How did the airplane become a weapon in ww1?

Answer 1

The Airplane at first was only used as scouts. They took pictures and observed, in the air some pilots took guns to take a shot at enemy scouts. Later in 1915, Germany made the first aircraft with guns. They were called "fighters", they were used to shoot down other scouts and fighters. Even later into the war they started to take bombs onto the planes, the bombs were dropped by hand onto the ground in WWI.

Answer 2

Airplanes saw wide use along the western front, as well as limited use in the eastern front. Airplanes began as recon platforms for artillery, but same found use as bombers after the successes of zeppelin raids.

After the belligerents saw the value of recon aircraft, they learned the value and necessity of air superiority. They began arming recon pilots and/or their spotters with sidearms including rifles and the favored shotgun, which could severely damage the canvas skins of target airplanes. Soon engineers began to mount machine guns on the craft, and with the invention of the timing gear and later hydraulic timing mechanisms, the air superiority fighter was born.

Some craft flew as bombers. One Russian model, the Sikorski S-22 Ilya Muromets was a massive 4 engine bomber that carried a crew of 10 and had an interior passenger compartment as well as a bomb bay.

Most of the belligerent nations utilized aircraft during WWI, mostly by Germany, France and Britain, and later by the United States. US volunteer pilots flew under the French flag as the Lafayette Escadrille during the earlier years of the war before the US was involved.