The 1920s were a time of changes in many areas of the American lifestyle. Examples
include the changing roles of women, the African American struggle for equality, the changing
sound of music, new forms of literature, growth of cities, and the development of airplanes and
their uses. Major aircraft development started during World War I because America was striving
to be stronger than any other country. War brought about the development of fighter and bomber
airplanes; machine guns were mounted onto planes because of their rapid firepower. The U.S.
had put a lot of money into such aircraft during the war, so after the war was over and we had
won, people saw no need to develop aircraft any further since WWI was supposed to be the war
to end all wars. Around 1920, however, people realized that WWI really hadn't put an end to all
wars, so the government saw a reason to put money into the development of aircraft again.
During the 1920s, airplane design became more advanced and planes were used to fly mail and
In the early 1920s, the Air Force was equipped with outdated WWI aircraft and any
replacements they got adhered to the same basic design. The only improvements were ones
similar to better radio equipment, better instrumentation, and oxygen for high altitude flying.
Much later on, planes were being made out of metal instead of the former fabric stretched over a
wood frame design to increase service years of a plane and to reduce reliance on imported wood
and fabric coverings. There had been numerous attempts beforehand to make metal planes, but
the first successful all metal plane was called Short Silver Streak. Earlier, most planes were a
biplane layout with fixed tailwheel landing gear and two fixed machine guns. In 1920 the Wright
R.B. highwing monoplane racer was developed with retractable landing gear. It wasn't until the
1930s, however, that retractable landing gear...