Stealth, 1914 style

***image1***While most people think of “stealth” aircraft as the result of modern high technology, in fact, one of the first aircraft used to fly combat missions in World War I was stealthy.

The aircraft was the two-seat German “Taube” (Dove) monoplane, a widely used class of extraordinarily beautiful designs that first flew in 1910.

The Taube made its initial mark in aviation history when a Taube was the first aircraft to drop bombs on Nov. 1, 1911. When World War I began in 1914, the two-seat Taubes, with their long range and great stability, proved ideal for observation missions. To make the Taubes difficult to see, the Germans painted the thin fabric that covered the wings and fuselage with a clear dope, making Taubes almost transparent and virtually invisible against a bright sky. French observers noted that Taubes practically disappeared at altitudes of more than 1,000 feet.

The “invisible” Taubes proved very effective in the beginning of the war. A Taube dropped four 20-pound bombs and leaflets on Paris the day after war was declared. Its unseen approach caused consternation among the French defenders. Less than three weeks later, Taubes provided the brilliant German Gen. Paul Hindenburg with the reconnaissance information that allowed him to win a smashing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg.

But, the Taube’s stability was achieved because of a very small rudder and by using a series of wires to change the shape of the wing, called “warping,” which made the aircraft difficult to turn. A few months into the war, more maneuverable airplanes with ailerons began to appear. As they began to carry guns, the stately but vulnerable Taubes were removed from front line service and sent behind the lines to train new pilots. Many of Germany’s famous aces learned how to fly in a Taube, and its was a Taube that the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, crashed his first solo flight.

Interestingly, despite its name and its silhouette, the wing of the Taube was not modeled after a bird, but, after the singe winged seeds of the maple and the Zanonia plant – seeds that provide the most impressive example of autostable flight in nature as they spiral slowly to the ground.

E-mail questions and comments to marshall.michel@ramstein.af.mil.