THE FLYING TANK
The Germans actually built an armored battle-plane known as the flying tank. It was a two-seater intended mainly for attacking infantry and was provided with two machine-guns that pointed down through the floor of the fuselage. A third gun mounted on a revolving wooden ring could be used to fight off hostile planes. The bottom and sides of the fuselage or body of the airplane from the gunner's cockpit forward were sheathed with plates of steel armor. The machine was a rather cumbersome craft and did not prove very successful. A flying tank was brought down within the American lines just before the signing of the armistice.