Death of the Red Baron

[25-5]

A neat short depiction of the last hours in the life of Baron Manfred von Richthofen.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

I have the book about the whole conjecture. Small but a hard cover, I wouldn't part with it...they sure make the last part look neat but that wasn't what happened, the witnesses describe it differently.

[25-5]

BAR
I was skeptical of the facts, there are so many versions, but enjoyed the depiction of the dog fight.
What's the title of your little book?

[browningautorifle]

The Red Baron's last flight, by Norman Franks and Allan Bennett. ISBN 1-55068-046-3 The Red Barons Last Flight: A Mystery Investigated: Norman Franks, Alan Bennett: 9780817640835: Books - Amazon.ca It discusses all factors. I won't ruin the plot, when you've read it come back and tell me what you think.

[25-5]

I will do that.
Thanks

[Trap4570]

I remember reading a book about WWI fighter pilots many years ago and I can't remember the title. It was descriptive in the types of controls each plane had plus comments of actual pilots on the pro's and con's of the planes they flew. I remember a couple of humorous points like the French mounted a machine gun on the landing gear axle then asked for volunteers to try it out. The rumor of the time was the recoil would slow the plane to the extent it would fall from the sky. A comment made by the Baron himself was the first thing he did after landing his plane was to seek out the latrine. The fuel, he stated, was blended with castor oil to help lube the engine and it was used to prevent his machine guns from jamming in the frigid air. Ingesting the fumes worked as a laxative and made concentration on the fight difficult. I wish I could find that book again as it contained a lot of tidbits of forgotten lore of the fighter pilots. It covered both the heroics of the pilots as well as day to day life. It was published in the early 20's as I remember.

[browningautorifle]

castor oil

That was a fact, pilots carried flasks of blackberry brandy to help ease the effects. That would be tasty too...

[RCS]

I have the book "The Red Knight of Germany" by Gibbons

[Bob Womack]

Another little fact was that the engines that looked like radials were actually rotary engines - the propeller was bolted to the engine block. The whole engine rotated around a fixed crankshaft mounted to the firewall. The whole affair, with all that engine mass in motion, contributed to generous centrifugal effect, causing the plane to resist directional change. It also caused unexpected torque behavior in the roll axis - a roll with the direction of the engine was aided by the motion of the engine and a roll against the motion of the engine was resisted. Adding or removing power at low speed or on the ground could be fraught with unexpected torque results as well in a hard-to-recover situation. On the Fokker Dr.1, wingtip skids were added to help protect on takeoff and landing. As a result of these odd characteristics and because the rotary engines weren't that successful a design from the start, most reproductions use radial engines in place of the rotaries. A plus was that these engines cooled rather well.

Probably the largest group of DR.1s in the world is living down the road from me at the Military Aviation Museum.



Bob

[browningautorifle]

rotary engines - the propeller was bolted to the engine block

Yes, I knew that. I was talking about that just last night. The aircraft would roll one way perfectly, the other not so much...