The Rittmeister's Eindekker

The Observer · 27 November 2012, 07:47 PM

What is known about the monplane(s) flown by the victory-less von R when he graduated to the fighter pilot ranks? These planes were probably shared. Didn't he beat a few up and get pushed back into a two-seater for a while before bumping into Boelcke?

Been a long time since was here last and haven't spent much time with a former favorite past-time. First found this site 15 or 16 years ago, how time flies.

Vin · 28 November 2012, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Observer

...Been a long time since was here last and haven't spent much time with a former favorite past-time. First found this site 15 or 16 years ago, how time flies.

I remember you, Observer. It was back in the days when a poster could have as many forum identities as he/she wanted. My other was "the Onlooker", inspired by ?

SCMc · 28 November 2012, 12:42 PM

The best resource would probably be Jim Miller's book on Richthofen: Manfred von Richthofen – The Aircraft, Myths and Accomplishments of ‘The Red Baron’ . It is getting hard to find in the U.S. and over priced (no offence to Jim, but $240 is a bit absurd). Your best bet would be to try to order directly from the publisher.

I believe that Jim also made a poster of Richthofen's aircraft that has been posted on the forum, but I don't remember where.

Steve

Cigogne · 28 November 2012, 03:54 PM

He only flew the Eindecker very briefly during his two-seater days to try and get the hang of it. He crashed it. There are photos of this crash. He ended up flying two-seaters (Rumpler C.I, Albatros C.I and C.III, Roland C.II, at Verdun and then Eastern Front up to the time of his being hand picked by Boelcke to be one of the core pilots in the creation of Jasta 2. We know the rest from there. There is no record of his flying one in combat during his brief opportunity to fly the type. He wrote off the one he crashed, and if there was another one... it wasn't there long either. He was saddled with other responsibilities during this time. He did mount a machine gun above the top wing of one of his two-seaters. It doesn't say which type.

JFM · 28 November 2012, 06:44 PM

No offense taken, SCMc--that price is absurd and I have nothing to do with it!

In the US, you can get the book here: RZM.com- Your online source for WWII books & more!

UK and Europe: View Book Details

Considerably less than two hundred and forty bucks at each location.

As Cigogne wrote, MvR flew two Eindeckers while with Kasta 8 at Mont, France. According to MvR, the first one was lost when the pilot with whom he shared it, Hans Reimann, force landed the plane between the lines (via a "shot up" engine) and burned it. MvR crashed the second one. Based on what MvR wrote, I estimated he had ca. 8 total flights combined in both machines, with some six weeks between the brief periods of their availability. He crashed the second Fokker on his third flight in it, after an engine failure during takeoff.