead...

Application

In World War I, aviation was used to achieve three goals: reconnaissance, bombing, and destruction of enemy aircraft. Leading world powers have achieved great results in conducting combat operations with the help of aviation.

Aviation of the Central Powers

Aviation Germany

German aviation was the second largest aviation in the world at the beginning of the First World War. There were about 220-230 aircraft. But meanwhile, it is worth noting that these were outdated Taube-type aircraft; aviation was given the role of vehicles (then aircraft could carry 2-3 people). The expenses for it in the German army amounted to 322 thousand marks.

During the war, the Germans showed great attention to the development of their air forces, being among the first to appreciate the impact that the war in the air had on the war on the ground. The Germans sought to ensure air superiority by introducing technical innovations into aviation as quickly as possible (for example, fighter aircraft) and during a certain period from the summer of 1915 to the spring of 1916 they practically maintained dominance in the skies at the fronts.

The Germans also paid great attention to strategic bombing. Germany was the first country to use its air force to attack enemy strategic rear areas (factories, populated areas, sea harbors). Since 1914, first German airships and then multi-engine bombers regularly bombed rear targets in France, Great Britain and Russia.

Germany made a significant bet on rigid airships. During the war, more than 100 rigid airships of the Zeppelin and Schütte-Lanz design were built. Before the war, the Germans mainly planned to use airships for aerial reconnaissance, but it quickly turned out that airships were too vulnerable over land and in the daytime.

The main function of heavy airships was maritime patrol, maritime reconnaissance in the interests of the fleet and long-range night bombing. It was Zeppelin's airships that first brought to life the doctrine of long-range strategic bombing, carrying out raids on London, Paris, Warsaw and other rear cities of the Entente. Although the effect of the use, with the exception of individual cases, was mainly moral, blackout measures and air raids significantly disrupted the work of the Entente industry, which was not ready for such, and the need to organize air defense led to the diversion of hundreds of aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, and thousands of soldiers from the front line.

However, the advent of incendiary bullets in 1915, which could effectively destroy hydrogen-filled zeppelins, eventually led to the fact that from 1917, after heavy losses in the final strategic raids on London, airships were used only for maritime reconnaissance.

Aviation Austria-Hungary

Aviation of Turkey

Of all the warring powers, the Ottoman Empire's air force was the weakest. Although the Turks began to develop military aviation in 1909, the technological backwardness and extreme weakness of the industrial base of the Ottoman Empire meant that Turkey faced World War I with very small air forces. After entering the war, the Turkish aircraft fleet was replenished with more modern German aircraft. The Turkish Air Force reached the peak of its development - 90 aircraft in service and 81 pilots - in 1915.

There was no aircraft manufacturing in Turkey; the entire aircraft fleet was supplied from Germany. About 260 airplanes were delivered from Germany to Turkey in 1915-1918: in addition, a number of captured aircraft were restored and used.

Despite the weakness of the material part, the Turkish Air Force proved to be quite effective during the Dardanelles Operation and in the battles in Palestine. But since 1917, the arrival of new British and French fighters in large numbers at the front and the depletion of German resources led to the fact that the Turkish Air Force was practically exhausted. Attempts to change the situation were made in 1918, but did not end due to the revolution that took place.

Entente aviation

Russian Aviation

At the start of the First World War, Russia had the largest air fleet in the world with 263 aircraft. At the same time, aviation was in its formation stage. In 1914, Russia and France produced approximately the same number of aircraft and were the first in the production of airplanes among the Entente countries that year, yet lagging behind Germany in this indicator by 2.5 times. Contrary to generally accepted opinion, Russian aviation performed well in battles, but due to the weakness of the domestic aircraft industry (especially due to the low production of aircraft engines), it could not fully demonstrate its potential.

By July 14, the troops had 4 Ilya Muromets, the only serial multi-engine aircraft in the world at that time. In total, 85 copies of this world's first heavy bomber were produced during the war. However, despite individual manifestations of engineering art, the air force of the Russian Empire was inferior to the German, French and British, and since 1916, also to the Italian and Austrian. The main reason for the lag was the poor state of affairs with the production of aircraft engines and the lack of aircraft engineering capacity. Until the very end of the war, the country was unable to establish mass production of a domestic model fighter, forced to manufacture foreign (often outdated) models under license.

In terms of the volume of its airships, Russia ranked third in the world in 1914 (right after Germany and France), but its fleet of lighter-than-air ships was mainly represented by outdated models. The best Russian airships of the First World War were built abroad. In the 1914-1915 campaign, Russian airships managed to carry out only one combat mission, after which, due to technical wear and tear and the inability of industry to provide the army with new airships, work on controlled aeronautics was curtailed.

Also, the Russian Empire became the first country in the world to use aircraft. At the beginning of the war there were 5 such ships in the fleet.

UK Aviation

Great Britain was the first country to separate its air force into a separate branch of the military, not under the control of the army or navy. Royal Air Force Royal Air Force (RAF)) were formed on April 1, 1918 at the base of the predecessor Royal Flying Corps (eng. Royal Flying Corps (RFC)).

Great Britain became interested in the prospect of using aircraft in war back in 1909 and achieved significant success in this (although at that time it was somewhat behind the recognized leaders - Germany and France). Thus, already in 1912, the Vickers company developed an experimental fighter airplane armed with a machine gun. "Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 1" was demonstrated at maneuvers in 1913, and although at that time the military took a wait-and-see approach, it was this work that formed the basis for the world's first fighter airplane, the Vickers F.B.5, which took off in 1915.

By the beginning of the war, all British Air Forces were organizationally consolidated into the Royal Flying Corps, divided into naval and army branches. In 1914, the RFC consisted of 5 squadrons, totaling about 60 vehicles. During the war, their numbers grew sharply and by 1918 the RFC consisted of more than 150 squadrons and 3,300 aircraft, eventually becoming the largest air force in the world at that time.

During the war, the RFC carried out a variety of tasks, from aerial reconnaissance and bombing to the insertion of spies behind the front lines. RFC pilots pioneered many applications of aviation, such as the first use of specialized fighters, the first aerial photography, attacking enemy positions in support of troops, dropping saboteurs and defending their own territory from strategic bombing.

Britain also became the only country other than Germany that was actively developing a fleet of rigid-type airships. Back in 1912, the first rigid airship R.1 "Mayfly" was built in Great Britain, but due to damage during an unsuccessful launch from the boathouse, it never took off. During the war, a significant number of rigid airships were built in Britain, but for various reasons their military use did not begin until 1918 and was extremely limited (the airships were only used for anti-submarine patrols and had only one encounter with the enemy)

On the other hand, the British fleet of soft airships (which by 1918 numbered more than 50 airships) was very actively used for anti-submarine patrols and convoy escort, achieving significant success in the fight against German submarines.

Aviation France

French aviation, along with Russian aviation, showed its best side. Most of the inventions that improved the design of the fighter were made by French pilots. French pilots focused on practicing tactical aviation operations, and mainly focused their attention on confronting the German Air Force at the front.

French aviation did not carry out strategic bombing during the war. The lack of serviceable multi-engine aircraft constrained raids on Germany's strategic rear (as did the need to concentrate design resources on fighter production). In addition, French engine manufacturing at the beginning of the war was somewhat behind the best world level. By 1918, the French had created several types of heavy bombers, including the very successful Farman F.60 Goliath, but did not have time to use them in action.

At the beginning of the war, France had the second largest fleet of airships in the world, but it was inferior in quality to Germany: the French did not have rigid airships like Zeppelins in service. In 1914-1916, airships were quite actively used for reconnaissance and bombing operations, but their unsatisfactory flight qualities led to the fact that since 1917 all controlled aeronautics were concentrated only in the navy in patrol service.

Aviation Italy

Although Italian aviation was not among the strongest before the war, it experienced a rapid rise during the conflict from 1915-1918. This was largely due to the geographical features of the theater of operations, when the positions of the main enemy (Austria-Hungary) were separated from Italy by an insurmountable but relatively narrow barrier of the Adriatic.

Italy also became the first country after the Russian Empire to massively use multi-engine bombers in combat. The three-engined Caproni Ca.3, first flown in 1915, was one of the best bombers of the era, with more than 300 built and produced under license in the UK and USA.

During the war, the Italians also actively used airships for bombing operations. The weak protection of the strategic rear of the Central Powers contributed to the success of such raids. Unlike the Germans, the Italians relied on small high-altitude soft and semi-rigid airships, which were inferior to zeppelins in range and combat load. Since Austrian aviation, in general, was quite weak and, moreover, dispersed on two fronts, Italian aircraft were used until 1917.

United States Aviation

Because the United States remained aloof from the war for a long time, its air force developed comparatively more slowly. As a result, by the time the United States entered the world war in 1917, its air force was significantly inferior to the aviation of other participants in the conflict and approximately corresponded in technical level to the situation in 1915. Most of the available aircraft were reconnaissance or "general purpose" aircraft; there were no fighters or bombers capable of participating in air battles on the Western Front.

To solve the problem as quickly as possible, the US Army launched intensive production of licensed models from British, French and Italian companies. As a result, when the first American squadrons appeared at the front in 1918, they flew machines of European designers. The only airplanes designed in America that took part in the World War were twin-engine flying boats from Curtiss, which had excellent flight characteristics for their time and were intensively used in 1918 for anti-submarine patrols.

Introduction of new technologies

Vickers F.B.5. - the world's first fighter

In 1914, all countries of the world entered the war with airplanes without any weapons except for the personal weapons of the pilots (rifle or pistol). As aerial reconnaissance increasingly began to influence the course of combat operations on the ground, the need arose for weapons capable of preventing enemy attempts to penetrate airspace. It quickly became clear that fire from hand-held weapons was practically useless in air combat.

At the beginning of 1915, the British and French began to be the first to install machine gun weapons on aircraft. Since the propeller interfered with the shelling, machine guns were initially installed on vehicles with a pushing propeller located at the rear and not interfering with firing in the bow hemisphere. The world's first fighter was the British Vickers F.B.5, specially built for air combat with a turret-mounted machine gun. However, the design features of aircraft with a pusher propeller at that time did not allow them to develop sufficiently high speeds, and intercepting high-speed reconnaissance aircraft was difficult.

After some time, the French proposed a solution to the problem of shooting through the propeller: metal linings on the lower parts of the blades. Bullets hitting the pads were reflected without damaging the wooden propeller. This solution turned out to be nothing more than satisfactory: firstly, the ammunition was quickly wasted due to some of the bullets hitting the propeller blades, and secondly, the impacts of the bullets gradually deformed the propeller. Nevertheless, due to such temporary measures, Entente aviation managed to gain an advantage over the Central Powers for some time.

On November 3, 1914, Sergeant Garro invented the machine gun synchronizer. This innovation made it possible to fire through the aircraft's propeller: the mechanism allowed the machine gun to fire only when there was no blade in front of the muzzle. In April 1915, the effectiveness of this solution was demonstrated in practice, but by accident, an experimental aircraft with a synchronizer was forced to land behind the front line and was captured by the Germans. Having studied the mechanism, the Fokker company very quickly developed its own version, and in the summer of 1915 Germany sent to the front the first fighter of the “modern type” - the Fokker E.I, with a pulling propeller and a machine gun firing through the propeller disc.

The appearance of squadrons of German fighters in the summer of 1915 was a complete surprise for the Entente: all of its fighters had an outdated design and were inferior to Fokker aircraft. From the summer of 1915 to the spring of 1916, the Germans dominated the skies over the Western Front, securing a significant advantage for themselves. This position became known as the "Fokker Scourge"

Only in the summer of 1916, the Entente managed to restore the situation. The arrival at the front of maneuverable light biplanes of English and French designers, which were superior in maneuverability to the early Fokker fighters, made it possible to change the course of the war in the air in favor of the Entente. At first, the Entente experienced problems with synchronizers, so usually the machine guns of Entente fighters of that time were located above the propeller, in the upper biplane wing.

The Germans responded with the introduction of new biplane fighters, the Albatros D.II in August 1916, and the Albatros D.III in December, which had a streamlined semi-monocoque fuselage. Due to a more durable, lighter and streamlined fuselage, the Germans gave their aircraft better flight characteristics. This allowed them to once again gain a significant technical advantage, and April 1917 went down in history as “Bloody April”: Entente aviation again began to suffer heavy losses.

During April 1917, the British lost 245 aircraft, 211 pilots were killed or missing, and 108 were captured. The Germans lost only 60 airplanes in the battle. This clearly demonstrated the advantage of the semi-monococcal scheme over previously used ones.

The Entente's response, however, was swift and effective. By the summer of 1917, the introduction of the new Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 fighters, the Sopwith Camel and SPAD, allowed the air war to return to normal. The main advantage of the Entente was the better state of the Anglo-French engine industry. In addition, since 1917, Germany began to experience a severe shortage of resources.

As a result, by 1918, Entente aviation had achieved both qualitative and quantitative superiority in the air over the Western Front. German aviation was no longer able to claim more than temporary local dominance on the front. In an attempt to change the situation, the Germans tried to develop new tactics (for example, during the summer offensive of 1918, air strikes on home airfields were first widely used in order to destroy enemy aircraft on the ground), but such measures could not change the overall unfavorable situation .

Tactics of air combat in the First World War

In the initial period of the war, when two aircraft collided, the battle was fought with personal weapons or with the help of a ram. The ram was first used on September 8, 1914 by the Russian ace Nesterov. As a result, both planes fell to the ground. In March 1915, another Russian pilot used a ram for the first time without crashing his own plane and returned to base. This tactic was used due to the lack of machine gun weapons and their low effectiveness. The ram required exceptional precision and composure from the pilot, so it was rarely used.

In the battles of the late period of the war, aviators tried to bypass the enemy plane from the side, and, going into the enemy’s tail, shoot him with a machine gun. This tactic was also used in group battles, with the pilot who showed the initiative winning; causing the enemy to fly away. The style of air combat with active maneuvering and close-range shooting was called “dogfight” and dominated the idea of ​​air warfare until the 1930s.

A special element of the air combat of the First World War were attacks on airships. Airships (especially of rigid construction) had quite numerous defensive weapons in the form of turret-mounted machine guns, at the beginning of the war they were practically not inferior to airplanes in speed, and usually had a significantly superior rate of climb. Before the advent of incendiary bullets, conventional machine guns had very little effect on the airship's shell, and the only way to shoot down an airship was to fly directly over it and drop hand grenades on the ship's keel. Several airships were shot down, but in general, in air battles of 1914-1915, airships usually emerged victorious from encounters with aircraft.

The situation changed in 1915, with the advent of incendiary bullets. Incendiary bullets made it possible to ignite the hydrogen mixed with the air, flowing through the holes pierced by the bullets, and cause the destruction of the entire airship.

Bombing tactics

At the beginning of the war, not a single country had specialized aerial bombs in service. German Zeppelins carried out their first bombing missions in 1914, using conventional artillery shells with attached fabric surfaces, and the planes dropped hand grenades on enemy positions. Later, special aerial bombs were developed. During the war, bombs weighing from 10 to 100 kg were most actively used. The heaviest aerial munitions used during the war were first the 300-kilogram German aerial bomb (dropped from Zeppelins), the 410-kilogram Russian aerial bomb (used by Ilya Muromets bombers) and the 1,000-kilogram aerial bomb used in 1918 on London from German aerial bombs. multi-engine Zeppelin-Staaken bombers

Devices for bombing at the beginning of the war were very primitive: bombs were dropped manually based on the results of visual observation. Improvements in anti-aircraft artillery and the resulting need to increase bombing altitude and speed led to the development of telescopic bomb sights and electric bomb racks.

In addition to aerial bombs, other types of aerial weapons were developed. Thus, throughout the war, airplanes successfully used throwing flechettes, dropped on enemy infantry and cavalry. In 1915, the British Navy successfully used seaplane-launched torpedoes for the first time during the Dardanelles Operation. At the end of the war, the first work began on the creation of guided and gliding bombs.

Anti-aviation

Sound surveillance equipment from the First World War

After the start of the war, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns began to appear. At first they were mountain cannons with an increased barrel elevation angle, then, as the threat grew, special anti-aircraft guns were developed that could send a projectile to a greater height. Both stationary and mobile batteries appeared, on a car or cavalry base, and even anti-aircraft units of scooters. Anti-aircraft searchlights were actively used for night anti-aircraft shooting.

Early warning of an air attack became especially important. The time it took for interceptor aircraft to rise to high altitudes during World War I was significant. To provide warning of the appearance of bombers, chains of forward detection posts began to be created, capable of detecting enemy aircraft at a considerable distance from their target. Towards the end of the war, experiments began with sonar, detecting aircraft by the noise of their engines.

The air defense of the Entente received the greatest development in the First World War, forced to fight German raids on its strategic rear. By 1918, the air defenses of central France and Great Britain contained dozens of anti-aircraft guns and fighters, and a complex network of sonar and forward detection posts connected by telephone wires. However, it was not possible to ensure complete protection of the rear from air attacks: even in 1918, German bombers carried out raids on London and Paris. The First World War's experience with air defense was summed up in 1932 by Stanley Baldwin in the phrase "The bomber will always get through."

The air defense of the rear of the Central Powers, which had not been subjected to significant strategic bombing, was much less developed and by 1918 was essentially in its infancy.

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Illustration copyright RIA Novosti Image caption The Ilya Muromets aircraft was intended as a passenger aircraft, but was converted into a bomber

On December 23, 1914, Emperor Nicholas II approved the resolution of the military council on the creation of the world's first bomber squadron. At that time, the Russian Empire had one of the largest aviation fleets.

However, the readiness of Russian aircraft for combat at the beginning of the war left much to be desired. After just a few months of hostilities, many squadrons found themselves in a critical situation due to worn-out airplanes and engines.

As aviation historian Vadim Mikheev notes, one of the reasons for the crisis was the so-called “engine famine,” since the production of aircraft engines in the Russian Empire clearly did not meet the needs of aircraft manufacturing.

Although the country was actively building factories for the production of aircraft engines, by the beginning of the war they had not yet been put into operation, and the engines had to be purchased abroad.

In addition, by the beginning of the First World War, there was also a personnel crisis in the aviation industry: for 263 aircraft there were only 129 qualified pilots.

All this led to the fact that in the winter of 1914-1915 the country's military leadership had to hastily rearm air squadrons and increase the production of pilots in aeronautical schools. However, even after this, Russia continued to lag behind its main enemy, the German Empire, in the field of aviation.

“While the Germans fly over us like birds and throw bombs at us, we are powerless to fight them...” wrote the Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Mikhail Rodzianko, in June 1916.

"Air heroes"

The most original and advanced development of Russian aircraft manufacturers at the start of the war was the four-engine biplane Ilya Muromets. It was from these aircraft that the world's first bomber squadron was composed.

The aircraft was created under the leadership of Russian aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, who by that time had become famous for creating the world's first four-engine aircraft, the Russian Knight.

Initially, Ilya Muromets was created as a passenger aircraft. It was equipped with a comfortable cabin, a bathroom with a toilet and even a promenade deck, which it was assumed that passengers could go out on during the flight, since the plane was flying at a very low speed.

With the outbreak of war, it was decided to convert the flagship of the Russian air fleet into a heavy bomber. The planes were covered with steel armor, equipped with a weapon for firing at German Zeppelins and other weapons.

However, heavy armor and massive on-board weapons significantly increased the weight of the aircraft and made it more vulnerable in a combat situation. And among pilots accustomed to light and maneuverable aircraft, the huge Ilya Muromets did not cause much delight.

In addition, there was no complete clarity about what combat missions should be entrusted to the “air heroes.”

A participant in the First World War, aviation historian Konstantin Finne recalls an incident in 1915, when the chief of staff of one of the armies suggested to the commander of one of the biplanes, Captain Gorshkov, to raid a German airfield in the city of Sanniki, scatter the enemy with machine-gun fire and burn enemy planes and hangars.

“Captain Gorshkov responded to this proposal with humor that he would carry out this combat mission only if he was awarded the St. George Cross and that someone should deliver this award to the German airfield in advance so that Gorshkov could pick it up there,” writes Finne.

Exploits of a Polynesian

At the same time, the crews of the Ilya Muromets aircraft managed to successfully conduct both reconnaissance missions and combat operations during the war, and the attitude of the army command towards these bulky machines gradually changed for the better.

For example, in March 1915, one of the crews managed to bomb a railway station in East Prussia and sow panic among the German military. The German press wrote that the Russians had airplanes that caused great damage and were invulnerable to artillery.

Some aviators and gunners of the Russian "air heroes" were awarded the highest army awards. Among them were the commander of one of the crews, Joseph Bashko, and a mechanic-gunner of Polynesian origin, Marcel Plya, who was awarded the Cross of St. George, III and IV degrees.

While the Germans fly over us like birds and throw bombs at us, we are powerless to fight them... Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the State Duma of Russia (1911-1917)

In April 1916, Plya took part in an air raid on the Daudzevas station fortified with anti-aircraft guns on the territory of modern Latvia and managed to repair damaged engines during the flight, for which he was promoted to rank.

In November of the same year, the Polynesian proved himself in another air battle. By that time, he had already established himself as a marksman, and he managed to shoot down two of the three German fighters that sat on the tail of the Ilya Muromets.

“The first fighter, having an elevation of 150 meters, began the attack from a distance of 300 meters. He opened fire in a dive. Almost simultaneously Plya answered him. The upper machine gun also spoke. The German jerked to the side, turned over and began to fall randomly. Then he went on the attack the second. Plya did not allow him to take aim and the first opened fire. The fighter, without changing the dive angle, slipped past the Muromets and rushed to the ground. The third walked in circles a little, turned around and departed on his own," - this is how the Polynesian’s feat is described in the book “Wings of Sikorsky ".

After this, Marcel Plea made several recommendations and comments regarding the design of the Ilya Muromets, which were taken into account by Igor Sikorsky.

The first Russian aces

The combat capabilities of Russian aviation at the beginning of the war were very limited. Unlike the Ilya Muromets, light aircraft were not armed with machine guns and were designed primarily for reconnaissance work. Therefore, the only effective way to shoot down an enemy plane was to ram it. The first person in the world who was able to do this was the Russian military pilot Pyotr Nesterov.

Before the start of the war, Nesterov became famous as the founder of aerobatics: in September 1913, he managed for the first time to perform the famous “dead loop” on the Nieuport-4 aircraft, which later became known as the “Nesterov loop”.

Nesterov assumed that it was possible to shoot down an enemy plane by hitting the wheels of his aircraft and at the same time land safely after the ramming was completed, but few took this idea seriously: the aviator’s colleagues and associates called this plan suicidal.

Nesterov also came up with other options for ramming: for example, he developed a special knife on the rear limb of the fuselage for cutting the skin of an enemy airship. He also proposed tying a long cable with a load to the tail of the plane, which could be used to entangle the propeller of an enemy machine.

In September 1914, Nesterov managed to put the idea of ​​a ram into practice. In the skies over Galicia, a Russian pilot attacked an Austrian reconnaissance airplane of the Albatross system in his plane, but it ended tragically for him.

“Nesterov’s plane, gliding steeply, rushed towards the Austrian and crossed his path; the staff captain seemed to ram the enemy airplane - it seemed to me that I clearly saw how the planes collided. The Austrian suddenly stopped, froze in the air and immediately somehow swayed strangely; its wings moved up and down. And suddenly, tumbling and turning over, the enemy plane quickly flew down, and I could swear that I noticed how it disintegrated in the air," the Quartermaster General of Headquarters 3 describes this battle 1st Army Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich.

As a result of the dangerous maneuver, Nesterov’s plane was severely damaged, and the 27-year-old aviator himself fell out of the car and crashed to death.

In March 1915, another outstanding Russian pilot, Alexander Kazakov, managed to ram an enemy Albatross for the second time and then land safely. For this feat, Kazakov was awarded the St. George's Arms. True, after Kazakov, until the very end of the First World War, not a single pilot dared to use this dangerous technique.

It is difficult to say who first came up with such an idea, but in practice it was the Americans who applied it first. On January 15, 1911, as part of aviation week in San Francisco, “bombs were thrown from an airplane.” Don't worry, no one was hurt during the show.

At the beginning of the First World War, bombs were dropped by hand

In battle, apparently, the Italians were the first to drop bombs from airplanes. At least, it is known that during the Italo-Turkish war in Libya on November 1, 1911, Lieutenant Gavotti dropped 4 grenades of 4.4 pounds each on Turkish troops.

However, it is not enough to simply drop a bomb from an airplane; it is advisable to drop it with precision. During the 1910s, attempts were made to develop various sighting devices. In the Russian Empire, by the way, too, they were quite successful. Thus, the devices of Staff Captain Tolmachev and Lieutenant Sidorenko received favorable reviews in most cases. However, as a rule, almost all sights initially received positive reviews, then the opinion changed to the opposite. This happened due to the fact that all the instruments did not take into account side winds and air resistance. At that time, the ballistic theory of bombing did not yet exist; it was developed through the efforts of two Russian scientific centers in St. Petersburg and Moscow by 1915.

Observer pilot's workplace: bombs and a box of Molotov cocktails

By the mid-1910s, in addition to airplane bombs weighing several pounds, other types of projectiles were known, namely a large number of different “airplane bullets” and “arrows” weighing 15-30 g. “Arrows” are generally an interesting thing. They were metal rods with a pointed end and a small cross-shaped stabilizer. In general, the “arrows” resembled the “darts” from the game “Darts”. They first appeared in the French army at the very beginning of the First World War and showed high efficiency. Legends even began to be made about them, claiming that these things pierce right through the rider and horse. In fact, it is known that when dropped from a height of 1 km, 500 arrows were scattered over an area of ​​\u200b\u200bup to 2000 square meters, and once “a third of the battalion, located for rest, was put out of action by a relatively small number of arrows dropped from one airplane.” By the end of 1915, 9 different types of aviation bullets and “arrows” were adopted into service with the Russian Air Force.

"Strelki"

What could be dropped from an airplane was not the only weaponry of flying machines in those days. In 1914-1915, front-line pilots independently tried to adapt automatic weapons for air combat. Despite the fact that the military department’s order to arm airplanes with Madsen submachine guns came out 10 days after the start of the war, it took quite a long time for the air squads to receive these weapons, which, by the way, were pretty outdated.

Aviators of the 5th Army JSC near a Voisin aircraft armed with a Maxim machine gun. April 1916

In addition to obtaining machine guns from warehouses, there was another problem. The most rational methods for installing aviation weapons on an aircraft have not been developed. Pilot V.M. Tkachev wrote at the beginning of 1917: “At first, the machine gun was placed on the airplane where it was found more convenient for one or another purely technical reasons and as the design data of the device suggested in one case or another... In general The picture was as follows - a machine gun was attached to this system of the device wherever possible, regardless of what the other combat qualities of this airplane were and what its purpose was, in the sense of the upcoming task."

Until the end of the First World War, there was no consensus on the types of combat aircraft. Clear ideas about bombers and fighters will appear a little later.

The weak point of aviation weapons of that time was the targeted attack. Bombing at the then technological level of development could not be accurate in principle. Although, by 1915, scientific research in the field of ballistics made it possible to switch to the production of aerial bombs with a reduced tail, which somewhat increased the accuracy and efficiency of projectiles. Automatic weapons also did not differ in particular accuracy; the ring sight could not provide it to the required extent. Collimator sights, developed by Zhukovsky’s students by 1916, were not adopted for service, since there were no factories or workshops in Russia at that time capable of mass-producing them.

Introduction of new technologies
At the beginning of 1915, the British and French began to be the first to install machine gun armament on aircraft. Since the propeller interfered with the shelling, machine guns were initially installed on vehicles with a pushing propeller located at the rear and not interfering with firing in the bow hemisphere. The world's first fighter was the British Vickers F.B.5, specially built for air combat with a turret-mounted machine gun. However, the design features of aircraft with a pusher propeller at that time did not allow them to develop sufficiently high speeds, and intercepting high-speed reconnaissance aircraft was difficult.

After some time, the French proposed a solution to the problem of shooting through the propeller: metal linings on the lower parts of the blades. Bullets hitting the pads were reflected without damaging the wooden propeller. This solution turned out to be nothing more than satisfactory: firstly, the ammunition was quickly wasted due to some of the bullets hitting the propeller blades, and secondly, the impacts of the bullets gradually deformed the propeller. Nevertheless, due to such temporary measures, Entente aviation managed to gain an advantage over the Central Powers for some time.

On April 1, 1915, Sergeant Garro, flying a Morane-Saulnier L fighter, shot down an airplane for the first time with a machine gun firing through the rotating propeller of the aircraft. The metal reflectors installed on Garro's plane after a visit from the Moran-Saulnier company prevented damage to the propeller. By May 1915, the Fokker company had developed a successful version of the synchronizer. This device made it possible to fire through an airplane propeller: the mechanism allowed the machine gun to fire only when there was no blade in front of the muzzle. The synchronizer was first installed on the Fokker E.I fighter.

The appearance of squadrons of German fighters in the summer of 1915 was a complete surprise for the Entente: all of its fighters had an outdated design and were inferior to Fokker aircraft. From the summer of 1915 to the spring of 1916, the Germans dominated the skies over the Western Front, giving themselves a significant advantage. This position became known as the “Fokker Scourge”

Only in the summer of 1916, the Entente managed to restore the situation. The arrival at the front of maneuverable light biplanes of English and French designers, which were superior in maneuverability to the early Fokker fighters, made it possible to change the course of the war in the air in favor of the Entente. At first, the Entente experienced problems with synchronizers, so usually the machine guns of Entente fighters of that time were located above the propeller, in the upper biplane wing.

The Germans responded with the appearance of new biplane fighters, the Albatros D.II in August 1916, and the Albatros D.III in December, which had a streamlined semi-monocoque fuselage. Due to a stronger, lighter and more streamlined fuselage, the Germans gave their aircraft better flight characteristics. This allowed them to once again gain a significant technical advantage, and April 1917 went down in history as “Bloody April”: Entente aviation again began to suffer heavy losses.

During April 1917, the British lost 245 aircraft, 211 pilots were killed or went missing, and 108 were captured. The Germans lost only 60 airplanes in the battle. This clearly demonstrated the advantage of the semi-monococcal scheme over previously used ones.

The Entente's response, however, was swift and effective. By the summer of 1917, the introduction of the new Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 fighters, the Sopwith Camel and SPAD, allowed the air war to return to normal. The main advantage of the Entente was the better state of the Anglo-French engine industry. In addition, since 1917, Germany began to experience a severe shortage of resources.

As a result, by 1918, Entente aviation had achieved both qualitative and quantitative air superiority over the Western Front. German aviation was no longer able to claim more than temporary local dominance on the front. In an attempt to turn the situation around, the Germans tried to develop new tactics (for example, during the summer offensive of 1918, air strikes on home airfields were first widely used in order to destroy enemy aircraft on the ground), but such measures could not change the overall unfavorable situation .

Tactics of air combat in the First World War
In the initial period of the war, when two aircraft collided, the battle was fought with personal weapons or with the help of a ram. The ram was first used on September 8, 1914 by the Russian ace Nesterov. As a result, both planes fell to the ground. On March 18, 1915, another Russian pilot used a ram for the first time without crashing his own plane and successfully returned to base. This tactic was used due to the lack of machine gun weapons and their low effectiveness. The ram required exceptional precision and composure from the pilot, so the rams of Nesterov and Kazakov turned out to be the only ones in the history of the war.

In the battles of the late period of the war, aviators tried to bypass the enemy plane from the side, and, going into the enemy’s tail, shoot him with a machine gun. This tactic was also used in group battles, with the pilot who showed the initiative winning; causing the enemy to fly away. The style of air combat with active maneuvering and close-range shooting was called “dogfight” and dominated the idea of ​​air warfare until the 1930s.

A special element of the air combat of the First World War were attacks on airships. Airships (especially of rigid construction) had quite numerous defensive weapons in the form of turret-mounted machine guns, at the beginning of the war they were practically not inferior to airplanes in speed, and usually had a significantly superior rate of climb. Before the advent of incendiary bullets, conventional machine guns had very little effect on the airship's shell, and the only way to shoot down an airship was to fly directly over it and drop hand grenades on the ship's keel. Several airships were shot down, but in general, in air battles of 1914 - 1915, airships usually emerged victorious from encounters with aircraft.

The situation changed in 1915, with the advent of incendiary bullets. Incendiary bullets made it possible to ignite the hydrogen mixed with the air, flowing through the holes pierced by the bullets, and cause the destruction of the entire airship.

Bombing tactics
At the beginning of the war, not a single country had specialized aerial bombs in service. German Zeppelins carried out their first bombing missions in 1914, using conventional artillery shells with fabric surfaces attached, and the planes dropped hand grenades on enemy positions. Later, special aerial bombs were developed. During the war, bombs weighing from 10 to 100 kg were most actively used. The heaviest aerial munitions used during the war were first a 300-kilogram German aerial bomb (dropped from Zeppelins), a 410-kilogram Russian aerial bomb (used by Ilya Muromets bombers) and a 1000-kilogram aerial bomb used in 1918 on London from German multi-engine Zeppelin-Staaken bombers

Devices for bombing at the beginning of the war were very primitive: bombs were dropped manually based on the results of visual observation. Improvements in anti-aircraft artillery and the resulting need to increase bombing altitude and speed led to the development of telescopic bomb sights and electric bomb racks.

In addition to aerial bombs, other types of aerial weapons were developed. Thus, throughout the war, airplanes successfully used throwing flechettes, dropped on enemy infantry and cavalry. In 1915, the British fleet successfully used torpedoes launched from seaplanes for the first time during the Dardanelles operation. At the end of the war, the first work began on the creation of guided and gliding bombs.