Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
Roland Garros - The First Fighter Pilot
Together with the French aircraft engineer Raymond Saulnier...
...the French aviator Roland Garros...
...developed a device with which he could get out of an airplane with a Hotchkiss M 1909 machine gun mounted in front of the pilot's seat in the longitudinal axis...
...can fire straight ahead while aiming the whole machine, which greatly improves accuracy.
Until now that had been impossible!
The machine gun had to shoot through the running propeller (made of wood) and would inevitably have destroyed it and caused the plane to crash!
Garros found out in experiments that when shooting with the rotating propeller, only about every tenth bullet hits the propeller blades - and invents a simple remedy:
The endangered rear sides of the propeller blades - only a very small part at a time! - are simply reinforced with metal plates.
Just as Garros and Saulnier think they have solved the problem, a surprising new one emerges:
The ricochets of the machine gun bullets bouncing off the metal plates "splash" everywhere - even into the cockpit, where they endanger the pilot, who runs the risk of shooting himself with his own weapon!
After nights of tinkering, Garros now invents a wedge shape for the metal plates that deflect the ricocheting projectiles at an angle that is not dangerous for the pilot!
Here is the original propeller he developed...:
And here the whole thing mounted on a "Morane-Saulnier" in a drawing...:
The air resistance of the whipstocks reduces the performance of the "Morane Saulnier L" monoplane considerably, but with the new armament the machine has become the first real fighter aircraft with the rigid forward-firing tube armament typical of this aircraft type!
On April 1, 1915, Garros, serving as a sergeant in Escadrille (Squadron) MS 23, took off in his "Morane-Saulnier" No. 8 to test his new system in an emergency. The next photo was taken shortly before the start, Garros can be seen in the plane...:
He promptly hits four German "Albatros B.II" two-seaters in the front area over Flanders...
...whose crews just dropped their bombs by hand and are now on their way home.
Three of the German two-seaters manage to escape while Garros attaches itself to the fourth "Albatros".
At that time, neither German nor French aircraft had a defensive armament of machine guns on board, the only weapon with which the Germans can defend themselves is the Karabiner 98 of the observer!
After a few bursts of fire from the Garros machine guns, the "Albatros" crashes in flames. After landing, Garros says it was like a nightmare for him to see the enemy plane burst into flames from his gun.
Roland Garros is the first fighter pilot in history to shoot down an enemy plane!
His system with the wedge-shaped protective plates remained unrivaled until the designer Antony Fokker (working for Germany)...
...we succeeded in combining a machine gun's mechanical interrupter gear with a sequence of shots coordinated with the rotation of the propeller, which reliably prevents the propeller from being hit forward when shooting...:
Fokker successfully tested his system on one of his E.III single-seaters as early as the end of 1915...:
Already at the beginning of 1916 he was able to fly with the new fighter plane "Fokker D.VII"...
...already deliver a large number of front-capable fighter planes, each with two forward-firing machine guns through the propeller...:
Here's the whole thing from the pilot's perspective...:
After two more aerial victories with his own design, Roland Garros was forced to land behind enemy lines on April 18, 1915, after an attack on the Courtrai train station when a fuel line was hit.
In the process, his plane and his invention fell into the hands of the Germans, who removed the propeller and, after a brief assessment, immediately sent it to Fokker.
Garros' propeller, in turn, inspired Fokker to invent his breaker gear.
Garros himself was captured unwounded, spent three years in German captivity before being released in February 1918 from the "Kavalier Scharnhorst" of the Magdeburg Fortress...
...was able to flee to France via Belgium.
There he immediately reported back to his unit, became a fighter pilot again and was able to achieve another aerial victory in early October 1918.
A few days later, exactly one day before his 30th birthday, Garros was shot down by a German fighter plane (his name is unknown!) on October 5, 1918 over the village of Vauzieres (Ardennes department) and died.
He is buried in the Vauzieres cemetery...:
Together with the French aircraft engineer Raymond Saulnier...
...the French aviator Roland Garros...
...developed a device with which he could get out of an airplane with a Hotchkiss M 1909 machine gun mounted in front of the pilot's seat in the longitudinal axis...
...can fire straight ahead while aiming the whole machine, which greatly improves accuracy.
Until now that had been impossible!
The machine gun had to shoot through the running propeller (made of wood) and would inevitably have destroyed it and caused the plane to crash!
Garros found out in experiments that when shooting with the rotating propeller, only about every tenth bullet hits the propeller blades - and invents a simple remedy:
The endangered rear sides of the propeller blades - only a very small part at a time! - are simply reinforced with metal plates.
Just as Garros and Saulnier think they have solved the problem, a surprising new one emerges:
The ricochets of the machine gun bullets bouncing off the metal plates "splash" everywhere - even into the cockpit, where they endanger the pilot, who runs the risk of shooting himself with his own weapon!
After nights of tinkering, Garros now invents a wedge shape for the metal plates that deflect the ricocheting projectiles at an angle that is not dangerous for the pilot!
Here is the original propeller he developed...:
And here the whole thing mounted on a "Morane-Saulnier" in a drawing...:
The air resistance of the whipstocks reduces the performance of the "Morane Saulnier L" monoplane considerably, but with the new armament the machine has become the first real fighter aircraft with the rigid forward-firing tube armament typical of this aircraft type!
On April 1, 1915, Garros, serving as a sergeant in Escadrille (Squadron) MS 23, took off in his "Morane-Saulnier" No. 8 to test his new system in an emergency. The next photo was taken shortly before the start, Garros can be seen in the plane...:
He promptly hits four German "Albatros B.II" two-seaters in the front area over Flanders...
...whose crews just dropped their bombs by hand and are now on their way home.
Three of the German two-seaters manage to escape while Garros attaches itself to the fourth "Albatros".
At that time, neither German nor French aircraft had a defensive armament of machine guns on board, the only weapon with which the Germans can defend themselves is the Karabiner 98 of the observer!
After a few bursts of fire from the Garros machine guns, the "Albatros" crashes in flames. After landing, Garros says it was like a nightmare for him to see the enemy plane burst into flames from his gun.
Roland Garros is the first fighter pilot in history to shoot down an enemy plane!
His system with the wedge-shaped protective plates remained unrivaled until the designer Antony Fokker (working for Germany)...
...we succeeded in combining a machine gun's mechanical interrupter gear with a sequence of shots coordinated with the rotation of the propeller, which reliably prevents the propeller from being hit forward when shooting...:
Fokker successfully tested his system on one of his E.III single-seaters as early as the end of 1915...:
Already at the beginning of 1916 he was able to fly with the new fighter plane "Fokker D.VII"...
...already deliver a large number of front-capable fighter planes, each with two forward-firing machine guns through the propeller...:
Here's the whole thing from the pilot's perspective...:
After two more aerial victories with his own design, Roland Garros was forced to land behind enemy lines on April 18, 1915, after an attack on the Courtrai train station when a fuel line was hit.
In the process, his plane and his invention fell into the hands of the Germans, who removed the propeller and, after a brief assessment, immediately sent it to Fokker.
Garros' propeller, in turn, inspired Fokker to invent his breaker gear.
Garros himself was captured unwounded, spent three years in German captivity before being released in February 1918 from the "Kavalier Scharnhorst" of the Magdeburg Fortress...
...was able to flee to France via Belgium.
There he immediately reported back to his unit, became a fighter pilot again and was able to achieve another aerial victory in early October 1918.
A few days later, exactly one day before his 30th birthday, Garros was shot down by a German fighter plane (his name is unknown!) on October 5, 1918 over the village of Vauzieres (Ardennes department) and died.
He is buried in the Vauzieres cemetery...:
