| In the years directly before World War II, many developments were made in military aircraft. The Americans developed the first modern monoplanes in the early 1930's. Soon after, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union began developing planes of this type. Britain and Germany's planes were superior to the American planes. These two countries maintained their lead in military aircraft development well into World War II. Their aircraft were not only superior in performance but also were superior in military effectiveness.
The American Boeing B-17 four-engined bomber revealed new technical possibilities, but it suffered from insufficient bomb capacity and ineffective defensive armament. The British developed bombers with much greater bomb load capacity, made possible by the relatively short distance to their targets on the European mainland. The British also led the way in developing systems of air defense using the Hurricane and Spitfire fighters as their main weapons. They were the first to bring radar into use, and by 1939, the British isles had the most efficient air defense organization in existence.
Just before World War II, the first flight of a jet-propelled airplane took place. This aircraft was the German Heinkel He-178. Development of gas turbines for jet propulsion had started in England and Germany in the mid-1930's, and the first workable engines of these types had been run in both countries in 1937. The first practical helicopters also flew in the second half of the 1930's. The first helicopters were the French Breguet-Dorand 314 (1935), the German Focke-Achgelis Fa-61 (1936), the British Weir W-5 (1938), and the American Sikorsky VS-300 (1939).
The demands of World War II accelerated the development of aircraft and aircraft technologies. Important advances in the development of aircraft for bombing and combat, and for the transportation of parachute troops, tanks, and other equipment took place.
When war broke out in 1939, Germany had dominance in the air. The Russians, like the Germans, concentrated on the tactical use of air power in direct support of their armies on the ground. As the war progressed, the Russians produced large numbers of small, relatively low-performance, but highly armed aircraft, notably the Ilyushin II-10. These aircraft were able to make a vital contribution to the increasingly massive counterattacks of their armies which eventually drove the Germans back into Central Europe.
The British became one of the Western Powers' main offensive weapon due to their advocacy of strategic bombing. The attacks of the RAF Bomber Command grew steadily in weight until 176,000 tons of bombs were dropped in 1943. The RAF was equipped mainly with four-engined Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax bombers. These aircrafts had a cruising speed of 170 m.p.h. and could carry 13,000 pounds of bombs. The U.S. Eighth Army Air Force was equipped with Boeing B-17's and B-24's, which were of similar size and performance as the British Bombers. Together the U.S. and Britain dropped 1,800,000 tons of bombs on Germany and German-occupied territories.
While the RAF attack was mainly by night, that of the USAAF was largely by day. This was made possible by the introduction of long-range fighters, including the North American Mustang (P-51), the Republic Thunderbolt (P-47), and the Lockheed Lighting (P-38). These aircraft had a maximum speed of about 400 m.p.h., and a radius of action of about 500 statute miles.
The United States' entry into the war followed the surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941. This Japanese attack was followed by others in which the Japanese successfully exploited the air-launched bomb and torpedo. An important element in the Japanese success in the air was the fact that their aircraft had been underestimated by allied intelligence. In particular, their light and highly maneuverable Mitsubishi Zero Fighters completely outperformed the allied fighters. By mid-1942, American strength increased rapidly until it could take the initiative and gradually push the Japanese back towards their homeland. The U.S. XXI Bomber Command used the 140,000 pound loaded weight B-29 bomber to drop 147,000 tons of bombs on Japan between June 1944 and August 1945. The B-29 has a cruising speed of 250 m.p.h., a bomb load of 6000 pounds, and a radius of action of over 1,200 statute miles. The Japanese's will to wage war was broken by the dropping of the first two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. The dropping of the atomic bombs was the event of World War II that gave new significance to air power.
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