World War 1 Flying Aces

There's a book called The Canvas Falcons that covers the early days of air combat and the transition. It's out of print, I think. Check libraries.

Jared Axelrod said:

Anyone have any good references for World War 1 aerial combat? Pre-machine gun fighting, when they just buzzed around each other firing pistols and throwing bricks?

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There was a new movie about it. Forgot the title though

Jared Axelrod said:

Anyone have any good references for World War 1 aerial combat? Pre-machine gun fighting, when they just buzzed around each other firing pistols and throwing bricks?

Click to expand...

That lasted about sixty days. By May of 1915 Vickers Aircraft company had introduced a pusher biplane called the Gunbus which mounted a machine gun in the front position. By July 0f 1915 Roland Garros was the toast of Paris. He had bolted some metal plates on to the propellor so if a bullet hit the prop it wouldn't necessarily shoot the prop off.

At that time in Paris anybody at the top of his game was an "ace", whether he might be a bicycle racer, a musician or a card sharp. The newspaper quickly decided that Garros who had just gotten his fifth kill was an 'ACE'. The accolade stuck. Three weeks later Garros managed to damage his propellor bad enough to crash him behind enemy lines where spent most of the war in POW camps until he escaped in late winter, 1918.

Fokker introduced a simple cam arrangement to keep the machine gun from firing when the propellor blades were in the way and the 'Fokker Scourge had begun.

Regards,
Scott

Exactly. This was a very short period in air combat. Kennett's "The First Air War" covers this to a degree, with a different focus than "Canvas Falcons" mentioned earlier. "Canvas Falcons" is more of a popular history in any case and contains some errors and author's opinions disguised as fact.

Cav Guy said:

"Canvas Falcons" is more of a popular history in any case and contains some errors and author's opinions disguised as fact.

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Okay. In my defense, I read it some twenty or more years ago. I thought it was good, then.

Some of the early Biggles books were remarkably accurate about what it was like to be a WW1 pilot. Biggles himself starts off as a character who downs a bottle of whisky before breakfast and lives on his nerves. Later it all became much more romanticised as the series became more popular with boys. They were written by Capt WE Johns, who was himself a WW1 pilot.

Jared Axelrod said:

Anyone have any good references for World War 1 aerial combat? Pre-machine gun fighting, when they just buzzed around each other firing pistols and throwing bricks?

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IIRC Patrick Pringle: "Fighting Pilots"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CL1Y5/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

...is a compilation of WWI & II accounts. I think it has a chapter on those first few improvisational months.

It was, however, a very short period.

There's a book called The War in the Air (I think) which was published just after the first world war. I've not read it but it might be of interest.

I think "Fly Boys" is the movie you're looking for...and Jeff Shaara's book on WWI was awesome "To the Last Man" (2004)

Google Jan Safarik and go from there.

Jared Axelrod said:

Anyone have any good references for World War 1 aerial combat? Pre-machine gun fighting, when they just buzzed around each other firing pistols and throwing bricks?

Click to expand...

Try looking at http://www.theaerodrome.com/.