10.+Air+battles,+airplanes+Period+2

=Air battles, air planes, and air weapons.=

====Aaliyah Levos and Barbie McCrackin decided to do our topic on air battles, air planes, and air weapons. We are going to explain the difference from a long time ago and compare it to modern time. First, we will be talking about airplanes and what kind of airplanes that they used. Second, we will be talking about air battles and what happened up in the air when they were having a war. Finally, we will be talking about air weapons and what they used in the air. For example, missiles and bombs, like the Tomahawk.====

Issue 1: Air planes
Aircraft technology was little over a decade old when Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in late June 1914 ultimately resulted in the outbreak of ‘The Great War’ a month later. Airships also called dirigibles existed at the beginning of the 20th century. These large built balloons had propeller engines & small wings at their stern that allowed controlled fight. In 1900’s Germany’s count Ferdinand’s Zon Zeppelin introduced the cigar-shaped, metal-framed versions called rigid dirigibles or after the builder himself Zeppelins. The fastest aero-planes had tractor propellers, mounted on the front, so five inventors proposed arrangements to control the firing of a machine gun so that it did not damage a propeller just in front of the muzzle.



==== The war today is different because in addition to regular airplanes we also use airplanes without people them. We use planes called Drones. We use them to attack in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Drones are dramatically tilting the war of favor of the U.S.A. drones are remote controlled with camera in them to spy on and attack positions and personnel without personnel without risk to controller, also shooting deadly, hellfire missiles at enemy fighters in support of fellow soldiers. ====



Issue 2: Air battles
Fighters enabled an air armed to meet it’s most important mission. Air superiority by shooting down air craft & defeating the enemies air effort. As day time fighters involved from World War I, the best designed possessed a combination of speed, climbing ability, acceleration and maneuverability. Further they required the best air to air weaponry, whether that was powerful machine guns or guided missiles. Therefore, sheer performance and hitting power enabled fighters to out perform and shoot other planes especially in the maneuvering duels against other fighters known as dog fights. Expanding requirements & technological developments bred variations.



====The war began with the US launched its first air strikes. They first launched them after President Bush gave the deadline. President Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave the country or they will face war, Saddam refused to leave. President Bush described the strikes as” the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign.” 35 nations have got together with the United States and Great Britain in a coalition to” liberate the Iraqi people.” The initial missile attack quickly turned into a massive bombing campaign and the beginning of fighting on the ground. The President said that at the end it would all be worth the attacks.====



** Issue 3: Air weapons **
From almost their first appearance in battle, aircraft have used these basic weapons types: guns, missiles, and bombs. Although each weapon’s fortunes fluctuated throughout the twentieth century, by the century’s end, all three remained in active use, meeting specific combat demands served by each weapon’s individual strengths. The machine gun has been an aircraft weapon since World War I, though early airplane designed limited its impact. Most fighters were too small to carry many guns or much ammunition. The thin wings of these aircraft meant that one or two fuselage-mounted, forward-firing guns shot either above the propeller or through it via a synchronization mechanism. However, bombs were the most common method for achieving the airpower payoff. Although the earliest bombs were grenades and modified shells, from World War I through the twentieth century’s end their outward appearance remained essentially the same: that of cigar-shaped metal cylinder with tail fins. They achieved explosive destruction of ground targets, and even by World War I’s end, aircraft carried bombs of more than 1,000 pounds in weight. Additionally, the war introduced bomb variants designed for specific destructive effects. Some achieved basic blast impact, others inflicted fragmentation damage upon people and thinly protected facilities, and still others featured incendiary effects.



==== The tomahawk cruise missiles exploded in the suburbs south of Baghdad. Navy ships had fired the missiles on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. They were then followed by powerful bombs called the bunker busters. The bunker busters were fired from the air force F-117 stealth fighter job. The F-177 flew 1,296 sorties, mostly against targets in the heavily defended areas of downtown Baghdad. ====



The war has changed a lot from then and now. We use different missiles and different airplanes. We have a lot more advantages then we did back then. There is a lot more technology that we need. I don't know how we got where we got today without the technology we have now when we didn't have it back then.

Work Citied
====Duffy Duffy, Michael. "First World War.com - The War in the Air." //First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One//. 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. ==== Powell, John, ed. //Weapons and Warfare Volume 2//. CA: Salem, 2002. Print.

Gunston, Bill. //Fighter!// [New York]: Barnes & Noble, 1999. Print.

Robinson, Nic. "How Robot Drones Revolutionized the Face of Warfare - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. 27 July 2009. Web. 22 Feb. 2011

The war in Iraq: from the Front Lines to the Home Front. New York: Franklin Watts, 2009. Print.

Summers, Harry G. Persian Gulf War Almanac. New York: Facts on File, 1995. Print.