Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Jagdstaffel Elf flies again

Jagdstaffel 11 was the Red Baron's squadron.  It seems some folks have built reproductions of the Fokker Dr. 1 Triplane and they've tricked them out in the pain schemes of each of the Jagdstaffel pilots.  Cool.



It's amazing just how short a field those old birds need to get airborne - less than 100 yards, and maybe no more than 50.  It's also amazing just how slow the fly bys are - I'd think no faster than 80 MPH.  The top speed was only 115 MPH, and you wouldn't stall until your speed dropped to 45 (!) MPH - maybe the lowest stall speed of any fighter, ever.

3 comments:

Dave H said...

That's neat to see them in the air up close like that. Probably my biggest disappointment in seeing the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels fly is if they come in close, they're going too fast for me to see anything.

Anonymous said...

It was Jagdgeschwader 1 and another fighter ace led them after his death a certain Herman Goering.
Without Richtofen Monty Python would be circusless.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if they have reproduction Obereusel rotary engines? They and the Le Rhone they were copied from had no throttle. Slowing was acommplished by an switch that grounded out the magneto. The huge mass of the rotating engine allowd this by acting as a great big flywheel. Of course. having what amounts to a giant gyroscope in the nose made turning in one direction problimatic and turning in the other direction quite exciting.
Russ