ts finally adopted as most
advantageous the fighting airplanes were mainly biplanes equipped
with powerful motors seldom of less than 140 horse-power, and
carrying often but one man who is not merely the pilot, but the
operator of the machine gun with which each was equipped. Still
planes carrying two men, and even three of whom one was the pilot,
the other two the operators of the machine guns were widely adopted.
They had indeed their disadvantages. They were slower to rise and
clumsier in the turns. The added weight of the two gunmen cut down
the amount of fuel that could be carried and limited the radius of
action. But one curious disadvantage which would not at first
suggest itself to the lay mind was the fact that the roar of the
propeller was so great that no possible communication could pass
between the pilot and the gunner. Their co-operation must be
entirely instinctive or there could be no unity of action--and in
practice it was found that there was little indeed. The smaller
machine, carrying but one man, was quicker in the get-away and could
rise higher in less time--a most vital consideration, for in the
tactics of aerial warfare it is as desirable to get above your enemy
as in the days of the old line of battleships it was advantageous to
secure a position off the stern of your enemy so that you might rake
him fore and aft.

The machines ultimately found to best meet the needs of aerial
fighting were for the Germans always the Fokker, and the Taube--so
called from its resemblance to a flying dove, though it was far from
being the dove of peace. The wings are shaped like those of a bird
and the tail adds to the resemblance. The Allies after testing the
Taube design contemptuously rejected it, and indeed the Germans
themselves substituted the Fokker for it in the war's later days.

The English used the "Vickers Scout," built of aluminum and steel
and until late in the war usually designed to carry two aviators.
This machine unlike most of the others has the propeller at the
stern, called a "pusher" in contradistinction to the "tractor,"
acting as the screw of a ship and avoiding the interference with the
rifle fire which the pulling, or tractor propeller mounted before
the pilot to a certain degree presents. The Vickers machine is
lightly armoured. The English also use what was known as the "D. H.
5," a machine carrying a motor of very high horse-power, while the
Sopwith and Bristol biplane were popular