It was the promise rather than the actuality of air power which most struck contemporaries. The war had not been decided in the air. Nevertheless, the race for supremacy had produced astonishing developments in a short space of time. The general purpose plane had given way to a sophisticated set of types -- the French Nieuport and Spad, the British Camel and the German Fokker, to name but a few fighters. It was grandiose to speak of aircraft factories in 1914, but not by the end of the war. Speed, range, and rate of climb increased, giving advantages first to one side and then the other. (Robbins 101)

The Second World War was to see further and more extensive developments in aerial warfare in which the role of the aircraft was to play a pivotal role.

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