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Pursuit Aircraft - Between the Wars

On 05 October 1914, a new epoch of warfare was born — the pilot of a French Voisin Type 3 of the French Air Service sent a German Aviatik down in flames, the first casualty of air-to-air combat. For the next four decades the tactics and methods of air combat remained relatively unchanged; the objective of air-to-air combat was to maneuver the aircraft into a position from which a gun could be fired at enemy aircraft. Advances in technology greatly enhanced aerodynamic performance and firepower.

Specialized pursuit aircraft were designed and organized into squadrons for the sole purpose of fighting for command of the sky. Early pursuit aircraft were lightweight and highly maneuverable, with excellent pilot visibility. Guns saw such advancements as Frenchman Roland Garros’s metal propeller deflector plates and Anthony Fokker’s synchronization gear, but there were few advances in aircraft armament before the armistice.

During the interwar years enormous advances in engine technology enabled aircraft to fly faster, higher, and farther. By the late 1930s aircraft had advanced from the likes of the British Sopwith Camel (top speed 113 mph, ceiling 15,000 feet, maximum range 200 miles) to aircraft like the German Messerschmitt BF-109E (top speed 357 mph, ceiling 32,800 feet, range 350 miles). This increased aerodynamic performance coupled with better firepower greatly increased the pace and lethality of the air-to-air combat environment.

When the US entered the Great War in 1917, the war had already been going on for a few years, and the US didn't have aircraft that could compete with others being flown in the war. The Nieuport 28C-1 was developed in mid-1917, but was rejected by the French Air Service as a frontline fighter, so it was given to arriving American squadrons and became the first operational pursuit aircraft in the U.S. Air Service.

During the war, U.S. pilots had been in combat prior to the use of the Nieuport 28C-1, but it wasn't until the use of the Nieuport that the U.S. saw its first aerial kill in American history by then-2nd Lt. Douglas Campbell of the 94th Aero Squadron on April 14, 1918. By May 31 of that year, he became the first air ace with his fifth kill. The U.S. received 297 Nieuport 28C-1s from the French during the war.

SPAD was the acronym of the French aircraft company Societé pour Aviation et les Derieves, headed by famed aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, which produced a line of highly successful fighter aircraft in the Great War. The SPAD XIII descended from the earlier model VII which first entered combat in the fall of 1916. In contrast to the earlier aircraft, the model XIII was somewhat larger, had a more powerful engine, and was equipped with two synchronized machine guns rather than one. It entered combat in the fall of 1917 and served with the air forces of most of the Allied Nations, including the United States. Many famous aces flew the SPAD, but to Americans the best known was Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker, the top scoring U.S. ace of the War.

The DeHavilland DH-4 continued to serve in various capacities in the Army Air Corps of the United States until the early 1930s. There was, of course, some development activity sponsored by both the Army and the Navy, and a number of prototypes of new aircraft were produced. These prototypes, however, usually followed the familiar biplane formula that emerged from World War I. Some small production contracts, generally, no more than 15 or 20 aircraft, were placed with the existing manufacturers for some of these prototypes. Hence, the industry did not entirely collapse.

The national and international air races helped stimulate and maintain public interest and support for aviation during the years immediately following the Great War. The races also provided a focus for the development of new, high-performance aircraft. Many of these special aircraft were government sponsored. The US Army and the US Navy sponsored such developments in the United States, as did the air forces of France, Great Britain, and Italy in Europe.

Barnstormers, gypsy pilots, roamed the country from town to town offering 5- to 10-minute rides for sums of around $5.00. The aircraft that served as the workhorse for the gypsy pilot was the Curtiss JN-4 or Jenny. This aircraft was a trainer that served during the Great War to introduce thousands of neophytes to the mysteries of flying. In the decade following the War, many young people, children and teenagers alike, were introduced to the wonderful world of flight by the sight of a Jenny gracefully gliding to a landing in a pasture close to the family homestead. Once seen and heard, the sight and sound of this ancient biplane with its slow-turning engine and the whistling noise of the wind through the bracing wires made an indelible impression on many young people in the 1920s and served as a springboard for their later entry into some aspect of aviation.

During the 1920s, pursuit aviation enjoyed a performance and flying qualities advantage over other types of military aviation; however, at first aviation development in the US lagged European development. American pursuit aviation advanced rather rapidly throughout the decade. Within a few years American pursuit aircraft had advanced to a point where they were on par withrest of the world. The Curtiss PW–8 Hawk and the Boeing PW–9 were fast and maneuverable for their time.

Although pursuit aviation advanced technologically in the 1920s, no clear doctrine emerged for the employment of pursuit. There was also no agreement on the roles of pursuit aviation or even on required characteristics of pursuit aircraft. Major Carl Spaatz, a pursuit aviation advocate, made an early attempt to clarify pursuit aviation in 1922. He identified four types of pursuit aircraft: offensive pursuit for air superiority; defensive pursuit for escort duty; night pursuit for night fighting; and attack pursuit forboth aerial combat and bombardment. Spaatz also began to set requirements for pursuit types. For example, he wanted defensive pursuit (escort) to have a combat radius equal to that of bombers, but also have superior speed, strength and maneuverability.

But Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, Assistant Chief of the Air Service, did not consider bomber escort to be a primary role for pursuit aircraft. Also, there was little urgency given in the 1920s to development of escort fighters because the performance limited bi–plane bombers could not strike distant targets.

From the end of the Great War until the early 1930s, American aviation policy was essentially oriented to the idea of continental defense. In addition, the general performance of military aircraft at that time precluded an attack on the United States from another continent. The need for pursuit aircraft with a long reach was, therefore, not urgent.

The metal monoplane design improved the performance of both bombers and pursuit aviation. The Boeing P–26 Peashooter of 1933 was the first of many monoplane pursuit designs of the decade. Although pursuit aircraft performance greatly improved, the doctrine for pursuit did not advance past that of the 1920s. Speed remained a dominate characteristic for pursuit designs, and range was a parameter that could be traded–off for speed. The emergence of long range bombardment drew attention away from pursuit aviation. The 1930’s was truly the decade of the long range bomber.

By the middle of the 1930s, bomber performance outmatched that of existing pursuit aircraft. One analysis [by Major Clayton Bissell] argued in 1936 that speed differential was everything for offensive pursuit. Unless pursuit speed was 40% to 50% greater than that of bombers, pursuit was useless. He claimed that while the means of stopping bombers did not exist in 1936, the requirement still existed and that efforts to develop pursuit were needed. Few in the Air Corps believed that it was technically possible to develop interceptor pursuit with the required speed, or an escort fighter that had both the range and speed to match the bombers.

The Hawk model P-6E made its first flight in 1931. A transitional monoplane fighter designed by Boeing was first flown in 1932. This aircraft was known as the P-26 or Pea Shooter. The aircraft was a wire-braced monoplane design that incorporated a fixed landing gear and open cockpit but was of all-metal construction, including the skin. The cowling around the engine, known as a Townend ring, reduced the drag of the radial engine. This was the first fighter aircraft developed in the United States to employ landing flaps. Thus, the P-26 represented a strange collection of the old and the new in airplane design and was an anachronism when it went into production in 1934. The P-26 was a transitional type of fighter and had a relatively short service life. Most of the P-26's had been recalled from first-line service by the beginning of World War II, although at least one P-26 flown by a Philippine pilot is thought to have engaged a Japanese fighter in the early days of World War II.