Aircraft Books (WW 1) - France - Armée De L'air

French aviation during the First World War

Despite being the cradle of aviation, at the beginning of the Great War, France had access to only a few dozen military aircraft, with a staff who didn't quite know what to do with them.
However, during the course of the conflict, the embryonic air force, dedicated to the creation of reconnaissance and bombing missions, evolved like wildfire to the point that by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, French military aviation had become one of the world's most powerful as a result of the construction of 10,000 aircraft spread throughout nearly 300 squadrons.

Having become the first nation equipped with an air force, the French aviation industry in its infancy before the war, had been able to produce in four years 50,000 aircraft, many of which would go on to support a number of her allies, including Britain, Russia and especially the United States.

In this richly illustrated book Vital Ferry describes the development of the French military aviation between 1914 and 1918. Complete with technical data and profile drawings of the aircraft made and used in France during the First World War.

The French Air Force in the First World War - Rare photographs from wartime archives (Images of War)

The French air force of the First World War developed as fast as the British and German air forces, yet its history, and the enormous contribution it made to the eventual French victory, is often forgotten.
So Ian Sumner's photographic history, which features almost 200 images, most of which have not been published before, is a fascinating and timely introduction to the subject.

The fighter pilots, who usually dominate perceptions of the war in the air, play a leading role in the story, in particular the French aces, the small group of outstanding airmen whose exploits captured the publics imagination.
Their fame, though, tends to distract attention from the ordinary unremembered airmen who formed the body of the air force throughout the war years.

Ian Sumner tells their story too, as well as describing in a sequence of memorable photographs the less well-known branches of the service the bomber and reconnaissance pilots and the variety of primitive warplanes they flew.

L'aviation Française 1914-1918

Berceau de l'Aviation, la France ne disposait, au début de la Grande Guerre, que de quelques dizaines d'aéronefs militaires dont l'état-major ne savait d'ailleurs trop quoi faire. Au moment de l'armistice du 11 novembre 1918, l'Aéronautique militaire française était devenue l'une des plus puissantes du monde, rassemblant 10 000 appareils répartis dans près de 300 escadrilles.
L'industrie aéronautique française avait été capable de produire en quatre ans 50 000 avions dont beaucoup équipèrent de nombreux pays alliés, dont la Grande Bretagne, la Russie et surtout les États Unis.

Cet ouvrage, le premier en son genre en langue française, dresse un panorama complet de l'évolution de l'aviation militaire française de 1914 à 1918 au travers d'un récit historique émaillé d'anecdotes et illustré de nombreuses photos d'époque inédites et de profils des appareils les plus emblématiques, complété par des fiches techniques complètes des avions construits et utilisés par la France pendant la Grande Guerre.