There was perhaps nothing in aeronautics that developed so quickly during the Great War as the fighting aeroplane. At the beginning of the war the use of offensive weapons on aeroplanes was almost unknown. The idea of fighting in the air had hardly been discussed and certainly no country had made provision for carrying offensive weapons as part of the regular equipment of the aeroplane. Long before the end of the war every aeroplane was armed to a greater or lesser extent, while particular types of aeroplanes had been developed whose chief duty was the destruction of enemy aircraft and the protection of aeroplanes of its own country which were engaged in various specialised duties, such as reconnaissance and bombing.

In the truest sense of the word all aeroplanes used in warfare are fighting aeroplanes, but the scope of this paper is limited to those machines which are used primarily as weapons of offence against opposing aircraft.