Knights Without Parachutes

Fanfare for an Uncommon Common Man Ernst Udet, one of the great aces of WWI, the highest-scoring German ace to survive the war (second only to Richthofen), was something of a new breed in the knighthood of the air - or rather, not a product of breeding at all. He was a common man rather than one of the nobility, and Germany's youngest ace, who would only be 121 years old if he were alive today. Yet he appreciated and honored the chivalry that would soon be swallowed up in by the practicalities of war. At this point 100 years ago, Udet was...

Adventure in the Air Bigglesworth, popularly known as Biggles, a slight, fair-haired, good-looking lad still in his teens, but an acting Flight Commander, was talking, not of wine or women as novelists would have us believe, but of a new fusee spring for a Vickers gun which would speed it up another hundred rounds a minute. Boys may believe after reading Hardy Boys books that sons of detectives actually bring international criminals to justice during school vacations. Adults realize real adventure stories are few and far between, and hardly ever happen to the same person...except in a very few periods...

The Red Tri-Plane Appears "The squadron has taken a hammering" - report from Monday, September 3rd, by Arthur Gould Lee, the Royal Flying Corps pilot "of no fame" who was writing to his wife back in England. Their first patrol had met Richthofen's Flying Circus, and Manfred himself was back in action, in his new Dr.1 red tri-plane (which Lee, not having the benefit of 100 years of Red Baron legends, assumed at the time was a captured Allied tri-plane.) Failing to recognize this new and lasting symbol of the Red Baron could be deadly. Richthofen's sixtieth victory on 2 September had included an observer who,...

1917 Warbird vs. 2017 Kit Aircraft As a large fraction of Denver moved to Wyoming for the total eclipse this week (totality was only about 150 miles north of the Vintage Aero Flying Museum), many sport aircraft pilots avoided the traffic by flying instead. We talked to the pilot of a kit two-man airplane that looked like a giant blue-and-green dragonfly which flew north from an airport near the VAFM. It was interesting to think about what has changed, and in some cases changed back, about airplanes in the last 100 years.  Like Manfred von Richthofen's airplane, this one was brightly...

Adapted from an article for History on a Shirt by Ewan Tallentire When you think of the great WWI aircraft, the first thing that comes to mind is the fighters. Germany had the Fokkers, the Red Baron's Dr.I and the powerful D.VII. Britain had the Sopwith Camel even before an imaginative beagle climbed into the "cockpit." The French had the sports car of them all, the Spad XIII. The Americans' most well-known aircraft of WWI was not a fighter; we fought the air war flying British Camels and S.E. 5a's, along with French Nieuports and Spads. America's great WWI aircraft served on the home...