The First ‘Top Guns’:
The Red Baron Legend
By Joyce Peterson
Smithsonian News Service
Ask Americans who the "Red
Baron" was, and chances are
most of them will instantly
think of a comic strip. Snoopy,
£]•« beagle with an overactive
hnaginadon in Charles Schulz’s
; _.uts,” has entertained
■ vispaper readers for more
!■ 25 years with his World
i "dog" fights against a
^ome but gallant German
’ real Red B?' e- was
■; ! Manfred von kicii' fen,
■ -man World War ' filot
.is become an enduring
^re in American popular
the legend of the fighter
. Legend did not match the
! iity of life for World War 1
•,s, however. As the first
■ijr test of the airrlane in
de. World War ^eant
'ling flights and larly
h for many ers.
aganda pushed ' lives,
Siding von Rio ifen’s,
’ idowsofh' f.
iia drawing loopy
. I’plet- with av)o' helmet
: vL tors at u- ancetc
.iw permanent ibition,
:/,cnd, Memor, id the
in the Ai opening
at the Smittisonian’s
uonai Air and Space
f ? t3eum in Washington, D.C.
’ ’ exhibition gives a historical
.".soont of the first widespread
.military use of the airplane in
World War 1 and explores the
origin of the ranantic image of
the fighter pilot--an image that
jretsistS today.
World War I was a tragedy of
horrendous proportions.
Beginning in 1914 as a local
cia:^ between Austria-Hungary
and Serbia, the conflict
escalated into a global war. By
•/ar’s end in November 1918,
than 10 million people
died, many in trench
ere Oil the Western front in
f L i jrn and France.
Mthough aviation techiKdogy
1!: in its infancy during World
Va. i, political and military
-saders hc^ied that the use of
aircraft would break the
deadloclred laiid war. Still, the
airplanes were fragile,
unreliable and difficult to fly;
training was often poor or
noiexistenL
"Air power was often misused
and its effects were
- ■ -sive in ih.; outcome of
pilots, the most visible
representatives of the air war, as
m^etable heroes.
"Post war analysts
overemphasized the importance
of the airplane," Pisano adds,
"which would have a profound
effect on the military policy of
World War II. Even today,
military aviation strategy
continues to be Influenced by
the image of the fighter ace."
After the Wright brothers’
first successful flight in 1903,
governments realized the
military potential of the
airplane. World War I forged
technological advances in
"heavier-than-air" craft and
established many new uses o'
the airplane, including as i
weapon of war.
"At the beginning of the war,"
Pisano says, "aircraft were used
almost exclusively for
observation so that ground
forces could see what was over
the next hill." By war’s end, a
variety of roles were defined: to
carry reconnaissance cameras,
strafe ground forces, bomb
cities or attack other aircraft
with built-in guns. "This
contrasts with the popular
notion that all World War I
aircraft were fighters."
The development of the
single-seat fighter airplane had
a powerful hold on the public’s
imagination. An advertising
poster for Germany’s Fokker
aircraft depicts man, airplane
and machine gun as a single,
devastating machine.
. Thanks to advances in
metallurgy, it became possible
to build larger, higher-power
yet lightweight aluminum
engines. Aircraft could fly
higher, faster and longer.
"Aircraft propulsion went
from a 50-horsepower rotary
engine to a 400-horsepower V-8
in-line engine—a staggering
increase in so short a period,"
says Karl Schneide, one of the
gallery’s three curators. The
first practical superchargers-
devices that Increase engine
efficiency by forcing extra air
into the combustion chambers-
were introduced by BMW, he
notes.
An important American
contribution to aviation
technology, Schneide says, was
the development of higher-
viscosity oil, "which allowed
airplanes to fly at a much higher
altitude at higher engine speed."
Control mechanisms were
■ ‘r-f : ' Ig St-Mli::
BiEasSil
During World War I, fledgling pilots on both sides received only rudimentary training. The Royal
Flying Corps of Great Britain had to rely on posters to illustrate some of the hazards of flying. This
poster reminds pilots to avoid enemy aircraft.
exactly stop and restart your
engine. So a backup system
comes in very handy."
While most of these advances
were adopted by all the
combatant nations producing
aircraft in World War I, some
strategic differences remained.
By the middle of the war,
Pisano says, "the Germans
could not compete with the
Allies’ capacity for mass
production and had to rely on
quality over quantity." He
compares two aircraft in the
new Air and Space museum
gallery: The Fokker DVD and
the French SPAD XIII. Only
1,200 Fokker fighters were
built, he says, as opposed to
8.000 French SPADs. "yet the
DVII could fly rings around the
SPADs."
Schneide adds, "The Allies
had the raw materials-wood,
linen, rubber and aluminum-
and weren’t blockaded, whereas
Germany had very limited
resources."
Newer, more powerful
airplanes had a side effect: a
hostile environment for the
pilot. "At 10,000 feet,”
Schneide explains, "you’re
starved for oxygen and you
might freeze to death.” Though
oxygen, pressurization and
heating systems were
introduced in .World War I
airplanes, they were far from
perfect.
Besides these perils, and the
inherent dan , of flying in
battle, a pilot an open-cockpit
airplane was ctimes sprayed
with engine The oil often
induced nausc .. and diarrhea.
"Clearly, the World War I
pilot’s life was not the happy-
go-lucky series of dog-fights
that the movies have led us to
believe," co-curator Joanne
Gernstein says. "There’s this
image of a dashing young man
wearing a white silk scarf who
climbs into a shiny red Fokker
triplane, flies around for an
hour and returns to tell of his
brave exploits over a glass of
champagne. It just wasn’t so."
ThouEh the fighter pilot’s life
(Continued On Page 4)
Smithsonian News Service Photo courtesy of
the National Air and Space Museum