Airco DH.2 - "First Ace"

First introduced on the Western front in February 1916, the DH.2 was the first effectively armed British single-seat fighter of the Great War. The aircraft was used effectively to counter the Fokker E.III aircraft which had enjoyed air superiority for a period known as the "Fokker Scourge". With the Fokker E.III, the German Air Force had a machine which was equipped to fire directly through the propeller arc without fear of damaging the propeller because of a newly invented interrupter apparatus which prevented the airplane machine gun from firing if there was a propeller blade in the line of fire. The British Air Force, lacking such an interrupter apparatus, instead employed a pusher aircraft design with the engine mounted to the rear of the cockpit. This arrangement allowed for a free field of fire for the forward mounted machine gun. Along with other pusher designs, the DH.2 enjoyed a short period of success eventually being outclassed by the newer German Halberstadt and Albatros f