94th Pursuit Squadron: Hat in the Ring

The Spad XIII was a French biplane used by the United States 94th “Hat in the Ring” Squadron during World War I.  The 94th was the first American squadron to shoot down an enemy aircraft, scored the most kills during World War I of any American squadron, and had Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s leading ace with 26 kills, as its preeminent member.  This airplane and others can be seen at the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.  For more of my photos of World War I aircraft click the link in the photos tab at the top of the page.

Like many World War I aircraft this airplane featured a pair of machine guns that shot through the propeller.  The first aircraft to try this didn’t have a way to stop the machine guns from hitting the propeller and the hapless first pilots to fly planes with machine guns firing through the propeller found they were just shooting their own propellers.  Anthony Fokker developed an interrupter gear that prevented the machine gun from firing when the propeller was directly in front of the machine gun, making machine guns mounted in front of the pilot and firing through the propeller possible.