![]() There were many other examples of aircraft diving to ensure accuracy in bomb delivery, including accounts by Arthur Gould Lee in his book No Parachute. Two months later, the British Royal Flying Corps sent Sopwith Tabloids against the Zeppelin sheds at Duesseldorf in Germany, and once again the best results were obtained by diving to a low altitude before dropping the bombs. ![]() One pilot who dropped his bombs by diving on the target obtained the best results. 14, 1914, the French sent clumsy Voison bombers, flown by inexperienced pilots, to bomb the airship hangars at Metz, France. The war was scarcely two weeks old when on Aug. His reason for doing so, no doubt, was accuracy, and it was accuracy that prompted many early attempts at dive-bombing during the First World War of 1914-18.Īmong the first of these was to pre-empt what was regarded as the major German aerial threat of the time, the Zeppelin. A report of his combat activities said Bonney allegedly dived on enemy positions, releasing his small, spherical dynamite bombs prior to pulling up. One of the demanding requirements called for the new Martin to be able to pull out of a terminal velocity dive with a 1,000-pound bomb still attached.ĭuring the 1910-20 Mexican Civil War, an American named Leonard Bonney flew his Moisant monoplane in the service of the Mexican government. By 1928, the Navy was confident enough in the technique to order the Martin XT5M-1, which offered both a torpedo and a dive-bombing capability. 22, 1926, with a surprise dive-bombing mock attack on ships of the Pacific Fleet, using the Curtiss F6C-2 single-seater. ![]() Frank Wagner, commanding officer of strike squadron VF-2, began demonstrating dive-bombing in March 1926, and instructed his squadron in the technique. The task had to be left to smaller airplanes such as the Curtiss F6C Hawk or multipurpose biplanes such as the Curtiss F8C Falcon. The first was accuracy, essential for Marine close air support, but the second was creating a weapon that could fly from the crowded decks of an aircraft carrier to deliver an armor-piercing bomb on an enemy ship.Įven relatively large carriers such as Lexington and Saratoga could not carry medium or heavy bombers. The Navy and Marine Corps saw in dive-bombing a solution to two problems.
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