Why did World War 1 use planes?

Answer 1

They were basically spy planes. The British flew over enemy positions to map out enemy trench positions. Little bombing was utilized by these rudimentary aircraft however, as the pilot would have to manually drop the bomb out of the side of the plane by hand. You can imagine the problems this might cause. This was also the birthplace of dog-fighting, but was mostly just for show. Children would sit on rooftops and watch these dog fights after school for hours. It also helped in the Romanticism of war. The machine guns were behind, and actually fired through, the propeller and timing wasn't always right on....

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As the war progressed, bombing became much better. A system of bomb carriages was developed so pilots and observers no longer had to drop bombs by hand. The big Vickers bombers could drop 2,476 lb of bombs. The synchronisation mechanism that allowed machine guns to fire between propeller rotations was very good. Very, very few aircraft shot out their own propellers.

Dogfighting wasn't for show. It was deadly serious. Thousands of young men died during air battles. Such pilots as Boelke, Von Richtofen, Ball, McCudden etc put their lives on the line every time they climbed into the cockpits. The average life expectency of a Allied pilot in 1916 was 11 weeks - hardly "for show". Pilots called the RFC the "suicide club" because of the high death rate.