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In the early days of flight, no one imagined the airplane as a weapon of war. Inevitably, World War I proved the catalyst that was to change the face of battle forever. But at the war''s outbreak, military aircraft, most of which were slow and stable two-seat biplanes, were held to have only one useful function: reconnaissance. It was not long, however, before pilots had the idea of dropping explosives from their cockpits. Once machine guns began to be fitted to aircraft, two factors immediately became clear: reconnaissance aircraft needed to be defended, and enemy machines had to be attacked and destroyed. So was born the "scout" (as fighter aircraft were known then), to be followed, before long, by the "aces" who flew them. In this wide-ranging and extremely readable study of the fighter pilot''s skills, training and experiences from the early days of flight, and the development of the machines they flew, the author, who has written widely on aerial warfare, takes the reader on a journey from the first flyi...