The Red Baron by

Manfred Von Richthofen

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was born May 2, 1892 into a family of Prussian nobles.

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At home, Richthofen's lavish and privileged childhood was filled with aristocratic activities such as hunting for game and playing a plethora of sports. However, at the age of eleven, per his father's request to follow in his footsteps, Manfred was enrolled in military school.

However, it is important to note that

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many of the planes he shot down were actually bigger, less agile planes, and although his many dogfights were remembered, he may have been over-glorified.

Freshly 19, Richthofen was commissioned as an officer for the Prussian army.

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Because of his standing in the Prussian army, he fought and sided with Russia during the outbreak of World War I.

Because of his family's status and privileges, Manfred spent his youth in high-end education. Although he was never one to push himself academically, he excelled in physical activities.

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Trench warfare bored Manfred Von Richthofen. He longed to make a lasting mark on war and be 'in on the action.'

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He finally wrote a request to be transferred to the German Air Force, saying that "I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose."

Richthofen spent the summer of 1915 as an observer on an Oswald Boelcke's airplane.

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Boelcke recruited Manfred as a fighter in the squadron Jasta 2, where he grew to be an established fighter pilot.

Richthofen's fearless attitude carried him far in his flight career. His first confirmed kill was in September of 1916.

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"I had gone so close that I was afraid I might dash into the Englishman. Suddenly, I nearly yelled with joy for the propeller of the enemy machine had stopped turning."

He continued to rack up kills until he received the title 'Flying Ace.' His valiant skills and impressive precision on the battlefield allowed him to defy the odds of war. By 1917, he had 16 confirmed kills and received the most decorated military honor in WWI, the "Pour Le Mérite."

Richthofen was put in charge of his own squadron, the Jasta 11. He commemorated this promotion by painting his plane a sizzling red. This would become a symbol for him for years to come.

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His famous red plane would coin him the iconic nickname of "The Red Baron."

The Red Baron has over 80 confirmed kills during his time as a fighter pilot. This was the highest number of aerial kills during a war.

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The Red Baron's fearless and ruthless aerial dogfighting changed the future of the Air Force and its airmen.

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His tactics and heroic efforts in World War I showed how revolutionizing aviation can be in war.

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Works Cited

Andrews, Evan. “Ace of Aces: How the Red Baron Became WWI’s Most Legendary Fighter Pilot.” HISTORY, 1 Sept. 2018, www.history.com/news/ace-of-aces-how-the-red-baron-became-wwis-most-legendary-fighter-pilot.

Collins, Turner. “The Red Baron: The Great War’s Greatest Ace.” TheCollector, 11 May 2022, www.thecollector.com/red-baron-fighter-ace-famous-pilot/.

Encyclopedia Britannica Editors. “Manfred, Baron von Richthofen | German World War I Fighter Ace | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Manfred-Freiherr-von-Richthofen.

Feldmann , Henrik, and Richard Unger. “Manfred von Richthofen Biographie.” Www.hi.uni-Stuttgart.de, www.hi.uni-stuttgart.de/wgt/ww-one/Start/Bleed_White/Military_Pilots/term_17399.html#:~:text=In%20his%20autobiography%2C%20he%20quotes. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.

History.com Editors. “Red Baron.” HISTORY, 21 Aug. 2018, www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/manfred-baron-von-richthofen.

Schlitz, Heather. “The Real Red Baron.” College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois, 12 Nov. 2018, las.illinois.edu/news/2018-11-12/real-red-baron.

A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). ACE OF ACES: How the red baron became WWI’s most legendary fighter pilot. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/ace-of-aces-how-the-red-baron-became-wwis-most-legendary-fighter-pilot

Nivatakavacha. (2023, January 4). Evolution of fighter planes during World War I. Team. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/260941-evolution-fighter-planes-during-world-war-i.html

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). 1903-the first flight. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/thefirstflight.htm

The Wright Brothers

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In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright, two brothers from Dayton, OH, became the first people to fly a heavier than air, power controlled machine, known as the Wright Flyer. This did not simply happen overnight. The brothers had been tinkering with the idea of flight off and on since childhood.

Where the idea began: Bikes

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They started the Wright Cycle Company in 1892 to sell bicycles, which was lucrative and gave them time for additional projects. With the company's success, the brothers launched a repair shop and then made bicycles. They were brilliant engineers. This insight helped them invent the first plane. Wilbur wrote the Smithsonian for literature in 1899, starting the Wrights' aviation career. The brothers were disappointed that so many outstanding brains had made so little progress but were excited that they had as much opportunity as anybody else to succeed. Their attempts started with a 5-foot biplane kite. The brothers recognized lift and propulsion required improvement, but no one possessed lateral control.

Years Leading up to the finished product

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1900-

The Wrights built a 17-foot glider with an unusual forward elevator. They went to Kitty Hawk, NC hoping to gain flying experience, but the wings generated less lift than expected, and they flew the glider mostly as a kite. Wilbur's time aloft in free flight totaled only 10 seconds. They were convinced they had achieved lateral and longitudinal control.

1901-

Trying to overcome the lift problem, they increased the camber of the 1901 glider. They also lengthened its wingspan to 22 feet, making it the largest glider anyone had attempted to fly. They achieved longitudinal control and eventually glided 335 feet. But the machine was still unpredictable. This failure, and the realization that their work had relied on false data, brought them to the point of quitting.

1902-

The 1902 machine embodies the Wrights' research. They gave it efficient 32-foot wings and added vertical tails to counteract adverse yaw. The pilot moved a hip cradle to warp the wings. Some 400 glides proved the design workable, but still flawed. Wilbur thought to link the tail movement to the warping mechanism, the plane could be turned and stabilized smoothly. The Wrights saw that control and stability were related, that a plane turned by rolling. Six hundred more glides that year satisfied them that they had the first working airplane.

1903

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On a remote, sandy beach, in the year 1903, Orville broke our bond to the earth. He flew. It lasted only 12 seconds, and the distance of the flight was less than the length of an airliner. But for the first time, a manned, heavier-than-air machine left the ground by its own power, moved forward under control without losing speed, and landed on a point as high as that from which it started.

First Planes used in warfare

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The first documented use of airplanes in war actually predates WW1. By 1910, balloons and airships were used regularly for artillery spotting, cartography and detecting troop movements. But the disadvantages and limitations were obvious – poor maneuverability and flammability. Countries warmed up the idea of airplanes as military equipment and set about forming their own primitive air forces. France setup its “Armée de l'Air” in 1909/1910. Germany founded its “Luftstreitkräfte” in 1910 and Britain formed its “Royal Flying Core” in 1912.

Beginning of WW1

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Initially apprehensive, most generals and marshals warmed up to employing aircraft for reconnaissance and artillery spotting by 1914. The Germans entered the war with 250 aircraft, mostly Etrich Taube and Aviatik B1. Modern vehicles have greater horsepower than the aircraft' primitive engines. The aircrafts were a tangle of metal, cloth, wood, and cables. Most early aircrafts had 60-70 HP engines, 60 MPH peak speeds, and 12,000 feet ceilings.

Etrich Taube

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Top speed: 62 mph

Weight: 1,433 lbs

Length: 32′

Aviatik B1

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Top speed: 62 mph

Wingspan: 46′ 0″

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In the early conflict, planes were utilized for reconnaissance, not aerial dominance. Air combatants frequently saluted each other. When all combat participants realized the necessity of reconnaissance, pilots and observers began firing handguns at one other when aircraft passed. This wasn't particularly effective, although it sometimes scared opposing pilots. Pilots dropped hand-held bombs into enemy formations from the aircraft. One of the more extreme measure some pilots would take was aerial ramming where they would use their planes to ram enemy planes (suicidal in many ways).

Early Challenges

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Mounting machine guns into planes were a lot easier in pusher type propeller driver planes where the propeller was behind the pilot and gunner. This opened up the field of view up front to the gunner who could fire at enemy aircrafts. But this design had its own aerodynamic limitations. Later Roland Garros, a French aviator discovered a fix to this problem. realized that the only way they could solve this problem was by finding a mechanism where the guns would fire synchronously through the propeller blades. This would give the pilots total control and accurate aim for taking down enemy aircrafts.

German Air Superiority in WW1

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Thus began the age of the “Ace”. An ace was a pilot who shot down a minimum of 5 enemy planes. Two Germans, very important to this story got their hands on these new planes and they laid down the rules of modern aerial combat as we know it today – Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke. As the months ticked along, the Ace race was truly on. The first aces in the war were German. Though these men were incredible, no one topped Manfred Von Richthofren.

Going along with 'Taking to the Skies'

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After the outbreak of World War I, Richthofen served on both the Eastern and Western Fronts as a cavalryman and messenger. In mid-1915, he transferred to the German air corps, serving first as a back-seat observer and later as a pilot. The switch was anything but smooth—Richthofen crashed during his first solo flight—but his determination eventually caught the attention of Germany’s top ace, Oswald Boelcke, who recruited him for a new fighter squadron known as Jasta 2.

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Richthofen wasted little time in making his name as a combat pilot. On September 17, 1916, while on patrol over France, he got the drop on a two-seater British plane and scored his first confirmed kill. Jasta 2 suffered devastating casualties that autumn—including the death of Oswald Boelcke—but Richthofen defied the odds and continued to increase his kill count. In November, he scored his 11th victory by shooting down Major Lanoe Hawker, one of the British Royal Flying Corps’ top aces. As his tally grew, Richthofen had a Berlin jeweler make him a collection of small silver cups, one for each of the aircraft he shot down. He would eventually acquire 60 of the trophies before a silver shortage forced the jeweler to decline new orders. In January 1917, after shooting down his 16th airplane, Richthofen was given command of the German squadron Jasta 11.

Albatross biplane

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Top speed: 109 mph

Range: 298 mi

Length: 24.05′

Weight: 1,532 lbs

Jasta 11

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Under Richthofen’s leadership, Jasta 11 grew into one of the deadliest flying units of World War I. In April 1917—a month known as “Bloody April”—its pilots shot down 89 British planes in the skies over the Battle of Arras. Richthofen alone chalked up 21 kills, including four in a single day. By then, he had all but perfected his lethal flying style. Rather than engaging in airborne acrobatics or risky dogfights, he preferred to patiently stalk his enemies, swoop down from high altitude and then blast them out of the sky with pinpoint bursts of machine gun fire.

Aerobatics used in WW1

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During WW1 Rich used these aerobatics moves in order to manuever duriing dogfights: basic barrel rolls

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