WARPLANES

The aerial legacy of the First World War was both good and bad: on the credit side the aero-plane had evolved into an effective machine with several distinct roles, and on the debit side the lessons of the war seemed so clear that there appeared to be little point in further thought, with the one principal exception of the heavy bomber. This last had appeared so late in the war that all realised the importance of exploring its true military potential.

So progress in the development of fighting aircraft during the 1920s was at first slow, and was far outstripped by that of civil and record-breaking aircraft. However, slowly the revolution in structural methods and markedly improved engines made itself felt, and aircraft designed for aerial fighting began to overhaul their civil counterparts again. Small-scale wars, and the increasing threat of a Second World War, speeded this process immeasurably, and by the late 1930s the slow, agile and elegant biplanes had all but disappeared in favour of a new generation of aggressive monoplanes combining outright performance with devastating potential, which was finally realised during the climactic years 1942-1945.

But even as these piston-engined aircraft were beginning to play a decisive part in warfare, the genesis of the jet engine and electronic warfare was ushering in a new revolution, whose evolution during the late 1940s and early 1950s produced one of aviation's truly 'golden eras? And it was these aircraft, designed largely to fight a strategic war between the super-powers and their allies, which equipped the US Air Force in the Vietnam War. And here the fallacy of the previous 15 years' tactical thinking was revealed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Christopher Chant was brought up in East Africa, but educated at The King's School, Canterbury and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Literae Humaniores. He has been fascinated in aviation since an early age, and after coming down from Oxford became an assistant editor on the Purnell partworks History of the Second World War and History of the First World War.

In 1972 he became editor of the Orbis partwork World War II, and on its completion left full-time publishing employment to concentrate on his writing career. Since that time he has married and moved from London to rural Lincolnshire, where he now lives with his wife and two sons.

He is the author of a number of works dealing with aviation and modern military history, including Aviation: an Illustrated History, The World's Armies, The World's Navies, The World's Air Forces, The Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, and Air Forces of World Wars I and II.