Death Of A Hero
The Red Baron’s Last Flight
In 2016 I spent a few days in Berlin. (Useful travel hint — where two airports are available, the smaller one will be cheaper.)
At Texel, there was a scale model of the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane. I wonder where it is now Berlin’s new airport is open. Here’s the story about it.
Military aviation
There are other claimants, but the first recorded powered flight was in December 1903, when Orville Wright flew Kitty Hawk 37 metres (121.4 feet) in 12 seconds. In 1909, he and his brother Wilbur built the first military plane.
Aeroplanes were first used in war on 23 October 1911, during the Italian/Turkish War. Initially, planes were used for reconnaissance, then for bombing. During World War I, guns were fitted to aircraft for protection.
In 1915, Dutch engineer Anton Fokker invented the interruptor gear, which synchronised with the plane’s propellor. Thus a pilot could fire a machine gun without blowing the propellor to pieces. Instead the propellor stopped long enough for bullets to fly over it.
Single-seat fighters were born. The planes were cold, cramped, unreliable, and few had parachutes. Many planes flew together, and the death rate for pilots was very high.
