AirArchive Book 1 - WWI German

During the first months of World War One, the introduction and development of aircraft armament had high priority. At the start of hostilities, Germany did not have a suitable lightweight machine gun for use in aircraft, but modified infantry weapons were soon in use from a variety of makeshift gun mountings.
It was appreciated that a machine gun firing forward in the direction of flight would be the best solution and this gave rise to the appearance of armed pusher air-craft. Another approach to the problem was the construction of twin-engined aircraft, since the observer/gunner in the nose of this type of machine did not have any airscrew avoidance problem. Various methods were tried by both sides and one of these used by the French, where a machine gun was free-fired through the area of the rotating airscrew, provided a practical, if somewhat dangerous solution.

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