These famous words from Cassius Clay (boxer explaining his style) perfectly sum up these beautiful 100 year old WW1 fighter aircraft.
They are masterful flyers, look delicate and harmless when in fact they were well armed and formidable killing machines.
These photo's were taken at the Tauranga airshow. The four aircraft featured are in fact replicas and with the exception of the Fokker D-II (French built) were built in USA.
Sopwith Camel F.1 (British)
Original aircraft 185 kph, twin machine guns firing through the propeller, 4 x 9kg bombs, credited with shooting down almost 3000 enemy aircraft.
Fokker D-II (German)
Original aircraft 200kph, two 2.92mm Spandau machine guns, claimed as the best fighter of that period
Nieuport 11 (French)
Original aircraft 156kph, 1 x 303 Lewis machine gun, inflicted heavy losses on the Germand in the battle of Verdun 1916, 646 were built under license in Italy
Fokker Dr I Triplane (German)
Original aircraft 185kph, 2 x 7.92mm Spandau machine guns
The two Fokkers line up
No comments:
Post a Comment