Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (19 page)

A Fokker D-VII outfitted with duel Spandau guns and featuring the three interlocking rings of the Krupp corporation, the leading German armaments manufacturer during the war.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

An Albatros D-III.

Manfred von Richthofen—the “Red Baron”—posing with his Blue Max, Prussia’s highest order of merit.

The cover of Richtofen’s ghostwritten memoirs,
Der rote Kampfflieger
(
The Red Fighterpilot
), published in 1917 though soon disowned by the baron.

(The collection of Thomas E. Kullgren, Ph.D., Early Aeronautica)

A Fokker A1 triplane, made famous by the Red Baron.

A famous French aviator before the war, Roland Garros was the first pilot to mount a forward-firing machine gun and use it successfully in air-to-air combat.

A French Morane-Saulnier N monoplane.

An excellent view of the deflector plates shielding the propellers of the Morane-Saulnier, first used by Garros in 1915.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

Issues of the French magazine
La Guerre Aerienne Illustree
(top) and a popular biography of ace Georges Guynemer (bottom), all of which fed the tremendous popular appetite for stories about
les aviateurs
.

(National Library of France)

A SPAD XVI outfitted with both Vickers and Lewis guns.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

An SE-5 with both fuselage- and over-wing-mounted Lewis guns.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

The Lafayette Escadrille, July 1917. The squadron’s two pet lions, Whiskey and Soda, share the front row.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)