Especially Ernst Udet in this story.
Or Werner Voss In this story
Or Werner Voss In this story
trying to determine whether the pistol is part of the "parashoot"pfo said:
Instead of a parashoot you were given a pistol to shoot yourself in the head if your plane caught on fire.
Quote:
Instead of a parashoot you were given a pistol to shoot yourself in the head if your plane caught on fire.
http://www.historynet.com/ernst-udet-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-german-world-war-i-ace.htmQuote:
Suddenly the Fokker nosed down into a spin from which Udet could not pull out. He was wearing one of the new Heinecke parachutes that German pilots were just being equipped with, and he stood up in the cockpit to jump. As he did so, a rush of wind knocked him backward. But instead of tumbling into the wide-open sky, Udet to his horror realized that his parachute harness was caught on the rudder. Frantically, he struggled with the harness as the earth spun closer. With a final superhuman effort he yanked himself free and floated down into no man's land. He quickly scrambled back to the German lines and, taking his harrowing experience in stride, was flying again that same afternoon. The next day he shot down a Spad fighter for his 36th victory.
Quote:
The War to End All Wars was nothing but the greatest massive slaughter like the world has ever seen that basically resolved nothing. Useless senseless slaughter. Simply set the stage for the next war.
And the next and the next. 99.9999% of our trouble with the middle east is due to the "winners" in WWI dividing SW Asia into their own little fiefdoms, totally ignoring history and tribalism.The Original AG 76 said:
The War to End All Wars was nothing but the greatest massive slaughter like the world has ever seen that basically resolved nothing. Useless senseless slaughter. Simply set the stage for the next war.
IIRC, it was the rotary engines that were lubricated with castor oil. Non-rotary engines (such as on the SE-5, SPAD 13, Fokker D.VII, and Albatross fighters) didn't have to use castor oil. No wonder von Richthofen favored the D.VII over the Dr.1 Triplane (but he didn't live long enough to fly it in combat)Quote:
And back to the OP, I once read that many of the early aircraft engines were lubricated with castor oil.
"One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans."Quote:
Prophetic words from Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898): "You know where a war begins, but you never know where it ends."