Part 2 of Naval Aces looks at the many flying Naval heroes who flew alongside or against those of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). While the RNAS operated its own formidable arsenal of Nieuport and Sopwith scouts over the Flanders coast, the German navy countered with its own Land Feld Jagdstaffeln and Seefront Staffeln. In addition, German floatplane units, most notably at Zeebrugge, produced at least three aces of their own at the expense of British flying boats, airships and other patrol craft. Unique to World War 1 was the use of flying boats as fighters in combat, which figured at...

A British icon of World War I aerial combat, just as the Supermarine Spitfire is for World War II, the Sopwith Camel might more aptly be compared to the equally iconic (if one is Japanese) Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero. A superb dogfighter in the hands of pilots who mastered its vicious idiosyncrasies, the Camel also packed a considerable punch for its day as the first British fighter with twin machine guns. It has been credited with the most aerial victories of any fighter type of the conflict, but that statistic is somewhat misleading - and further muddied by the heavy losses Camel units suffered in...

This is the history of the best Allied fighter-destroyer of World War 1 and the pilots who flew it. Nicknamed "Biff" by the pilots, the Bristol F2 Fighter enjoyed extraordinary success over the Western Front in the final 18 months of the war. However, it had an inauspicious debut, as an entire flight of F2As was wiped out by von Richthofen's Jasta 11. A new improved F2B was soon delivered to the front which functioned in an entirely different manner. The crews operated the plane not as a standard two-seater, but as a single-seat with a "sting in the tail" in the form of a rear gunner with a...

Amid the ongoing quest for aerial superiority during World War I, the late spring of 1917 saw two competing attempts to refine proven designs. The Royal Aircraft Factory SE 5a incorporated improvements to the original SE 5 airframe along with 50 more horsepower to produce a fast, reliable ace-maker. The Albatros D V, a sleeker development of the deadly D III of 'Bloody April' notoriety, proved to be more disappointing as it suffered a rash of lower wing failures. Nevertheless, Albatrosen remained the most numerically important fighters available when the Germans launched their final offensive...