Ever since 1914, warfare has changed to adapt to new methods of reconnaissance, dogfighting and bombing in to form of military planes or fighters planes and, therefore, the classic Wright flyer design would have to change in many ways. Firstly, at the beginning of the war, most of the planes looked like the B.E.2 Biplane which was primarily used for reconnaissance however this model of plane was not the most efficient for fighting so the war planes had to undergo many changes. One of the first was message streamers, these were ways of communicating the enemies movements during flight as radios had not been invented yet. The pilots would put the information or 'message' inside the bag and drop it down from the airplane. Airplanes were soon equipped with projectiles as well, such as darts, to harm the enemies and the planes had to make adjustments to compensate of the extra weight.

Another example of this was in 1915 when the fighter planes had forward-firing machine guns on the aircraft as the warring countries wanted to shoot down their opponents more efficiently than when using projectiles, however the most beneficial invention of these methods was the one of interrupter mechanism, which allowed bullets to be fired through the plane's rotating propellor blade. Meanwhile, in 1916 and 17, other aviators thought of larger aircrafts for larger and increased numbers of bombs as well as more precise targeting fitted onto the planes systems for the bombs to be dropped. This targeting would be extremely valuable as the firing points were often in enemy grounds. During WW2, fighter planes usually made out of wood and cloth were replaced with all metal biplanes and the advanced to remote-controlled guns on the sides, pressurised cabins and much more powerful engines, better equipped for a warfare environment.