Knights Without Parachutes — wwi

December 1917 Air War - Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New

December 16, 2017 • eddie rickenbacker • ernst udet • eugene bullard • frederick libby • raoul lufbery • red baron • wwi

"As the winter deepens, air traffic slows down. There is much rain and snow. Even on dry days the heavy clouds drift so low that no takeoffs are ordered. We sit around in our rooms. I am quartered in the country house of a lace manufacturer."

Perfect Christmas Present for WWI Aviation Buffs!

December 10, 2017 • dangers of wwi aviation • luckiest man alive • wwi

Captain Hedley's story about falling out of his airplane, The Luckiest Man Alive by Jack Stokes Ballard is published, and in time for Christmas, too!

Now Entering the Final Year of the First Air War

November 18, 2017 • billy mitchell • dangers of wwi aviation • hugh trenchard • influenza • lafayette escadrille • rfc/raf • wwi

Meanwhile, the Germans would concentrate more on training and also would be fighting more defensively, conserving their aircraft and pilots. By the fall of 1918, the fortunes of German ground forces would be declining, but the German air force would have some of its best months of the war.

Spiders as Passengers on WWI Airplane

October 05, 2017 • wwi

Spiderwebs Rated for 90 MPH Winds One hundred years ago on September 27th, Arthur Gould Lee had an uneventful patrol. So uneventful he had time to take note of natural science. He noticed some spiderwebs attached to his struts trailing in his slipstream, not breaking even at speeds of 90 mph. "They were the very fine kind that float in the air and catch your face when you're walking alongside a hedge." After he landed, he found there were not only spiderwebs, but spiders, tiny red ones, that had gone along for the flight, and were presumably ready to start on the next web....

British Pronunciation Guide to World War 1

July 19, 2017 • james norman hall • wwi

How to Pronounce Ypres, As Recorded by Lafayette Escadrille Pilot James Norman Hall How do you pronounce Ypres? It’s an important name in WWI history, but worrying to the non-French-speaking American afraid to appear ignorant or insulting to an ally. Ee-prez? Eye-pray? Yip-ress? The British, however, had no such worries. Part of James Norman Hall’s introduction to trench warfare (before he returned to the US, wrote Kitchener’s Mob, and then became a Lafayette Escadrille pilot) was instruction in the proper British pronunciation of French words. Hall had pronounced Ypres the French way “which put me under suspicion as a ‘swanker.’” One of...