In the battles of WWI a new theatre of war was to emerge – the sky. This new warfare was to prove just as deadly as the trenches, where pilots flew into battle with as little as five hours flying experience, with an average life expectancy of 11 days in 1914. Initially the aircraft replaced hot air balloons as a reconnaissance device, spying and photographing deep behind enemy lines, but in 1915 aviation pioneer Fokker revolutionised the aircraft as a weapon when he synchronised a machine gun with a propeller – allowing German pilots to annihilate French and British planes.
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Ready to Watch World War One in Colour, Season 1, Episode 3?