Aviation, a possible near future after this Great European war....
Although the conflict saw the first large scale use of aero-plane scouts which during the conflict were equipped with ever sophisticated armament. Eventually evolving in the first purpose build fighter in 1915 as the Fokker Eindecker. The potential of the airplane was not fully used in the conflict. At the very mobile East front the few airplanes remained primary used as scout and for artillery's observation.
At the West front the airplanes were a bit more frequent used and saw the emerge of the fighter. At the end of the conflict it were primary the French who started to experiment with larger airplanes who were able to carry bombs, converted artillery grenades, in a desperate attempt to break the German defense lines.
The limited use of this new thing like heavier than air airplanes did not mean there were no men who saw the potential of this machine.
Especially in Germany, the big winner of the conflict, not hampered by treaty restrictions and home of quite a lot of promising aeronautical engineers and entrepreneurs.
There for it was not a military conflict who accelerated the development of this new means of transportation but good old fashion capitalism and economic competition.
DELAG, acronym for
Deutsche Luftschifffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (German for "German Airship Travel Corporation"), was the
world's first airline to use an aircraft in revenue service. It operated a fleet of
zeppelin rigid airships manufactured by the
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Corporation. Its headquarters were located in
Frankfurt, Germany. DELAG was founded on 16 November 1909 as a commercial passenger-carrying offshoot of
Zeppelin Luftschiffbau.
By July 1914, one month prior to the start of the First World War, DELAG's Zeppelins had transported a total of 34,028 passengers on 1,588 commercial flights; over these trips, the fleet had accumulated 172,535 kilometres across 3,176 hours of flight.
DELAG's zeppelin fleet was pressed into service to aid Germany's war effort. LZ 11, LZ 13, and LZ 17 were all operated by the
German Army.
Following the conflict's end, DELAG quickly set about relaunching its commercial zeppelin operations.
Initially, the company intended to use the both new and more aero dynamic LZ
Bodensee and LZ
Nordstern to help reconnect the German cities. The renewed domestic lines were quickly expanded by more European cities. By 1921 there were regular flights between Berlin-London with stop-overs at Dusseldorf and Rotterdam. But as well to Rome, Madrid and Lisbon. The in the first half of the 20ties build LZ
Nordsee and LZ
Mittelmeer, larger versions of the
Bodensee and
Nordstern were the first who started intercontinental lines to Brazzaville with a stop at Duala.
The success of these airships encouraged aircraft designers as Hugo Junkers and Claude Dornier, to design and construct heavier than air aircraft who tried to compete with these DELAG airships, with every aircraft model they build with increasing speed, reliability and luxury.
The aircraft designs of these men and other aircraft manufacturers like Fokker spurred the need for ever more powerful and reliable aircraft engines.
Junkers saw a successful line of aircraft designs who increased in size from the small all metal
Junkers J 1 and F-13 to the single-engine
G.24 and three-engine
G.31 and four engine
Junkers G.38.
And eventually in the enormous four-engine 80-passenger plane, incorporating a forward canard wing, as well as a main wing, both of which were fitted above twin pylons. Called the
Junkers J.1000 Super Duck passenger seating was to be provided both in the main wing and the hull sections of the craft.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b1/6b/18/b16b18e931f114b916d3f707482ed732.jpg
Junkers J1000
Dornier focused on ever larger and luxury fly boats with in 1924 the
Dornier Do X series , first flight in 1924 as temporary zenith.
All these heavier than air aircraft successfully compete the larger and slower airships and by the start of the 30ties, also due to the enter of the very sophisticated USA airline designs by Douglas and Boeing,. Although DELAG build several ever larger and luxury airships during the twenties and early thirties, it lost more and more market share over the airliners who used airplanes and could only compete in transatlantic lines to New York and Buenos Aires.