First Air War
How did fighter planes evolve from rickety biplanes into deadly machines during WWI?
First Air War NOVA
When World War I began in 1914, the air forces of the opposing nations consisted of handfuls of rickety biplanes from which pilots occasionally took pot shots at one another with rifles. By the war’s end, the essential blueprint of the modern fighter had emerged: it was now an efficient killing machine that limited the average life expectancy of a front line pilot to just a few weeks.
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NOVA
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