So anyone can tell me or give me somewhere to look for references of the Red Baron's Triplane? I've heard contrary to popular belief that the Baron's plane wasn't all red and I have the Squadron book that shows a red upper wing and red tail. any other comments?
Windsock's Dr.I Datafile Special Windsock's Fabric Special #1: Richtofen's Flying Circus
According to the Windsock refs, as the group commander Richtofen flew quite a few different aircraft. Not just the ones from his own Jasta 11. Mentioned in the captions of b&w period photos are:
Fokker V.4 (#1729) - turqoise with streaky OD upper surfaces. 2 kills, 60 and 61. Fokker F.I 103/17 - also turqoise with OD upper surface. Dr.I 525/17 - A Jasta 6 aircraft. Striped stabilizer. Dr.I 161/17 - Jasta 11 - color not obvious, probably a typical Ja 11 scheme Dr.I 486/17 - Jasta 11 - ditto Dr.I 477/17 - Ja 11 - cowl, wheel cvrs, struts probably red. Rest, another color. Dr.I 152/17 - Ja 11 - all red. One of two that he flew that were all red. Dr.I 425/17 - Ja 11, all red, his final two kills, and his coffin.
WmB
To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net
As another writer has stated, the Baron flew a bunch of different aircraft. The Renwal Aero-Skin that showed his aircraft had a red upper wing and partially on the fuselage and tail surfaces, the mid- and lower wings were factory green with brown streaks camo, IIRC (models is downstairs and I'm getting ready to go UP stairs ;-P ). In its instructions, the history claimed that this was one of his favorite aircraft, but not the one that he died in. I sometimes wonder what he might have done in a D.VII......
-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger
rotflmao!
The Osprey book on JG 1 answers this question.
Slight discrepancy here: vonRichtofen flew the V.4 at Fokker's factory. Strictly an evaluation flight. The 60th and 61st kills were achieved with F.1 102/17. Curt Wolfe was shot down and killed in this machine after vonRichtofen left on medical leave and he left the aircraft with Wolfe. F.1/103/17 was the bird given to Werner Voss, and as far as I know was never flown by any one else.
I believe your descriptions of s/n 152 and 477 have been switched. The book I have says 477 was the other all red bird. Several aircraft in Jasta 11 had paint jobs which made them look all one color when viewed from above. Hans Weiss' aircraft had white upper wing top surface, fuselage decking and upper surface of the stabilizer/elevator, complementary to his name. Lothar vonRichtofen's plane was yellow on those surfaces, yellow being the uniform facing color of his old Hussar Regiment, and Manfred's 152 was red. There is some reference to 477 as a triplane that was experimentally covered in silk and painted red, at the factory, for Manfred vonRichtofen.
Bill Shuey
103/17 was indeed Voss's mount. Windsock references two V.4s that were sent to the front for combat evaluation. Between the Dr.I Datafile and the Flying Circus issue, Windsock uses use the term 'V.4' and 'modified V.4' and 'F.1' intermittently to describe them. The Flying Circus issue reads a little clearer in that they were soldiering as F birds under the designations F.1 102/17 and 103/17. I didn't realize this the first time I read it or I would have listed one aircraft for Richtofen as the 102/17 (modified V.4) bird.
My bad.
Could be. It's confusing and there seems to be a lot of disagreement amongst the experts. Where Windsock writes that 425/17 was one of two all red Dr.Is flown by Richtofen, they never explicitly state the other bird they have in mind. From the Windsock descriptions of the 477 and the 152 I had a 50-50 shot at it. ;-)
Reading the caption on the 152/17 in the Squadron Dr.I book it looks like the undersides of the wings are believed to be light blue. The same thing is said a couple of pages later underneath a pic of the "all-red" 425 plane.
Great, now I'm in the same boat as the original poster -- confused as hell.
Like Dr. Sam Beckett was prone to say on occassion... "oy!"
WmB
To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net
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