(Updated version of the Elson Flyer I made years ago, which I thought was ugly and dumb.)
During most of the Great War, aviators had a reputation for being foolhardy pioneers of the sky flying dangerous and unproven technologies. All of this changed with the introduction of the Elson Flyer, America’s new paper toy. With a strange build, the Elson Flyer sought to break any conventions that had been set. The result was incredibly easy to manufacture, easy to fly, and easy to maintain. In combat, it was somewhat sluggish but made up for this in raw maneuverability and offensive capabilities. The lack of need for a repeater allowed the mounting of a variety of machine guns, the most popular being the M1898 Tyrant. While a standard German fighter could win against an Elson Flyer one-to-one, the ease of manufacturing meant there’d often by up to three Elson Flyers for every German plane. As such, they were used in swarm tactics to devastating effect, forcing all new German fighters to have rear turret gunners in order to counter these tactics. This would influence German fighter plane design for decades to come.