A CENTURY ago today, true air combat began...

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Bader's Briar
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A CENTURY ago today, true air combat began...

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Post by Bader's Briar » 02 Jul 2015, 01:14

Dear Fellow WW I Aviation Fans:

Bader's Briar Here...A CENTURY AGO today, on July 1st, 1915, the era of true air combat began - Leutnant Kurt Wintgens flew his Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker, with IdFlieg serial "E.5/15", around dinnertime over the Fôret de Parroy just east of Lunéville, France exactly a century ago today, and met up with a French Morane-Saulnier Type L "Parasol" in the first engagement involving a SYNCHRONIZED machine-gun-armed aircraft - no one lost their lives that day IN that engagement, but Wintgens' bullets from his Eindecker's Parabellum MG 14 wrecked the French plane's Gnôme Lambda rotary engine, forcing it down on the French side of the front lines.
E5-15d.jpg
Wintgens' E.5/15 as it looked in the timeframe of the July 1st engagement.
He even wrote a friend named "Karl" detailing his viewpoint of how it all happened, the following day - the text of that letter is now up at the English language Wikipedia page for him.
Sanke Card Portrait of Kurt Wintgens-1.jpg
"Our Successful Combat Pilot, Leutnant Wintgens"
It's not "every day" that a CENTENNIAL of something in aviation history comes along - it mostly started with December 2003's remembrance of Orville and WIlbur Wright's Flyer I at Kill Devil Hills, of course - but with WW I aircraft, July 1, 1915, DID mark a significant event.

Thanks and Yours Sincerely,

Bader's Briar

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