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  Engines Engine power and aircraft performance increased steadily throughout the war, with liquid-cooled inline and vee engines competing with air-cooled radials much as they had competed with air-cooled rotary types in the First War. As an example, at the start of the war the Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12 engine developed just 1,000 hp while at the end its derivative the Rolls-Royce Griffon 61 offered 2,035 hp. [5] [ citation needed ] In the early stages of the war German fighters, especially the Messerschmitt Bf 109 , were very fast and maneuverable and had the advantage over the British types of a fuel-injected engine. This allowed them to fly upside-down or to perform other negative-G manoeuvres without fear of the engine cutting out, as happened to the British types fitted with carburettors. On the other hand, the carburettor combined with a turbocharger gave better performance at altitude. [6] However, as the war wore on, Germany's critica...

  Aircraft Airframes The streamlined cantilever monoplane quickly proved its worth in almost every role, although a few older biplanes and other obsolescent types remained in niche roles for much of the war. Key design features during this period included: Stressed-skin semi-monocoque construction, typically of aluminium light alloy but sometimes of wooden or mixed construction. A clean, unbraced cantilever monoplane wing. Conventional tail or empennage , with bombers often adopting twin tail fins, believed to improve stability during the bombing run. retracting landing gear of conventional configuration with a tailwheel or tailskid. Landing flaps. Variable-pitch propellers in tractor configuration. Fully enclosed cockpit . The retracting undercarriage gave landplanes a significant performance advantage over the equivalent seaplane , whose floats caused additional drag. In other respects, the evolution of seaplane design paralleled landplane developments. Seaplanes, typic...

  During World War II, aviation firmly established itself as a critical component of modern warfare from the Battle of Britain in the early stages to the great aircraft carrier battles between American and Japanese Pacific fleets and the final delivery of nuclear weapons. The major combatants – Germany and Japan on the one side and Britain , the United States and the USSR on the other – manufactured huge air forces which engaged in pitched battles both with each other and with the opposing ground forces. Bombing established itself as a major strategic force, and this was also the first war in which the aircraft carrier played a significant role. As with Aviation in World War I , military investment during World War II drove aviation forward in leaps and bounds. The streamlined cantilever monoplane quickly proved its worth in almost every role, although a few older biplanes remained in niche roles for much of the war. Engine power and aircraft performance inc...

The Santos-Dumont Demoiselle was a series of aircraft built in France by world aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont . They were light-weight monoplanes with a wire-braced wing mounted above an open-framework fuselage built from bamboo. The pilot's seat was below the wing and between the main wheels of the undercarriage. The rear end of the boom carried a tailwheel and a cruciform tail. The name is a synonym for "jeune fille"—young girl or woman—but also the common name in French for a Damselfly . 

The Grigorovich M-11 (or Shchetinin M-11 ) was a Russian single-seat fighter flying boat designed by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich and built by Shchetinin

The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter ( CF-111 , CL-90 ) is a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being designed as an interceptor. It served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and later the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) until it was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet . The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter ( CF-111 , CL-90 ) is a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being designed as an interceptor. It served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and later the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) until it was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet .

The Dassault Mirage F2 was a French prototype two-seat ground attack / fighter aircraft , which was designed to serve as a test bed for the SNECMA TF306 turbofan engine. The F2 also influenced the subsequent Dassault Mirage G , a variable geometry design. The Dassault Mirage F2 was a French prototype two-seat ground attack / fighter aircraft , which was designed to serve as a test bed for the SNECMA TF306 turbofan engine. The F2 also influenced the subsequent Dassault Mirage G , a variable geometry design.