Roland Georges Garros - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to an August 3, 1914 wire story, Garros drove his airplane into a German Zeppelin dirigible above the German frontier destroying the aircraft and killing both pilots in what was considered to be the first air battle in world history. On 18 April 1915, either Garros's fuel line clogged or, by other accounts, his aircraft was downed by ground fire,[7] and he glided to a landing on the German side of the lines. Garros failed to destroy his aircraft completely before being taken prisoner: most significantly, the gun and armoured propeller remained intact. Legend has it that after examining the plane, German aircraft engineers, led by Fokker, designed the improved interrupter gear system. In fact the work on Fokker's system had been going for at least six months before Garros's aircraft fell into their hands. With the advent of the interrupter gear the tables were turned on the Allies, with Fokker's planes shooting down many Allied aircraft, leading to what became known as the Fokker Scourge. http://wikipedia.or.ke/index.php/Interrupter_gear