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Franz Büchner
Franz Büchner PlM (2 January 1898 – 18 March 1920) was one of the most successful German fighter aces of the First World War, shooting down 40 enemy aircraft. He began his military career as a 16-year-old infantryman. His doughty exploits earned him a battlefield commission just after his 18th birthday, in early 1916. After being wounded and invalided from the infantry, he joined the Imperial German Air Service. Once he progressed to become a fighter pilot flying a Fokker D.VII, he initially struggled to gain his first aerial victories. Something clicked after his fifth victory, and he began to regularly shoot down enemy airplanes, scoring 35 victories between 1 July and 22 October 1918. Most notably, he shot down four SPADs on 26 September. He survived the war, but died in action in 1920 while combating communist revolutionaries near Leipzig. Early career Büchner was born in Leipzig in the Kingdom of Saxony, the son of a businessman. He volunteered for the army in September ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxony. From 1871, it was part of the German Empire. It became a free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its modern successor state is the Free State of Saxony. History Napoleonic era and the German Confederation Before 1806, Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity that had become highly decentralised over the centuries. The rulers of the Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in August 1806 following the defeat of Emperor Francis II by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fokker D
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 the company moved its operations to the Netherlands. During its most successful period in the 1920s and 1930s, it dominated the civil aviation market. Fokker went into bankruptcy in 1996, and its operations were sold to competitors. History Fokker in Germany At age 20, while studying in Germany, Anthony Fokker built his initial aircraft, the ''Spin'' (Spider)—the first Dutch-built plane to fly in his home country. Taking advantage of better opportunities in Germany, he moved to Berlin, where in 1912, he founded his first company, Fokker Aeroplanbau, later moving to the Görries suburb just southwest of Schwerin (at ), where the current company was founded, as Fokker Aviatik GmbH, on 12 February 1912. World War I Fokker capitalized o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
138th Aero Squadron
The 138th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I. The squadron was assigned as a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron as part of the 5th Pursuit Group, Second United States Army. Its mission was to engage and clear enemy aircraft from the skies and provide escort to reconnaissance and bombardment squadrons over enemy territory. The squadron was never fully organized, and with Second Army's planned offensive drive on Metz cancelled due to the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron was assigned to the United States Third Army as part of the Occupation of the Rhineland in Germany. It returned to the United States in August 1919 and was demobilized.Series "E", Volume 17, History of the 104th–147th Aero Squadrons. Gorrell's History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917–1919, National Archives, Washington, D.C.Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the First World War, Volume 3, Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdication
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societies (such as pre-Meiji Restoration Japan), abdication was a regular event and helped maintain stability during political succession. Historically, abdications have occurred both by force (where the regnant was forced to abdicate on pain of death or other severe consequences) and voluntarily. Some rulers are deemed to have abdicated ''in absentia'', vacating the physical throne and thus their position of power, although these judgements were generally pronounced by successors with vested interests in seeing the throne abdicated, and often without or despite the direct input of the abdicating monarch. Recently, due to the largely ceremonial nature of the regnant in many constitutional monarchies, many monarchs have abdicated due to old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pour Le Mérite
The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by Frederick the Great, King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Red Eagle and the House Order of Hohenzollern, among the highest orders of merit in the Kingdom of Prussia. The order of merit was the highest royal Prussian order of bravery for officers of all ranks. After 1871, when the various German monarchy, kingdoms, grand duchy, grand duchies, duchy, duchies, principality, principalities and Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city states had come together under Prussian leadership to form the federally structured German Empire, the Prussian honours gradually assumed, at least in public perception, the status of orders, decorations, and medals of Imperial Germany, honours of Imperial Germany, even though many honours of the various German states continued to be awarded. The ' was an honour confe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the best known fighter aircraft of the Great War. The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized Vickers machine guns. Though difficult to handle, it was highly manoeuvrable in the hands of an experienced pilot, a vital attribute in the relatively low-speed, low-altitude dogfights of the era. In total, Camel pilots have been credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter of the conflict. Towards the end of the First World War, the type also saw use as a ground-attack aircraft, partly because the capabilities of fighter aircraft on both sides had advanced rapidly and left the Camel somewhat outclassed. The main variant of the Camel was designated as the F.1. Other variants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merrill Samuel Taylor
Merrill Samuel Taylor (15 April 1893 – 7 July 1918) was a Canadian flying ace of the First World War. He was credited with seven aerial victories while flying a Sopwith Camel fighter for the Royal Naval Air Service and, later, the Royal Air Force. He touched off the air battle that resulted in the death of the war's leading ace, Manfred von Richthofen, on 21 April 1918. On 2 May 1918, he killed German ace Hans Weiss for his fifth victory. Taylor was killed in action by Franz Büchner on 7 July 1918. Early life Merrill Samuel Taylor was born in Clearview, Ontario, Canada on 15 April 1893, the son of Samuel Taylor. The younger Taylor was schooled in Singhampton and Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan before matriculating at the University of Toronto in Applied Science from 1912 to 1916. Taylor was a bachelor, and an enthusiastic rugby football player, when he enlisted on 17 April 1916 into the university's Training Company of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. His enlistment attes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sopwith Dolphin
The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was a British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the World War I, First World War. The Dolphin entered service on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in early 1918 and proved to be a formidable fighter. The aircraft was not retained in the postwar inventory and was retired shortly after the war. Design and development In early 1917, the Sopwith chief engineer, Herbert Smith, began designing a new fighter (internal Sopwith designation 5F.1) powered by the geared 200 hp Hispano-Suiza 8B.Franks 2002, p. 7. The resulting Dolphin was a two-bay, single-seat biplane, with the upper wings attached to an open steel cabane strut, cabane frame above the cockpit. To maintain the correct centre of gravity, the lower wings were positioned forward of the upper wings, creating the Dolphin's distinctive negative wing Stagger (aeronautics) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Callaghan
Joseph Cruess Callaghan, (4 March 1893 – 2 July 1918) was an Irish flying ace of the First World War, credited with five aerial victories. Early life and background Joseph Cruess Callaghan was the eldest of six children of Joseph Patrick Callaghan (of Blackrock, Dublin) and Croasdella Elizabeth Mary (née Bolger; daughter of James Bolger and Croasdella Elizabeth Cruess); he was educated at Jesuit schools such as Belvedere College (Dublin) and Stonyhurst College (Lancashire, England). First World War Callaghan was living in Texas when the First World War broke out; he returned home to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 7th (Service) Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers in January 1915. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on 1 September, and trained as a pilot, being granted Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate No. 1829 on 4 October, after soloing a Maurice Farman biplane at the Military School, Norwich, and was appointed a flying officer on 25 January 1916. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolph Berthold
Oskar Gustav Rudolf Berthold (24 March 1891 – 15 March 1920) was a German flying ace of World War I. Between 1916 and 1918, he shot down 44 enemy planes—16 of them while flying one-handed. Berthold's perseverance, bravery, and willingness to return to combat while still wounded made him one of the most famous German pilots of World War I. Berthold joined the German Imperial Army in 1909, and paid for his own piloting lessons, qualifying in September 1913. He was one of the pioneer aviators of World War I, flying crucial reconnaissance missions during his nation's 1914 invasion of France. His reported observations affected the German troop dispositions at the First Battle of the Aisne. During 1915, he became one of the first flying aces. He rose to command one of the first dedicated fighter units in August 1916; he scored five victories before suffering severe injuries in a crash and being dosed with narcotics while hospitalized for four months. Decamping from hospital, he re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fighter Pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and dogfighting (close range aerial combat). A fighter pilot with at least five air-to-air kills becomes known as an ace. Recruitment Fighter pilots are one of the most highly regarded and desirable positions of any air force. Selection processes only accept the elite out of all the potential candidates. An individual who possesses an exceptional academic record, physical fitness, healthy well-being, and a strong mental drive will have a higher chance of being selected for pilot training. Candidates are also expected to exhibit strong leadership and teamwork abilities. As such, in nearly all air forces, fighter pilots, as are pilots of most other aircraft, are commissioned officers. Fitness Fighter pilots must be in optimal health to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aviator
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they are involved in operating the aircraft's navigation and engine systems. Other aircrew members, such as drone operators, flight attendants, Aircraft maintenance technician, mechanics and Line technician (aviation), ground crew, are not classified as aviators. In recognition of the pilots' qualifications and responsibilities, most militaries and many airlines worldwide award aviator badges to their pilots. History The first recorded use of the term ''aviator'' (''aviateur'' in French) was in 1887, as a variation of ''aviation'', from the Latin ''avis'' (meaning ''bird''), coined in 1863 by in ''Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne'' ("Aviation or Air Navigation"). The term ''aviatrix'' (''aviatrice'' in F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
