A Captured Fokker E.111 © IWM (Q 48895)
Did you know that the Germans first developed a way for machine guns to fire through plane propellers?
Aircraft technology was not particularly advanced at the outbreak of the First World War and arming and firing weapons during combat in the air was no easy task. In April of 1915 the Germans successfully developed the Synchronisation Gear. This new technology, though far from reliable, allowed German fighters to fire through the arc of their own propellers without fear of hitting or damaging them.
The newly equipped Fokker Eindecker fighters possessed a significant tactical advantage over British and French planes and led to the period of mid-1915 to early-1916 being known as the ‘Fokker Scourge‘. During these dark months out-gunned pilots often dubbed their own poorly armed planes as ‘Fokker Fodder’.
British and French designers would, after successfully capturing several German planes develop their own synchronisation gears and achieve combat equality with their opponents.
