I don't think so, but if they are for sure, someone will tell us shortly. Peter should know for sure...he'll be in there too eventually. Suspended in wax like Lenin...
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The Sopwith Camel was a monster to fly and many a novice perished due to its habit of going into an unrecoverable spin due to as said the gyroscopic tendencies from that type of aero engine.
Some other bits from what I remember;
It was the French who coined interrupter gear, a French plane forced down behind the German lines had deflector plates on the prop to stop them shooting the props off, it was given to Anthony Fokker to improve on which he did.
As previous to this the guns were angled outside the props arc so you basically had some super defection shooting happening
They wore no parachutes in the beginning as it was unmanly to jump from your burning plane..
In the beginning they carried rifles, handguns even bricks to battle such was the infancy of the aircraft armament.
One allied pilot whilst changing the drum on his top wing mounted Lewis gun the plane became inverted and left him hanging in the slipstream by the mag he managed to swing back into the cockpit to regain control.
Bolké was killed by one of his own men flying into his top wing from above Bolké was Richtoffens idol.
Some other aces of that period were Gunemeyer, Udet, Bishop, Goering (Who always wanted chokers), from memory was it Brown who fought the Red Baron and lost or was it Bolké and Brown all I am running on is memory here guys.
As far as the Red Knight goes it will always remain conjecture but ground fire seems plausible as to receive that fatal wound he would have had to have been in a steep banked left hand circle and the other trailing aircraft that fired the purported fatal round at the same level and at 90 degrees to each other the round coming in from the Barons Rt. (Just my take on the matter)
And I could not see the Baron pulling that stunt like that in front of an enemy fractured skull or not
Doing a search on Richthofen in the Imperial War Museum collection I found that they have his Le Rhone rotary engine. I have no idea whether it is on display but as I recall it was when I was there in 1995.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tographs-1.jpg
COLLECTIONS OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM© IWM (Q 31461)
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tographs-2.jpg
THE AERIAL WARFARE IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR© IWM (Q 71652)
Bob
I watched a documentary a couple of years ago where they examened his death. Supposedly the doccuments of his autopsy exist. The nature of the wound was that he could not have lived long after being hit. It also stated that they found the bullet in his jacket where it had lodged after passing through his body. From that and the angle of the wound they figured that the fatal bullet was fired from the ground and had spent a lot of it's energy in flight before it struck him.
john
At the Omaka Airshow in Blenheim New Zealand they have had seven Dr 1's painted in the Jasta 11 colours. The mock dogfight with some five or so assorted allied aircraft is quite something. I do not know whether the planes are built with radial or rotary engines. But you definitely get the blipping of the engines from the Sopwiths. Most of them are owned by Sir Peter Jackson the filmmaker. who also has three ww1 tank replicas, a ww1 krupp battery, an 88mm cannon, and enough ww1 rifles to arm a Battalion. He also has bankrolled the Omaka aviation museum to house his ww1 air collection. which includes several pieces of the Red Barons plane notably several of the fuselage icons torn from the wreck. There is also a diorama of the crash with Australian troops cutting the plane apart with bayonets and there is one making off with a flying boot (also on display) Its good to see a wealthy man spending his money wisely and then showing off his toys.
At least he's showing them off...
Huh, Hollywood folk and a weapons collection? Now that's not something you hear everyday.
Personally, I like it better than say, the guy that buys up all the Titanic stuff he can...
Sir Peter has always been fascinated by WW1, in one of his very first films a zombie is killed with a '07 Patt bayonet.
Steven Spielberg was said to have a large collections of German weapons.
Bob