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Originally Posted by No.6 That’s a nice photo Kiwi.
The DR1 is one of my favourite aircraft.
Even people who don’t know much about aviation recognise the aircraft when it it's in the red livery of Rittmeister Baron Manfred von Richthofen.
I don’t know if you have heard of a Kiwi named Clive Franklyn Collett? He was brought to my attention when I was reading James McCudden's memoir "Flying Fury" he came down over the Firth of Forth near my home town of Edinburgh whilst flying a captured Albatros (this is what drew my attention).
However it turns out that he was the first Ace of the war to claim a victory in a Sopwith Camel and he was experimenting with the use of parachutes ***and voluntarily jumped from B.E.2c!!!
Von Richthofen might have been the most Famous Pilot of the Great War but there where other young men just as courageous as he was.
This is a good site to remember some of them and their machines www.theaerodrome.com |
*** No.6 you are correct in saying that there were other equally brave pilots as Richthofen,just as portrayed in that excellent film 'The Blue Max' where a national hero was required by the then German air ministry,Richthofen was of the right blood,a true hunter,the powers that be made him into the hero he is portrayed as,they were very successful in creating good moral even to this day his name lives on,there is that certain enigma,mystery that will always surrround him,you only have to look at the sheer number of models,books and replica aircraft that have been made surrounding his lifetime,yes there were the unsung heroes that lasted perhaps hours in the bloody aerial encounters,the lack of training for battle and the un-reliability of certain aircraft both engines & airframes.
It is a very colourful period well worth a study,and as a modelling subject excellent.