The oldest aircraft were balloons and airships, the earliest ones dating back to the 18th century CE.
The first working airplane, a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft powered by an engine, was the Flyer I, built by the Wright brothers in 1903 CE.
The military soon took an interest and started experimenting with airplanes.
The Italians were the first to use them in actual warfare, in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 CE - 1912 CE.
They used them for reconnaissance and even a little (hand thrown) bombing.
The Turks retaliated by scoring another first: the gunning down of an airplane with rifle fire.
Military airplanes came of age in World War I.
Development by individual inventors was replaced by a true industry, though the science of flight was still little understood.
Climbing performance, control and reliability were improved and the planes were armed with machine guns,
giving rise to the first dogfights.
In 1915 CE Anthony Fokker perfected the gun synchronizer, which allowed machine guns to fire through a propeller,
by synchronizing the firing of the bullets with the rotation of the propeller blades.
This temporarily gave German fighters an big advantage over their enemies, until other engineers developed alternatives, like placing the gun in front of or above the propeller.
At the end of the war the average fighter plane could reach top speeds of about 150 - 200 kilometers per hour and was very maneuverable.
Heavy bombers had multiple engines, could carry loads of up to 1½ tons and achieved ranges over 1,000 kilometers.
Soon after their invention, airplanes split into many roles. Designs have varied accordingly. Some broad categories can be discerned:
- Reconnaissance and patrol: These were the first roles for aircraft and they have continued to play them throughout their history. They scout battlefields and enemy territory; hunt ships and submarines; watch the sky for other aircraft.
- Attack and bombardment: Attack aircraft and tactical bombers attack ground targets directly, often diving down on them; strategic bombers drop their load on strategic targets like command centers, infrastructure and industry. The former must be able to fight their way to and from their targets; the latter carry heavy bombing loads over great distances.
- Fighters and interceptors: These battle in the sky against other aircraft to gain air dominance. They are fast, maneuverable and heavily armed.
- Transport and utility: Transports carry soldiers, weapons and equipment; training airplanes are used for training pilots.
Almost all early airplanes were biplanes and triplanes. Multiple wings gave the advantage of a larger wing area than a monoplane, making the airplane more maneuverable and generating more lift, but also more drag. When engines got more powerful in the 1930's CE, multiplanes were overtaken by monoplanes.