Knights Without Parachutes — eddie rickenbacker

WW1 Events of September 1st, 1918

September 01, 2018 • alvin york • billy mitchell • eddie rickenbacker

"Although we did not know it at the time, we were now on the last laps of the war." -- Eddie Rickenbacker, 100 years ago

What to Do When Your Ammo is on Fire

August 25, 2018 • eddie rickenbacker • ernst udet • frederick libby • red baron

There are many dangers in being high in the air in a craft made of wood, canvas, and dope, carrying a load of fuel, powered by what is supposed to be a smooth series of explosions in the engine, and creating other explosions by firing a gun.

One effect of all those explosions is that the engine and the gun can get rather hot.

WW1 Mid-Air Collisions - Watch Where You're Going!

August 18, 2018 • dangers of wwi aviation • eddie rickenbacker • field kindley • oswald boelcke • richthofen brothers

"I suddenly saw, as in a dream, Walter's plane collide with Bruce's. It seemed to happen in a cloud, yet I saw it clearly. Their wings touched and fell off, and I saw both planes plummeting to earth."

Rickenbacker Standardizes Gun Shells

July 28, 2018 • aviation history • eddie rickenbacker

All this is background to explain why Eddie Rickenbacker's ideas about guns today receive a, "well yeah, of course!" reaction but were radical ideas at the time.

Quentin Roosevelt's Death May Have Destroyed German Morale

July 14, 2018 • eddie rickenbacker • hermann goering • pilot attributes • quentin roosevelt • russia

The first the others knew of the other flight of Germans was when they saw Roosevelt's Nieuport falling to earth.