WWII saw fighter combat on a larger scale than any other great dispute to this day. During WWII fighter planes were used in a variety of different ways, but they were mainly designed for air to air combat. They were also frequently used to gain air dominance over a battlefield. Besides this, fighters shot down enemy bomber planes as well as keeping their own bombers protected. Fighter planes were usually armed with high powered machine guns and in some instances, cannons. Throughout WWII there were two main fighters that were used around the world. The first being biplane fighters. A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. Biplanes permitted lighter wing structure as well as low wing loading. The second main fighter used was monoplane fighters. A monoplane is a single winged plane, in comparison to the biplane. An example includes the Boeing P-26 Peashooter, the first American all metal …show more content…
They also often performed roles such as carrying out airstrikes and observing regions to locate an enemy bases. Fighter planes were seen in WWII though the Battle of Britain which occurred from July 10th 1940 to October 31st 1940. The battle saw a variety of fighter planes in both the Germans and Brits. As the defence side, the Brits had to defend their land and they did this by shooting the German fighters down. A popular British aircraft that did this was the Hurricane MK 1. They effectively shot down enemy planes as they were equipped with eight machine guns. The hurricane was responsible for defence during the battle and accounted for the most enemy aircraft