ACES HIGH: EVOLUTION OF THE NAVAL FIGHTER

Sea Classics, Feb 2008 by Gault, Owen

Carrier aviation began without a single purpose-built Naval fighter in the Navy's inventory

If any one factor became apparent in the remarkable growth of Naval aviation during WWI, it was that the Navy felt little need to develop a modern Naval fighter. Indeed, out of a force that numbered more than 2000 recently-acquired Naval aircraft, most were flying boats, seaplanes and training types. Less than 100 in the Naval inventory were fighters and these were largely a mix of worn-out foreign-built aircraft totally unsuited for Naval needs. So it was that as the guns on the Western Front fell silent and the Navy contemplated acquiring its first long deferred aircraft carrier, little thought had been given to the potential role of fighters in the as yet undeveloped doctrine of Naval airpower.

Compared to its European rivals, US Naval aviation had gotten off to a slow start due to considerable official lethargy in a Navy Department reluctant to explore new technologies. It was only through the insistence of a few far-sighted visionaries, including President Theodore Roosevelt, that in 1909 (six-years after the Wright Brothers' first flight) the Navy purchased it first aircraft, and then only three airframes were procured - two Curtiss flyers and one Wright Brothers Model B, all pushers. The following year, demonstrations by daring pioneer airman, Eugene Ely, dramatically proved I that aircraft could be landed on and flown from warships equipped with flight decks. However, the embryonic aircraft involved were too frail and underpowered to warrant serious consideration as a worthwhile shipboard asset. As a consequence, the intervening years leading up to the beginning of WWI in 1914 saw only sporadic growth as hide-bound American admirals were slow to consider possible uses for aircraft even as the Royal Navy successfully experimented with converting warships into aircraft carriers.

GOODBYE BROADWAY, HELLO FRANCE!

By the time the United States was thrust into the shooting war in April 1917, the US Navy possessed only 48 trained pilots and 53 airplanes; most of these being two-place trainers or crude flying boats. Fortunately, the impetus of a distant world war brought about an abrupt end to the Monroe Doctrine's isolationist policies thereby calling for the unprecedented expansion of the US military to a magnitude not seen since the Civil War. Within a year's time the United States had three million men and women in uniform along with a million Doughboys en route to France. While the US Naval aviation branch shared in that stupendous wartime growth, virtually all of its focus was aimed at developing a fleet of multiengine seaplanes for ocean patrol and reconnaissance, with emphasis on convoy protection.

Even as the Navy concentrated on building more than 35 new airfields and sinking German U-boats, the skies over war-torn France saw the emergence of an entirely new concept in aircraft use and design - the military fighter. Although airplanes had gone to war strictly as unarmed scouts to observe enemy movements and spot artillery fire, a rapid evolution followed as aircraft were armed and airframes became strong enough to carry increased loads which could absorb the stresses of bone-jarring highgravitational maneuvers. All too soon, French, British and German airmen evolved tactics which brought machine guns and bombs into widespread use not only against those on the ground, but between the flyers themselves. In a matter of mere months, the vaporous ozone itself became a lofty new battleground as opposing airmen now fought for supremacy of the sky. And out of these bold new tactics emerged a new breed of warrior - the air ace, sharp-eyed flyers who craftily demonstrated their skill by downing five or more of the enemy. With the ace evolved the fighter. He flew an aircraft solely designed to do aerial battle with an equally adept opponent. By the war's end, a whole new legion of European flying heroes such as Albert Ball, Manfred Von Richthofen, Billy Bishop, Ernst Udet, Rene Fonck, Werner Voss, Raymond Collishaw, Oswald Boelke, and Georges Guynemer were among the newly minted "Knights of the Sky" who achieved immortality by virtue of their consummate mastery of sky fighting techniques.

Bravery, cunning, and a little luck not withstanding, the flyers of the US Army Air Service also managed to create aces of their own over France with flyers like Eddie Rickenbacker, Frank Luke, Elliot White Springs, and Raoul Lufbery racking up impressive scores of aerial victories in the 19-months America was at war. Unfortunately, unequally represented in these esteemed ranks was only one US Navy pilot, Lt. David S. Ingalls, USNR. Serving with an Allied fighter squadron, Ingalls downed four German planes and one balloon in 1918 flying a Sopwith Camel while attached to the Royal Flying Corp's 213 Squadron. Through no fault of the flyers' own, this dearth of Naval aces existed simply because so few of the hundreds of Naval aircrews sent overseas had been assigned to experience this bold new type of aerial warfare. (Luckily, ace Ingalls would make the most of his unusual celebrity when, a decade later, he became Assistant secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics thanks to Adm. John Towers' endorsement. A good friend of President Herbert Hoover, Ingalls publicly pushed for a fully deployable task force and was instrumental in tripling the number of Naval aircraft procured in 1931.)