PILOTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR 48 FIGURES

Royal Flying Corps (full English name: Royal Flying Corps, abbreviated as RFC) is a British Air Force term that was used from May 1912 to April 1918. At that time, the British Air Force was structurally and organizationally part of the Army. At the beginning of World War I, the RFC was created by a squadron of observation balloons and four squadrons. In the first months of the Great War, the RFC was primarily responsible for cooperating with its own artillery and performing photographic reconnaissance. Over time, the RFC pilots were tasked with air combat with enemy machines, carrying out bombing tasks and supporting their own land forces through the implementation of assault tasks. The significant expansion of the RFC's tasks resulted in the fact that in the course of World War I it was equipped with numerous planes such as the Sopwith Camel, Sopwith Pup, RAF RE.8 or Handley Page O / 400 (from the end of 1917). It is worth adding that in the first period of the Great War (1914-1916) the training standards for RFC pilots were not standardized. This only started to change in 1916, when it was assumed that a pilot must have at least 15 hours of flight time on a fighter plane before going into combat. However, the significant losses among the pilots in the RFC in 1916 and early 1917 forced further changes, which resulted in further changes in the spring of 1917. At the end of World War I, the fighter pilot training process was extended to 10-11 months, during which the average student spent at least 50 hours in the air on his own. It is worth adding that at the end of 1918, the RFC had about 4,000 combat aircraft and nearly 115,000 personnel!French Air Force (current French name: Armee de l'air) is historically the first air force in the world, which began to form as early as 1909, and officially became part of the ground forces in 1912 under the name Aeronautique Militaire. At the time of the outbreak of World War I, the French air force already numbered 148 aircraft, mainly reconnaissance, reconnaissance and liaison machines. In the years 1914-1918, as in Germany and Great Britain, French aviation underwent a very rapid development - both quantitative and qualitative. During this period, "specialized" fighter planes with machine weapons (eg Nieuport 11 or Nieuport 16) and bomber planes (eg Caudron G.4) appeared. The intensive development of French aviation was possible thanks to a solid industrial base and companies such as Nieuport or Caudron, but also Bleriot, Breguet and Hanriot. As a result of this development, in 1918 the French air force had about 3,600 aircraft in the line. Throughout the war, approximately 17,300 pilots and flight crew members were involved in combat operations, of which approximately 5,500 were killed.The German air force was organized in 1913 under the name of die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, to change its name to in 1916 Luftstreitkräfte. At the time of the outbreak of World War I, they played a decisively subordinate role to the ground forces and were, moreover, quite strictly subordinated to them. It is worth adding that each German infantry division included a reconnaissance company of 6 aircraft in August 1914. However, very quickly the German air force began to expand and play an increasingly important role over the battlefield. In 1918, they had a total of about 2,700 aircraft and about 240 other aircraft. This significant quantitative development was possible, among others, thanks to a strong industrial base and a well-developed aviation industry with such factories as: Albatros Flugzeugwerke, Fokker, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke or Siemens-Schukert. The German air force also introduced many successful aircraft in the years 1914-1918, including the great Fokker Dr.I or Gotha G.IV or GV fighter, but also such unusual designs as the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI. The German air force was also able to undergo organizational changes during the Great War, as evidenced by the establishment of specialized fighter units (German: Jagdstaffeln) in 1916. Manfred von Richthofen, known as the red baron, was undoubtedly one of the greatest Luftstreitkräfte aces, but it is also worth remembering about such pilots as: Max Immelmann, Wilhelm Frank, Oswald Boelcke, Ernst Udet or later Luftwaffe commander Herman Göring.