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51-650: Examples include bombers converted to carry experimental aircraft to altitudes where they can conduct their research (such as the B-52 carrying the X-15 ), or ships that carry small submarines to an area of ocean to be explored (such as the Atlantis II carrying the Alvin ). A mother ship may also be used to recover smaller craft, or go its own way after releasing them. A smaller vessel serving or caring for larger craft

102-607: A composite aircraft, two or more component aircraft take off as a single unit and later separate. The British Short S.21 Maia experimental flying boat served as the mother ship component of the Short Mayo Composite two-plane maritime trans-Atlantic project design in the 1930s. The mother ship concept was used in Moon landings performed in the 1960s. Both the 1962 American Ranger and the 1966 Soviet Luna uncrewed landers were spherical capsules designed to be ejected at

153-424: A focus on stealth technology for strategic bombers. Strategic bombing is done by heavy bombers primarily designed for long-range bombing missions against strategic targets such as supply bases, bridges, factories, shipyards, and cities themselves, to diminish the enemy's ability to wage war by limiting access to resources through crippling infrastructure or reducing industrial output. Current examples include

204-792: A fourth machine as a company-owned demonstrator), by now known as the Grebe I, flew during May 1923. The performance of these prototypes during testing at RAF Martlesham Heath was good, and the Air Ministry decided to order the type into production as the Grebe II, this having a 400 horsepower (300 kW) Jaguar IV engine. Like the Sopwith Snipe it replaced, the Grebe was a single-seat, single-engined biplane of fabric-covered wood construction. The fuselage had ash longerons and spruce stringers joined to plywood formers , while

255-592: A larger and more streamlined form of airship designed by German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin , were outfitted to carry bombs to attack targets at long range. These were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, as well as navigational issues. German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and

306-483: A major limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors, bomber designs tended to be tailored to specific roles. By the start of the war this included: Bombers of this era were not intended to attack other aircraft although most were fitted with defensive weapons. World War II saw the beginning of the widespread use of high speed bombers which began to minimize defensive weaponry in order to attain higher speed. Some smaller designs were used as

357-538: A means of evading detection and attack. Designs such as the English Electric Canberra could fly faster or higher than contemporary fighters. When surface-to-air missiles became capable of hitting high-flying bombers, bombers were flown at low altitudes to evade radar detection and interception. Once "stand off" nuclear weapon designs were developed, bombers did not need to pass over the target to make an attack; they could fire and turn away to escape

408-493: A number of Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters. These airborne aircraft carriers operated successfully for several years. These airships utilized an internal hangar bay using a "trapeze" to hold the aircraft. In the air launch role, a large carrier aircraft or mother ship carries a smaller payload aircraft to a launch point before releasing it. During World War II the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bomber

459-508: A support role such as fighter defence. The first experiments with rigid airships to launch and recover fighters were carried out during World War I. The British experimented with the 23-class airships from that time. Then in the 1920s, as part of the "Airship Development Programme", they used the R33 for experiments. A de Havilland Humming Bird light aeroplane with a hook fitted was slung beneath it. In October 1925 Squadron Leader Rollo Haig,

510-489: A trainer), and was the Royal Air Force 's first post- First World War fighter aircraft , entering service in 1923. In 1923, Gloster modified a Gloster Sparrowhawk fighter trainer with new wings to test a layout proposed by chief designer Henry Folland , combining a thick, high-lift section upper wing and a thinner, medium-lift lower wing, with the intention of combining high lift for takeoff with low drag. After

561-548: Is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs , launch torpedoes , or deploy air-launched cruise missiles . Bombs were first dropped from an aircraft during the Italo-Turkish War , with the first major deployments coming in the First World War and Second World War by all major airforces, damaging cities, towns, and rural areas. The first bomber planes in history were

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612-419: Is aimed at countering enemy military activity and in supporting offensive operations, and is typically assigned to smaller aircraft operating at shorter ranges, typically near the troops on the ground or against enemy shipping. During WWII with engine power as a major limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors, bomber designs tended to be tailored to specific roles. Early in

663-488: Is typically assigned to smaller aircraft operating at shorter ranges, typically near the troops on the ground or against enemy shipping. This role is filled by tactical bomber class, which crosses and blurs with various other aircraft categories: light bombers , medium bombers , dive bombers , interdictors , fighter-bombers , attack aircraft , multirole combat aircraft , and others. The first use of an air-dropped bomb (actually four hand grenades specially manufactured by

714-435: Is typically used to conduct initial testing on a new airframe or system, before it is ready for free flight Captive carry is sometimes also used to transport an aircraft or spacecraft on a ferry flight . Notable examples include: Some large long-range aircraft have been modified as motherships in order to carry parasite aircraft which support the mothership by extending its role, for example for reconnaissance, or acting in

765-685: Is usually called a tender . During World War II, the German Type XIV submarine or Milchkuh (Milk cow) was a type of large submarine used to resupply the U-boats . Mother ships can carry small submersibles and submarines to an area of ocean to be explored (such as the Atlantis II carrying the DSV Alvin ). Somali pirates use mother ships to extend their reach in the Indian Ocean. In aviation , motherships have been used in

816-799: The Bristol Aeroplane Company . They were fitted with a prismatic Bombsight in the front cockpit and a cylindrical bomb carrier in the lower forward fuselage capable of carrying twelve 10 lb (4.5 kg) bombs, which could be dropped singly or as a salvo as required. The aircraft was purchased for use both by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and three T.B.8s, that were being displayed in Paris during December 1913 fitted with bombing equipment, were sent to France following

867-477: The Cold War however, bombers were the only means of carrying nuclear weapons to enemy targets, and held the role of deterrence . With the advent of guided air-to-air missiles, bombers needed to avoid interception. High-speed and high-altitude flying became a means of evading detection and attack. With the advent of ICBMs the role of the bomber was brought to a more tactical focus in close air support roles, and

918-551: The Handley Page Type O ; the majority of bombing was done by single-engined biplanes with one or two crew members flying short distances to attack enemy lines and immediate hinterland. As the effectiveness of a bomber was dependent on the weight and accuracy of its bomb load, ever larger bombers were developed starting in World War I, while considerable money was spent developing suitable bombsights. With engine power as

969-644: The Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T.B.8 , both of 1913. Some bombers were decorated with nose art or victory markings . There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is done by heavy bombers primarily designed for long-range bombing missions against strategic targets to diminish the enemy's ability to wage war by limiting access to resources through crippling infrastructure, reducing industrial output, or inflicting massive civilian casualties to an extent deemed to force surrender. Tactical bombing

1020-589: The RF-84K Thunderflash ( FICON project ) and XF-85 Goblin fighters. In November 2014, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) requested industry proposals for a system in which small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) would be launched and recovered by their existing conventional large aircraft, including the B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers and C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III transports. In

1071-618: The Swedish Air Force dropped bombs on a forest fire, snuffing out flames with the aid of the blast waves. The fires had been raging in an area contaminated with unexploded ordnance , rendering them difficult to extinguish for firefighters. Gloster Grebe The Gloster Grebe was developed by the Gloster Aircraft Company from the Gloster Grouse (an experimental aircraft later developed as

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1122-641: The Turkish railway station of Karağaç (near the besieged Edirne ) from an Albatros F.2 aircraft piloted by Radul Milkov , during the First Balkan War . This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber. The first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T.B.8 , both of 1913. The Bristol T.B.8 was an early British single engined biplane built by

1173-966: The V bomber force was phased out; the last of which left service in 1983. The French Mirage IV bomber version was retired in 1996, although the Mirage 2000N and the Rafale have taken on this role. The only other nation that fields strategic bombing forces is China , which has a number of Xian H-6s . Currently, only the United States Air Force , the Russian Aerospace Forces ' Long-Range Aviation command, and China's People's Liberation Army Air Force operate strategic heavy bombers. Other air forces have transitioned away from dedicated bombers in favor of multirole combat aircraft . At present, these air forces are each developing stealth replacements for their legacy bomber fleets,

1224-474: The airborne aircraft carrier , air launch and captive carry roles. Some large long-range aircraft act as motherships to parasite aircraft . A mothership may also form the larger component of a composite aircraft . During the age of the great airships , the United States built two rigid airships , USS  Akron  (ZRS-4) and USS  Macon  (ZRS-5) , with onboard hangars able to house

1275-509: The 1950s-designed B-52s are projected to remain in use until the 2040s. Similarly, the Soviet Union used the intermediate-range Tu-22M 'Backfire' in the 1970s, but their Mach 3 bomber project stalled. The Mach 2 Tu-160 'Blackjack' was built only in tiny numbers, leaving the 1950s Tupolev Tu-16 and Tu-95 'Bear' heavy bombers to continue being used into the 21st century. The British strategic bombing force largely came to an end when

1326-629: The Allied Armies." When the war started, bombing was very crude (hand-held bombs were thrown over the side) yet by the end of the war long-range bombers equipped with complex mechanical bombing computers were being built, designed to carry large loads to destroy enemy industrial targets. The most important bombers used in World War I were the French Breguet 14 , British de Havilland DH-4 , German Albatros C.III and Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets . The Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets ,

1377-604: The German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships. The Caproni Ca 30 was built by Gianni Caproni in Italy . It was a twin-boom biplane with three 67 kW (80 hp) Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October 1914 . Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, and Caproni soon adopted a more conventional approach installing three 81 kW (110 hp) Fiat A.10s . The improved design

1428-540: The Grouse demonstrated that the new layout was a success, the British Air Ministry placed an order for three prototype fighters based on the Grouse (and therefore derived ultimately from Folland's Nieuport Nighthawk fighter of 1919), but powered by a 350 horsepower (260 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar III radial engine , as the "Nighthawk (thick-winged)". The first of the prototypes (Gloster built

1479-653: The Italian naval arsenal) was carried out by Italian Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti on 1 November 1911 during the Italo-Turkish war in Libya – although his plane was not designed for the task of bombing, and his improvised attacks on Ottoman positions had little impact. These picric acid -filled steel spheres were nicknamed "ballerinas" from the fluttering fabric ribbons attached. On 16 October 1912, Bulgarian observer Prodan Tarakchiev dropped two of those bombs on

1530-806: The New Zealand Government for the purchase of an aircraft. The aircraft chosen was the Grebe over the Siskin, which was also in contention. Another two Grebes were acquired by the New Zealand Permanent Air Force , forerunner of the Royal New Zealand Air Force , entering service in March 1928 and serving for more than ten years until mid-1938. The two survivors were used as instructional airframes until destroyed in 1943–44. Data from Aircraft of

1581-542: The Snipe that it replaced and was also very agile. One problem with the Grebe was that it suffered from wing flutter , owing to the large overhang outside the interplane struts, which led to all RAF aircraft being modified with additional Vee-struts supporting the outer upper wing. Another problem was the Jaguar engine, which was heavy and unreliable, being prone to catching fire. A total of 133 Grebes were produced, including

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1632-617: The Soviet Tupolev-Vakhmistrov Zveno project developed converted Tupolev TB-1 and TB-3 aircraft to carry and launch up to five smaller craft, typically in roles such as fighter escort or fighter-bomber. During the early days of the jet age, fighter aircraft could not fly long distances and still match point defence fighters or interceptors in dogfighting. The solution was long-range bombers that would carry or tow their escort fighters. B-29 Superfortress and B-36 Peacemaker bombers were tested as carriers for

1683-568: The U.S. during the summer of 1947. A woman in Palmdale, California , was quoted by contemporary press as describing a "mother saucer (with a) bunch of little saucers playing around it". The term mothership was also popularized in UFO lore by contactee George Adamski , who claimed in the 1950s to sometimes see large cigar-shaped Venusian motherships, out of which flew smaller-sized flying saucer scout ships. Adamski claimed to have met and befriended

1734-828: The USAF with the Northrop Grumman B-21 , the Russian Aerospace Forces with the PAK DA , and the PLAAF with the Xian H-20 . As of 2021 , the B-21 is expected to enter service by 2026–2027. The B-21 would be capable of loitering near target areas for extended periods of time. Occasionally, military aircraft have been used to bomb ice jams with limited success as part of an effort to clear them. In 2018,

1785-613: The War as the German air arm was forced to concentrate its resources on a defensive strategy. Notably, bombing campaigns formed a part of the British offensive at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, with Royal Flying Corps squadrons attacking German railway stations in an attempt to hinder the logistical supply of the German army . The early, improvised attempts at bombing that characterized

1836-633: The basis for night fighters . A number of fighters, such as the Hawker Hurricane were used as ground attack aircraft, replacing earlier conventional light bombers that proved unable to defend themselves while carrying a useful bomb load. At the start of the Cold War, bombers were the only means of carrying nuclear weapons to enemy targets, and had the role of deterrence . With the advent of guided air-to-air missiles, bombers needed to avoid interception. High-speed and high-altitude flying became

1887-495: The blast. Nuclear strike aircraft were generally finished in bare metal or anti-flash white to minimize absorption of thermal radiation from the flash of a nuclear explosion . The need to drop conventional bombs remained in conflicts with non-nuclear powers, such as the Vietnam War or Malayan Emergency . The development of large strategic bombers stagnated in the later part of the Cold War because of spiraling costs and

1938-588: The development of the Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – which was felt to have similar deterrent value while being impossible to intercept. Because of this, the United States Air Force XB-70 Valkyrie program was cancelled in the early 1960s; the later B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit aircraft entered service only after protracted political and development problems. Their high cost meant that few were built and

1989-474: The early part of the war slowly gave way to a more organized and systematic approach to strategic and tactical bombing, pioneered by various air power strategists of the Entente , especially Major Hugh Trenchard ; he was the first to advocate that there should be "... sustained [strategic bombing] attacks with a view to interrupting the enemy's railway communications ... in conjunction with the main operations of

2040-556: The four prototypes, 108 Grebe II single-seat fighters and 21 two-seat dual-control trainers. Grebes were retired from the RAF in 1929, replaced in part by the Gloster Gamecock , which was a developed Grebe, (Gloster fighter design, from Nighthawk to Gloster Gladiator was evolutionary). Two Grebes were modified for suspension beneath the R33 airship on a 'trapeze' for " parasite " trials. In 1927 Sir Henry Wigram gave money to

2091-683: The large craft in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Battlestar Galactica . In many Asian languages , such as Chinese , Japanese , Korean and Indonesian , the word mothership ( Chinese : 母舰 , Japanese : 母艦 , Korean : 모함 , Indonesian : Kapal induk , literally "mother" + "(war)ship") typically refers to an aircraft carrier , which is translated as "aircraft/aviation mothership" ( Chinese : 航空母舰 , Japanese : 航空母艦 , Korean : 항공모함 , Malay : Kapal induk pesawat udara ). Bomber aircraft A bomber

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2142-778: The last moment from mother ships that carried them to the Moon, and crashed onto its surface. In the crewed Apollo program , astronauts in the Lunar Module left the Command/Service Module mother ship in lunar orbit, descended to the surface, and returned to dock in a lunar orbit rendezvous with the mother ship once more for the return to Earth. The Scaled Composites White Knight series of aircraft are designed to launch spacecraft which they carry underneath them. There have been numerous sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) claimed to be mother ships, many in

2193-421: The outbreak of war. Under the command of Charles Rumney Samson , a bombing attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke , Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century. Early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war, Zeppelins ,

2244-414: The pilots of these scout ships, including a Venusian named Orthon. The concept of a mother ship also occurs in science fiction , extending the idea to spaceships that serve as the equivalent of flagships among a fleet. In this context, mother ship is often spelled as one word: mothership . A mothership may be large enough that its body contains a station for the rest of the fleet. Examples include

2295-678: The repeated launching of the North American X-15 . Experiments on air launching the Shuttle were carried out with the test frame Enterprise , but none of the Space Shuttle fleet was launched in this way once the Space Shuttle program was commenced. In a captive carry arrangement the payload craft, such as a rocket , missile , aeroplane or spaceplane , does not separate from the carrier aircraft. Captive carry

2346-425: The single- bay wings (which had a considerable overhang outboard of the struts), had fabric-covered spruce spars and ribs . Two synchronised .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns were mounted on the fuselage top decking. Grebes entered service with the RAF during October 1923 when a flight of 111 Squadron re-equipped with the new fighter. The Grebe was popular in RAF service, being much faster than

2397-494: The strategic nuclear-armed bombers: B-2 Spirit , B-52 Stratofortress , Tupolev Tu-95 'Bear' , Tupolev Tu-22M 'Backfire' and Tupolev Tu-160 "Blackjack" ; historically notable examples are the: Gotha G.IV , Avro Lancaster , Heinkel He 111 , Junkers Ju 88 , Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , Consolidated B-24 Liberator , Boeing B-29 Superfortress , and Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger'. Tactical bombing , aimed at countering enemy military activity and in supporting offensive operations,

2448-467: Was bought by the Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August 1915 . While mainly used as a trainer , Avro 504s were also briefly used as bombers at the start of the First World War by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) when they were used for raids on the German airship sheds. Bombing raids and interdiction operations were mainly carried out by French and British forces during

2499-624: Was released from the R33, and then reattached. Later that year, the attempt was repeated and the Humming Bird remained attached until the airship landed. In 1926, it carried two Gloster Grebe fighters releasing them at the Pulham and Cardington airship stations. In the U.S., USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) , used for prototype testing for the Akron and Macon airborne aircraft carriers. During World War II

2550-525: Was the first four-engine bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit during World War I . This heavy bomber was unrivaled in the early stages of the war, as the Central Powers had no comparable aircraft until much later. Long range bombing raids were carried out at night by multi-engine biplanes such as the Gotha G.IV (whose name was synonymous with all multi-engine German bombers) and later

2601-523: Was used to carry the rocket-powered Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka aircraft, used for kamikaze attacks, within range of a target ship. Germany also planned a jet-carrying bomber, called the Daimler-Benz Project C . In the US, NASA has used converted bombers as launch platforms for experimental aircraft . Notable among these was the use during the 1960s of a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress for

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