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00:03World War I was the first time in history that airplanes joined the battle.
00:08Almost as soon as the first shots are fired,
00:12a high speed race for domination kicks off in the skies above the trenches.
00:17A high ground vantage worth fighting and dying for.
00:22A century after World War I,
00:24the actual experience of flying these planes into combat has been lost to history.
00:30Until now.
00:34At a quiet airfield in New Zealand,
00:36a small band of aviators and engineers is building exact replicas of World War I fighters
00:43and putting modern-day pilots into the open cockpits
00:46to experience firsthand what it must have been like to fly above the trenches of the Western Front.
00:54Here, World War I fighters are being built down to the finest detail.
00:59We focus on creating stuff that doesn't exist.
01:02We have the ability to compare those airplanes by using the real thing essentially.
01:07That's the only way you can get that sight, the sound, the smell of these airplanes.
01:12They work from original designs.
01:15And there'd be somebody's name and it would have a date, 1915, 1914.
01:19And that sort of really hit home. I thought, wow.
01:22With no World War I flyers still alive,
01:25this work brings to life the pioneering designs that helped change the course of the war.
01:30It meant the difference between life and death for thousands of young men.
01:38War is an amazing catalyst. It forces progress.
01:42Because if you do not march forward, you will lose.
01:47Between 1914 and 1918, aviation designers turn the airplane from eccentric novelty to decisive weapon.
01:56They invent aerial warfare.
02:00The fact that we can get these airplanes in the air is phenomenal.
02:04We can go back in time.
02:05First Air War. Right now on NOVA.
02:28World War I. One of the bloodiest wars in history.
02:33Millions die in the cruel stalemate of trench warfare.
02:38The desperate effort to break the deadlock leads to the most rapid advance in military technology in history.
02:46When a new invention enters the fray.
02:51The airplane.
02:56In just four short years, an evolving array of machines takes to the air.
03:03From the BE-2 observation plane with a top speed of 72 miles per hour.
03:11To faster, nimbler fighters like the British SE-5A with mounted guns and the ability to shoot other planes out
03:19of the sky.
03:20And the German FALTZ D3.
03:23By 1918, many of the essentials of fighter aircraft were in place.
03:29How did this happen?
03:33In the quiet town of Masterton, New Zealand.
03:36A unique experiment is taking place.
03:40Here, they build World War I planes exactly as they were 100 years ago.
03:46Down to the smallest detail.
03:49The goal is to understand what it was like to fly and fight in these fragile war machines.
03:55I got into aviation very early on.
03:59I restored my first airplane when I was about 15.
04:02Learned to fly at that age.
04:04Flew halfway around the United States when I graduated high school.
04:09Gene DiMarco, an American living in New Zealand, heads an outfit called the Vintage Aviator.
04:17This group is dedicated to keeping history alive by recreating these antique flying machines.
04:25The work demands painstaking research.
04:29From hunting down original blueprints to sourcing authentic parts and materials.
04:37Some planes we might have a total amount of drawings.
04:41Other planes we might miss, you know, part of a wing or something like that.
04:44And in that case, we often reverse engineer a component that we may have found around the world.
04:49They're trying to decode and document the leaps in technology that these new weapons of war represent.
04:57We're sort of keeping history, you know, keeping up with history.
05:02Making sure that we don't lose the past, basically.
05:08As much as we had the drawings, we didn't have that assembly manual, that process manual,
05:13that told you, this is how you make the part.
05:17These airplanes were essentially hand produced.
05:20And the fact is, they're organic.
05:21They're built out of, you know, timber and fabric and cord and stuff like that.
05:26And all of those skills had to be reproduced.
05:29We had to find craftsmen that could do that kind of work.
05:33We're constantly impressed by the machining skills back then.
05:37When you look at the complexity of the crankcase, the casting, it's very, very clever.
05:43In World War I, even small differences in aircraft performance could mean life or death for the pilots who fly
05:51into combat.
05:51Potentially altering the balance of air power in the skies above the Western Front.
06:02August 1914.
06:04The armies of Germany range against Britain, Belgium and France.
06:09Nearly three and a half million men are thrown into combat.
06:15But military leaders are undecided what role the recently invented airplane will play in the war.
06:26Every major power was preparing for war.
06:30And part of that meant looking at this new idea, this new concept.
06:34What were they going to do with airplanes?
06:39At the outbreak of war, powered flight is still a lethally dangerous pastime.
06:46Planes are so flimsy that a 20 mile per hour gust of wind could flip them over.
06:55They're often referred to as kites.
06:57And they did, they handed like kites.
06:59They were blown around by the wind.
07:01Even, even we have difficulty with some of these airplanes.
07:03They have unusual handling characteristics affected by wind.
07:08The performance is terrible compared to some modern airplanes.
07:11And many top brass want nothing to do with these new flying machines.
07:18Some even refer to them as useless contraptions.
07:22The people at the top were certainly not convinced.
07:26They'd seen evidence that the aircraft could perform jobs for them.
07:29But it's very difficult for something that is, in few numbers, unreliable, somewhat dangerous,
07:36to really be able to prove what direction it could take itself and take the army.
07:41War had always been waged without airplanes before.
07:45And some thought war would be waged without airplanes now.
07:49I mean, one of the most skeptical of the generals was undoubtedly Sir John French,
07:54who just couldn't think of why they were necessary.
07:57He didn't see the point.
07:58They were too frail, too inconsequential in the scheme of things.
08:09But others are determined to prove their worth.
08:13At the outbreak of war, the British Royal Flying Corps, the RFC, has just over 100 airplanes.
08:24Four squadrons fly to France to join the conflict.
08:30The early days of the First World War, armies on both sides advance through open fields and towns.
08:39Their commanders can see no further than the hedgerow or hill in front of them.
08:45To find out what the enemy is doing, they're forced to send scouts on foot or horseback straight into lethal
08:52artillery and machine gun fire deployed on an industrial scale for the first time.
08:58So barely a week into the fighting, the so-called overrated contraptions, invented just over a decade before, enter the
09:06war.
09:08It's amazing to think that it's the first time people have ever flown.
09:13It seems unbelievable that in just a few short years, they're actually going to war.
09:18Despite all the early doubts, war in the sky soon becomes a grim reality.
09:25While the Germans work on their own aircraft, the British develop the BE-2.
09:30This stable, easy-to-fly airplane is the work of legendary designer Jeffrey de Havilland.
09:41In New Zealand, the team has built an exact reproduction of his Trailblazer.
09:47Accurate down to the last detail, it gives them an authentic 1914 flying experience.
09:55Here we are at home in a BE-2C.
09:58This lightweight biplane has two sets of wings to generate lift and provide structural rigidity.
10:07The pilot sits in the rear, an observer up front.
10:12Every airplane sort of has its own personality.
10:15You get a real taste for what it's like to fly these old airplanes.
10:19It is unarmed, and its maximum speed is only 72 miles per hour.
10:24In a strong headwind, it is almost static, literally floating.
10:29These early BE-2Cs were strictly used for observation in the beginning of the war.
10:34They weren't armed in any way, they weren't armored in any way,
10:37and they were slow, fragile airplanes that could, you know, barely get aloft with two people on board.
10:43De Havilland designed the airplane for spying on the enemy below.
10:48In the early days, it was really just the pilot, the observer, and their trusty notebook, and their pen.
10:56And they'd go up, and they'd have a map on, snap to one knee, and they'd have a notebook on
11:00the other.
11:00With no radios to report their observations back to base, this is a primitive operation.
11:06They'd draw a diagram on their knee with notes of what they could see,
11:10and then fly over the nearest army headquarters and just drop a message back.
11:15And that was all it was. That's all there could be in the first couple of months of the war.
11:21Basic as these sketches are, they mark a crucial step forward in military intelligence.
11:28For the first time, the army has an eye in the sky, and its advantages soon become obvious.
11:41With the ability to see the location of trenches and targets from the air,
11:46pilots are able to give information to gunners on the ground.
11:53These aircrafts really came into their own in cooperating with the artillery.
11:58They were able to be, in effect, missile guidance systems.
12:02This information helps the artillery progressively adjust their aim as they zero in on the target.
12:09As the war went on, the role of the Royal Flying Corps sort of slightly mutates.
12:15They become less the eyes of the whole army, and very much more become the eyes of the artillery.
12:24But communicating targeting information quickly is a challenge.
12:31So airplanes are soon equipped with Morse code radio.
12:37Now the airmen can see where a shell lands,
12:42and send word instantly to troops on the ground.
12:47The guns can then be adjusted, and then fired again.
12:54Followed by further adjustments ordered by the airborne observer.
12:59And then when you actually hit your target, you'd send a signal, say, go ahead.
13:05At which point the whole battery will open fire to destroy, and that's when the mayhem starts.
13:11A few months after the start of the war, the fronts have been established.
13:17Trenches stretch from Switzerland to the North Sea.
13:21This deadlock also means change for the Royal Flying Corps.
13:28They'll need faster, more agile planes.
13:31Because these new defenses are manned by troops looking up to the skies,
13:35and aiming artillery that will soon be able to reach those planes.
13:491915. The slaughter of the Western Front is well underway,
13:54and hundreds of thousands of men are dug in.
13:59The Royal Flying Corps is under pressure to help break the deadly stalemate of trench warfare.
14:09Mapping these complex battlefields by drawing sketches is no longer good enough.
14:15The thing about sketches is they're great in a war of movement,
14:19when you're just, you know, putting a big arrow on a map showing which way things are going.
14:23It's very different when trenches are established.
14:25And then you really want to know exactly where the trenches are.
14:29Trench warfare means that for the first time, the battlefield is static.
14:33It is gridlock.
14:36Machine gun nests are dug in and fortified.
14:40Permanent communication lines are built.
14:43And barbed wire is now strung out in front of the trenches.
14:49It's more crucial than ever to map enemy strong points and hidden gun positions.
14:59The solution lies in another new technology, aerial photography.
15:06If you take a camera up and take a photograph, then you can come back, bring it back, develop it,
15:12and then it can be taken to headquarters and you can collectively examine it and determine exactly what's on the
15:17ground.
15:18You can see where the machine guns are. You can see where the German artillery batteries are. You can see
15:25where the communication trenches are, where the dugouts are, where the headquarters are.
15:30For the Royal Flying Corps, the growing demand for photographs means spending more time over enemy trenches.
15:37But spying from the sky has always been a dangerous job.
15:45The first casualties come only three weeks after war is declared.
15:51Pilot Vincent Waterfall and his observer Charles Bailey are shot down while spying on German troop movements in Belgium.
16:01Aviators are increasingly a priority target. They have to be prevented from getting home with their information.
16:11The level of anti-aircraft fire was such that you would expect to pretty much have it on every single
16:18mission.
16:19Completely surrounded by bursting brown and white clouds of smoke filled with red hot bits of iron.
16:27The linen and wooden planes offer no protection.
16:32These young guys had to be really brave. They're protected by essentially a wicker seat and fabric.
16:39You could poke a sharp stick through the side of these airplanes. They weren't exactly armored.
16:44The BE-2, the standard British observation plane, is not designed to carry unwieldy cameras.
16:52Obviously, in this airplane, it's quite obstructed. I've got wires, I've got the landing gear in the way. Of course,
17:00lower wing is in the way. Not ideal.
17:04Two pilots from the team are about to experience this first hand.
17:12They want to see just how hard it would have been for a First World War aviator to get usable
17:17photographs.
17:29Bevan tries to brace the camera, but in the 70-mile-per-hour slipstream, the photos are blurred.
17:35And without a decent overlap, the individual photos are useless.
17:46So de Havilland's engineers come up with a simple solution.
17:53Gene's team makes the same changes.
17:59These cameras are often fitted right to the side of the airplane with a mounting bracket that allowed it to
18:05be mounted straight down right here.
18:07Quite convenient because the wing is actually cut out to allow the pilot to look straight down.
18:15To improve the BE's performance, it's upgraded with a 90-horsepower engine.
18:21The wooden landing skids, designed to stabilize the plane on the ground, are thrown away to save weight.
18:29New, more efficient wings increase speed and lift.
18:33And streamlined steel wires replace drag-prone woven cables.
18:40The combination of all these small advances, like the use of streamlined wires,
18:44that's what led to huge steps forward in aircraft technology.
18:59Gary and Bevan now switch to the later BE-2F model, which has a fixed camera mount.
19:06This time, the pilot Gary will photograph the land below, and Bevan will act as his observer.
19:20Counting down intervals for each exposure will help them capture a complete mosaic.
19:25But only if Gary can fly the plane steadily as he takes the pictures.
19:41They're struggling to take photos in mid-air, is giving Gary and Bevan an appreciation of what those early pilots
19:47went through.
20:02The team looks at the results of both missions. It's clear that the fixed camera produced the better shots.
20:10The BE-2's camera mount means that the photographs can be easily put together to form an aerial view of
20:16the entire area.
20:17There's a significant advantage to the airplane, the development of the airplane.
20:23Absolutely, yeah.
20:28The mounted camera transforms the fight at ground level.
20:32For the first time, officers have an invaluable aerial picture of the entire enemy line.
20:43But making systematic photo maps of the trenches means flying slowly and in a straight line.
20:51Making the plane an easier target.
20:55If you were flying in the straight line that you had to fly to take a series of photographs, then
21:02a German anti-aircraft gun was a real danger.
21:05They could tell exactly where you'd be, they could shoot ahead of you, and they could get very close to
21:09you.
21:12But while the fliers are fair game for the troops on the ground,
21:17pilots on opposing sides see themselves as fellow aviators.
21:22Firing at another airman is strictly off limits.
21:27But this gentleman's code can't last.
21:30It isn't long before planes become targets not just for the ground soldiers,
21:35but also for enemy airmen.
21:41They have almost no choice of weaponry.
21:44They take up the weapons they have to hand.
21:47And to hand, the most obvious is the revolver.
21:51Now, the average British officer cannot hit a barn door on the ground at 20 yards.
22:00Because they jerk about so much.
22:02But the British Army does have an accurate weapon.
22:05It has the Lee Enfield, the rifle.
22:07It's brilliant, it's accurate.
22:09But the problem is when you're in that open cockpit again.
22:16The team's plan is to find out just how hard it is to hit a target from these moving platforms.
22:23We're going to use these laser rifles, so it's not nearly as dangerous as it was in the First World
22:29War.
22:29You know how valuable the airplanes are.
22:31We don't want to take any chances.
22:33The laser rifles are loaded with five shots per magazine, the same as with the standard issue Lee Enfield rifle.
22:42Each shooter wears sensors, so they'll know if they've been shot.
22:46Barely over 18, Bevan and Josh are the same age as many of the young pilots in the Great War.
22:52But they're in the safe hands of veteran pilots John and Gene, who have thousands of flying hours of experience.
22:59Get yourself belted in first.
23:04In World War I, some pilots were sent up after only a few weeks of training.
23:21Now at altitude, the aircraft separate and position themselves for the fight.
23:27The planes will fly towards each other three times.
23:31Any direct hits will be registered on the sensors.
23:35Right from the start, engine oil already coats the camera lens.
23:39It's also getting on Bevan's goggles.
23:53The planes come within a short distance of each other, with a closing speed of 120 miles per hour.
24:05With the propeller, struts and wires in the way, the gunners find it awkward to take aim.
24:16I guess we're still alive!
24:23That's really hard. The oil and stuff on your goggles, you can't see anything.
24:28Then you've got the prop arc and you've got the streamlined wires and the struts.
24:33It's near impossible.
24:35I mean, we fly these airplanes a lot and do displays and stuff,
24:38but when you're actually setting out to accomplish a specific task like this,
24:43you don't realize how difficult it is.
24:4630 shots are fired between the two observers and not one hit on target.
24:53Whose idea was it to weigh this during the war?
24:57A hundred years ago, the results were often the same.
25:01Those experiences survive in recordings made years after the war.
25:07The arms issued to the Royal Flying Corps personnel at that time was a rifle.
25:13If you saw an enemy aircraft and you took this rifle out, you would let them have it.
25:18Best you could.
25:20You had to be very careful not to shoot any of your controls away.
25:23We met a German at about the same altitude as ourselves.
25:27I put up my sights and fired six deliberate shots.
25:31It was miserable that I didn't apparently hit him at all.
25:36I have no doubt I was miles away.
25:38We later on learned with the vibrating platform that effective range was rarely exceeded 50 yards.
25:50Only one weapon promises to be effective at hitting a plane in mid-air.
25:57The same weapon used for slaughtering millions of infantrymen on the Western Front.
26:05The machine gun.
26:08The machine gun had turned warfare into industrialized killing.
26:13A single Vickers or Lewis gun could fire nearly 500 rounds a minute.
26:20But how to attach these heavy and powerful weapons to a fragile airplane creates a fresh problem for the engineers.
26:31I think after looking at the BE-2s, the early progression, that BE-2C that we have without any guns
26:38mounted on it at all.
26:40And then the next step was that BE-2F where they mounted a few Lewis guns on those candlestick mounts
26:46where you could actually fire the gun around.
26:48But you had to be careful that you weren't shooting your own airplane.
26:51You had a very narrow arc where you could fire forward or maybe to the back.
26:55That was very limiting for defending yourself.
26:58The only practical way to use a machine gun in mid-air is to turn the whole plane into a
27:05weapon.
27:06Having a fixed gun and just aiming the airplane was determined the best way to go.
27:11If the pilot could actually point the airplane at the enemy and chase him and actually pull a trigger and
27:17shoot, that was ideal.
27:23It is now 1915, one year into the war.
27:30Aircraft and the intelligence they carry out are proving critical to the war effort.
27:36Both sides want the others stopped.
27:40Shooting down a plane relies as much on luck as on judgment.
27:46It's one thing to mount a forward-facing machine gun to a plane's fuselage.
27:52The problem is to fire the gun without shooting off the plane's propeller blades.
28:01Whichever side does this first will rule the skies.
28:07The problem with trying to fire through the arc of the propeller is that the bullets are coming out of
28:13the machine gun at a particular rate.
28:16The propeller, which is made of wood, is flying around, passing the line of fire at a different rate.
28:23And anyone who's done a little bit of physics about these things will know that there's a point at which
28:28the bullet is going to hit the propeller.
28:31Now it's become the key engineering challenge, how to mount a machine gun onto an airplane without shooting up the
28:40propeller.
28:41The first breakthrough comes thanks to a French aviator.
28:46Roland Garros has raced planes before the war and gained fame for flying across the Mediterranean from southern France to
28:54Tunisia.
28:56Roland Garros, one of the first guys to do such a thing, mounted a fixed gun and firing through the
29:01propeller of his tractor airplane, the engine in the front, mounted little wedge-shaped metal blocks to the back of
29:07the propeller just to deflect those bullets.
29:09It's undeniable that Garros was a brave man. When you think that what would happen with a bullet hitting one
29:16of these deflector blades, it is a very brave man who will sit a meter, two meters behind these deflector
29:23blades.
29:24The clues in the word, the bullet's going to be deflected back into you.
29:29Roland Garros uses his reinforced propeller to make three kills before enemy ground fire forces him to crash land behind
29:37enemy lines.
29:40When Garros was shot down, he tried to set fire to his airplane and he managed it, but he didn't
29:45destroy all of it. The Germans could see what he'd been up to.
29:5020 minutes after his capture, the Germans take this photograph and they hand his system to a young Dutch aviation
29:59designer, Anthony Fokker.
30:05The German military has also been looking for a solution to the shooting problem.
30:1224-year-old Fokker's name is to become synonymous with First World War Aviation.
30:20His pioneering designs will provide the German Air Force with more than 3,300 airplanes over the course of the
30:28war.
30:31But it could have turned out differently.
30:34Fokker is from Holland, a neutral country.
30:39Before the war, he offered his services to the British Army.
30:44But the British turned him down.
30:49Later on, when you look at what he achieved for the Germans, then there is a slight feeling, if only
30:54he'd been working for us,
30:55because he clearly was very good at putting together an expert team of designers, and he got the job done.
31:03What Fokker is about to deliver will tip the balance of power in the air in Germany's favor.
31:13Fokker's interrupter mechanism synchronizes the gun's firing rate with the engine, so that the bullets fly through the gaps between
31:21the spinning propeller blades.
31:23But when the propeller passes in front of the muzzle, a mechanism blocks the trigger of the machine gun, and
31:30stops it from firing.
31:33Fokker fits the mechanism to his own aircraft design, the Eindecker.
31:40The Eindecker monoplane is not an impressive flying machine.
31:45Its maximum speed is only 87 miles per hour.
31:50And it can stay up for only an hour and a half.
31:54They weren't great by any means, as far as their flying capability.
31:58But they had this one technological advancement, which was the interrupter gear, which allowed them to score numerous victories.
32:06They became a deadly tool to shoot down the enemy.
32:10It would dive down, out of the clouds, out of the sun, onto an unsuspecting British plane,
32:15and then it would fire through its propeller, take them by surprise, and shoot them down before they knew what
32:20was happening.
32:23The Fokker Eindecker marks a new chapter in aerial warfare.
32:27The birth of the first fighter aircraft.
32:39In the few months after Fokker's new plane is introduced, 82 Allied planes are shot down.
32:48Seventy-four lives are lost.
32:52It is a time that becomes known as the Fokker Scourge.
32:59As ever, with these things, the press and politicians had a field day.
33:05This was the Fokker Scourge. This was...
33:07Why? Why hadn't we foreseen this?
33:09Why weren't we doing something about it?
33:12Why wasn't it sorted out now?
33:14Well, the answer is, because it takes between one and two years to design an aircraft.
33:19You can't just magic them up.
33:22The Eindecker challenges the Allied effort to spy freely over the trenches.
33:28Tens of thousands of lives rely on this aerial intelligence.
33:33For the soldier in the trenches, the Royal Flying Corps was a godsend, a literal godsend,
33:40because without them, the German artillery, the German machine guns, would slaughter them when they went over the top.
33:47It was as simple as that.
33:51The commanders know that if they don't come up with a solution, they will lose the air war.
33:58But with no immediate rival to the Fokker's interrupter mechanism, the Allies fall back on a different approach.
34:09Just looking at this airplane, it's quite a bit different.
34:11But the most notable difference is the engine being mounted in the back.
34:15So it couldn't have a traditional fuselage.
34:18And they rigged it with these twin booms that support the whole tail on sort of a very flimsy structure
34:26that's all wire braced with these RAF Streamline wires.
34:30In this strange-looking design known as a pusher, the propeller pushes the plane through the air.
34:37Though it looks unconventional, the front of the plane presents no obstacle to unimpeded machine gun fire.
34:45The two machine guns were mounted in the front of the nacelle, and they could fire unobstructed directly ahead.
34:52So they didn't have to worry about shooting through a propeller, they didn't have to worry about an interrupter gear.
34:57In building these machines, the team occasionally finds flaws that they might be tempted to fix.
35:06There's always a danger to improving on an original design.
35:09If we produce it exactly like it was in the day, I shouldn't have anything to worry about it.
35:13It worked then, it should work now.
35:15The problem with changing things or trying to improve on a design, you know, sometimes a weak link is left
35:22in the chain and it allows parts to wear out, let's say.
35:25If you increase the strength of that, it moves that weak link somewhere else.
35:29And instead of a minor failure or something wearing out, that weak point might move to something that now creates
35:35a catastrophic failure.
35:37And we rely on the experience of the guys back in the day because, heck, they made thousands of these
35:43and they were flown in combat conditions.
35:45They must be okay.
35:47This reproduction FE-2B, a so-called pusher, is one of two built by the New Zealand team.
35:54And they're the only examples flying today, giving them a unique perspective.
36:00The guys up front have to make sure that they don't have anything loose on their bodies, clothing, helmet, goggles
36:05that could fly back and hit the propeller.
36:08All the shell casings that were discharged from the gun were in danger of going through the propeller and damaging
36:13it.
36:13So they had to come up with another solution and that was bags such as these to collect the spent
36:19cartridges.
36:24In early 1916, six months after the start of the Fokker scourge, pusher designs like the FE-2B are introduced
36:33to the Western Front.
36:35The impact is almost immediate. The air war begins to swing the Allies' way.
36:45Pusher aircraft arrive just in time for a massive new British Army offensive.
36:51120,000 troops gather to attack the German trenches at the Somme River in France.
36:58But the first day of the land offensive is a disaster.
37:02The single worst day in the entire history of the British Army, then or since, with over 50,000 casualties.
37:12It could have been much worse had the Allied pusher not dominated the skies.
37:19During the first two or three months of the Somme, the British had control over the battlefield,
37:25which allowed them complete freedom of photographic reconnaissance and artillery observation.
37:30This was extraordinarily bad for the Germans, who suffered a great deal more than they otherwise would have done.
37:35So this is an important thing. Control of the air does matter and it affects the men on the ground.
37:42And air support becomes even more crucial during the second stage of the Somme battle.
37:50Aircraft observers have noticed a new elaborate German trench system in the exact section the British are planning to attack.
37:59Thanks to this intelligence, the push is redirected and thousands are saved.
38:08But the Germans have been working on a new secret weapon.
38:17An airplane design that is about to draw the Allied airmen into their own version of the Somme.
38:25They say the designer watched fish swimming in a fish pole to come up with that streamlined fuselage.
38:34Designed from scratch and built in less than six months, the Albatross is a highly innovative design.
38:43By building an exact reproduction, Gene and his team have discovered the length the Germans went to.
38:51To achieve even the smallest performance improvement.
38:54This whole panel here is made up out of three separate pieces, each individually steam bent.
39:01And then they're laminated together or scarfed together through here.
39:05A 60mm sort of scarf joint.
39:07So they can get that whole form out of one panel.
39:10It's all glued up as one piece and then glued to the plane.
39:14This beautiful Albatross D5A is covered with a screen printed lozenge design.
39:21The fabric itself, the linen, is printed in this colorful pattern which turns out is an effective camouflage.
39:28But in addition to being an effective camouflage, it also turns out that it requires very little dope.
39:34The coating that waterproofs it and actually shrinks it tight.
39:38Things like this, discovered by building the airplane itself, I mean we found out the weight savings were significant.
39:44It's that experience that we love discovering certain technological advances that you wouldn't know otherwise unless you actually built one
39:53of these airplanes.
39:56The key element was the fact that it had two machine guns.
40:02It had twice the firepower of anything else in the sky.
40:07This enhanced firepower helps usher in a new kind of aerial warfare.
40:13Now, the Albatross' hunt in packs and dogfights, sometimes involving dozens of dueling aircraft, begin.
40:23Engine technology also takes a leap forward with more efficient and powerful designs that can carry bombs as well as
40:31machine guns.
40:33It's only a dozen years since the first powered flight and many of the elements of modern aerial warfare are
40:40in place.
40:42In 1917, the U.S. enters the war without having a strong aviation industry.
40:48So when American pilots eventually arrive at the front, they fly French planes.
40:55In a new spring offensive, close to the French town of Arras, the battle starts with the Germans in control
41:02of the skies.
41:08The British pusher is no match for the Albatross.
41:15Without intelligence from above, the British troops on the ground risk another massacre.
41:23The British Army's solution is to swamp the front with a huge number of planes.
41:3025 squadrons, 365 aircraft in total.
41:37The Germans have merely 10 squadrons, but they have the Albatross.
41:44So what they do is they carry on flying their missions.
41:48They carry on doing everything the artillery and the army want them to.
41:51And they suffer the casualties as they come.
41:54It's murderous.
41:56They go up, if they encounter the enemy, they're going to be shot down.
42:01Many of them knew that they were up there for other people.
42:04They fully understood their role.
42:07They knew they were dying for their country and they carried on doing it.
42:12It's a particular form of sacrifice that I find quite inspirational.
42:18In supporting the troops below, the British lose two thirds of their aircraft.
42:27The Royal Flying Corps gives the destruction a name of its own.
42:33Bloody April.
42:36But despite the heavy casualties, British pilots persevere and the intelligence still gets through.
42:44When British troops go over the top, they meet little opposition.
42:50Aerial reconnaissance has ensured that the German guns are silenced.
43:00Although their losses have been horrendous, no one now doubts the importance of air power.
43:08But the Germans still have the superior machines.
43:12The pressure falls on the government's Royal Aircraft Factory
43:16to come up with an improved fighter that could be a match for the deadly albatross.
43:27The Royal Flying Corps is right at the center of army plans.
43:31They have to do their job.
43:33If they don't, people on the ground will suffer, they'll die.
43:36It's crucial.
43:39Two British designers based in Farnborough, John Kenworthy and Henry Fallin,
43:45are working on a breakthrough fighter called the SE-5.
43:50They design it to be fast, sturdy, and armed with a brand new interrupter gun mechanism.
43:56But its development is not going as planned.
44:02In January 1917, the Royal Flying Corps chief test pilot, Major Gooden,
44:08is killed while flying an early prototype.
44:13Pilots' feedback suggests the seating position is too high,
44:17the windscreen too tall, and the engine too underpowered.
44:23The pressure on Kenworthy and Fallin is ratcheting up.
44:29I think everyone in the aviation industries back at home
44:32realised the importance of what they were doing.
44:35They're on an escalator they can't get off.
44:37And if you make a mistake, you can have an aircraft that is completely useless.
44:43It's a difficult business, and everybody's very aware
44:46that if they make mistakes, then people will suffer.
44:51A new, improved version, called the SE-5A,
44:55finally arrives at the front in June 1917.
44:59And it is transformed.
45:02You get into the SE-5, and in all honesty,
45:06if you didn't know what airplane you were getting into,
45:08you'd swear that that airplane was a 30s or even a 40s design,
45:12and was really a fighter to be reckoned with.
45:16It exceeds all expectations.
45:19This ruggedly built fighter is the fastest airplane of the war,
45:23but its ultimate test will be in battle.
45:28The British SE-5A and the German Albatross
45:31will face off in fierce duels over the trenches.
45:37In New Zealand, Gene DiMarco and his colleagues have built an exact replica SE-5A.
45:44These airplanes were loved by the pilots who flew them.
45:46They were easy to fly. They were extremely reliable.
45:49Powered by a 180-horsepower Hispano Suiza engine,
45:54fitted with a single Vickers gun in the fuselage,
45:56firing through the propeller, synchroniser gear,
45:58and another Lewis gun mounted above the wing.
46:01Opposing it will be the German plane,
46:04the formidable Albatross.
46:06Flywood fuselage, all molded,
46:08very few metal fittings on this airplane.
46:11Easy to manufacture once you had the tooling for it.
46:13The reliable Mercedes engine,
46:15six-cylinder inline, 180 horsepower,
46:18dual Spandau machine guns.
46:20Pilot could look right down the guns, easy to aim.
46:23The team can now fly these machines in a dogfight.
46:28Only by pitting them head to head
46:30can we see which is the superior fighter plane.
46:35Pilot Andy's challenge is to keep the British SE-5A
46:39on the tail of the German Albatross for two minutes.
46:42It has speed, strength, and maneuverability.
46:46But the streamlined Albatross, piloted by Gene,
46:51is also a close match for the SE-5A.
46:53It's not a comfortable airplane like the SE-5A is.
46:57All the hot air and oil and grease and water
47:00that come off the engine goes in the pilot's face.
47:03Despite Gene's attempts to shake Andy off,
47:06the SE-5A's power easily keeps it on the tail
47:09of the German Albatross.
47:12It's over 100 pounds lighter
47:14and has a sharper turning radius.
47:18Flying one against the other,
47:20there is little doubt which performs better.
47:27I didn't stand a chance against the SE-5.
47:30There's no way. I couldn't keep up.
47:31He could out-turn me without a problem.
47:33Just got the same speed as Albatross,
47:35but more maneuverable.
47:37And it's just easier to fly, isn't it?
47:39The British designers produce other deadly fighters
47:42besides the superlative SE-5A.
47:45In June 1917,
47:48the Sopwith Camel,
47:49smaller but equally well-armed,
47:52arrives at the front.
47:57This plane has a top speed of 115 miles per hour,
48:02slower than the SE-5A,
48:03but is much more maneuverable
48:05and can climb higher,
48:07allowing pilots to perform surprise diving attacks
48:10on enemy aircraft.
48:12The Sopwith Camel has a sports car-like performance.
48:16It's really a true fighter.
48:18Now, finally,
48:20with the Sopwith Camel and the SE-5A,
48:23the Allies have two fighters
48:25that are better than the Albatross.
48:27The tide of the air war is swinging
48:29in the direction of the Allies.
48:34There's a great advantage to having these airplanes
48:37that are accurate reproductions
48:39or truly original airplanes,
48:40because we can go back and compare some of the things
48:43that we've read about,
48:44some of the things we've all read about.
48:46And having the actual airplane
48:48and actually being able to jump from one to the other
48:50allows you to make those comparisons
48:51sort of on an even basis.
48:54But brilliant design is only the beginning.
48:57The Allies have turned aircraft construction
49:00into a mass industry.
49:02It is a level of production that the Germans could not match.
49:08By the end of the war,
49:09the British have produced more than 5,000 SE-5As,
49:13nearly double the number of any German fighter.
49:19The British Army and the British forces, in my opinion,
49:24won the war because they could produce more than anyone else could.
49:29And their logistics were second to none.
49:32You might have an entire flight of a squadron wiped out.
49:36The next morning there would be six new aircraft waiting on that airfield.
49:43In May 1918, the Germans introduced the improved Fokker D-7,
49:50a rugged, powerful machine,
49:53arguably Germany's finest fighter of the war.
49:57It's easy to fly,
49:58and the lack of wire bracing dramatically reduces drag.
50:03Its metal-framed fuselage makes it easier to construct
50:06than the wooden albatross.
50:09But it is too little too late,
50:11and the beginning of the end for the German Air Force.
50:16The Germans will not enjoy air superiority for the rest of the war.
50:21When you consider that the British took something like 40 aircraft to France,
50:2840 to 50 aircraft,
50:30at the armistice,
50:32the Royal Air Force numbered 22,600 aircraft.
50:39By building these amazing planes from scratch,
50:43Gene and his team reveal some of the secrets behind this success.
50:49How history turns on the ability to innovate.
50:54And how each incremental change secures crucial advantages in the balance of air power.
51:03I think our biggest thrill is to be able to share these airplanes with the world.
51:07To showcase that, the history that took place.
51:11And so that people can hear them and see them, it's truly unique.
51:17These remarkable machines have, in four short years, transformed the battlefield.
51:25And changed the nature of war forever.
51:53This NOVA program is available on DVD.
51:56To order, visit shoppbs.org.
51:59Or call 1-800-PLAY-DBS.
52:02NOVA is also available for download on iTunes.
52:21The
52:22Potentially altering the balance of air power in the skies above the Western Front.
52:31August 1914.
52:33The armies of Germany range against Britain, Belgium and France.
52:39Nearly three and a half million men are thrown into combat.
52:44But military leaders are undecided what role the recently invented airplane will play in the war.
52:55Every major power was preparing for war.
52:59And part of that meant looking at this new idea, this new concept.
53:03What were they going to do with airplanes?
53:09At the outbreak of war, powered flight is still a lethally dangerous pastime.
53:15Planes are so flimsy that a 20-mile-per-hour gust of wind could flip them over.
53:24They were often referred to as kites.
53:27And they did, they handled like kites.
53:29They were blown around by the wind.
53:30Even, even we have difficulty with some of these airplanes.
53:33They have unusual handling characteristics, affected by wind.
53:37The performance is terrible compared to some modern airplanes.
53:41And many top brass want nothing to do with these new flying machines.
53:47Some even refer to them as...
53:51The work demands painstaking research.
53:54From hunting down original blueprints to sourcing authentic parts and materials.
54:03Some planes we might have a total amount of drawings.
54:06Other planes we might miss, you know, part of a wing or something like that.
54:09And in that case, we often reverse engineer a component that we may have found around the world.
54:15They're trying to decode and document the leaps in technology that these new weapons of war represent.
54:23We're sort of keeping history, you know, keeping up with history.
54:28Making sure that we don't lose the past, basically.
54:34As much as we had the drawings, we didn't have that assembly manual, that process manual that told you,
54:40this is how you make the part.
54:42These airplanes were essentially hand produced.
54:45And the fact is, they're organic.
54:47They're built out of, you know, timber and fabric and cord and stuff like that.
54:52And all of those skills had to be reproduced.
54:54We had to find craftsmen that could do that kind of work.
54:59They're constantly impressed by the machining skills back then.
55:03When you look at the complexity of the crankcase, the casting, it's very, very clever.
55:08In World War One, even small differences in aircraft performance could mean life or death for the pilots who fly
55:16into combat.
55:20World War One was the first time in history that airplanes joined the battle.
55:26Almost as soon as the first shots are fired, a high speed race for domination kicks off in the skies
55:33above the trenches.
55:35A high ground vantage worth fighting and dying for.
55:39A century after World War One, the actual experience of flying these planes into combat has been lost to history.
55:48Until now.
55:51At a quiet airfield in New Zealand, a small band of aviators and engineers is building exact replicas of World
55:59War One fighters and putting modern day pilots into the open cockpits to experience firsthand what it must have been
56:07like to fly above the trenches of the Western Front.
56:12Here, World War One fighters are being built, down to the finest detail.
56:17We focus on creating stuff that doesn't exist.
56:20We have the ability to compare those airplanes by using the real thing essentially.
56:25That's the only way you can get that sight, the sound, the smell of these airplanes.
56:29They work from original designs.
56:32And there'd be somebody's name and it would have a date, 1915, 1914.
56:37And that sort of really hit home, I thought, wow.
56:39With no World War One fliers still alive, this work brings to life the pioneering design.
56:46In just four short years, an evolving array of machines takes to the air.
56:53From the BE-2 observation plane, with a top speed of 72 miles per hour.
57:00To faster, nimbler fighters, like the British SE-5A, with mounted guns and the ability to shoot other planes out
57:09of the sky.
57:10And the German Fouts D3.
57:12By 1918, many of the essentials of fighter aircraft were in place.
57:18How did this happen?
57:22In the quiet town of Masterton, New Zealand, a unique experiment is taking place.
57:29Here, they build World War One planes exactly as they were 100 years ago, down to the smallest detail.
57:39The goal is to understand what it was like to fly and fight in these fragile war machines.
57:45I got into aviation very early on, or restored my first airplane when I was about 15.
57:51Learned to fly at that age.
57:54Flew halfway around the United States when I graduated high school.
57:57Gene DiMarco, an American living in New Zealand, heads an outfit called the Vintage Aviator.
58:07This group is dedicated to keeping history alive by recreating these antique flying machines.
58:14That helped change the course of the war.
58:16And meant the difference between life and death for thousands of young men.
58:23War is an amazing catalyst. It forces progress.
58:27Because if you do not march forward, you will lose.
58:32Between 1914 and 1918, aviation designers turn the airplane from eccentric novelty to decisive weapon.
58:42They invent aerial warfare.
58:46The fact that we can get these airplanes in the air is phenomenal.
58:49We can go back in time.
58:51First Air War. Right now, on NOVA.
58:58First Air War.
58:58I can't do anything.
59:09First Air War.
59:14First Air.
59:16First Air Max.
59:17Still Earth is an absolute danger Cole.
59:17third Air.
59:21stalemate of trench warfare the desperate effort to break the deadlock
59:27leads to the most rapid advance in military technology in history when a
59:33new invention enters the fray the airplane
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