Warbird Information Exchange

Anyone know of any significant peices of fabric/structure from his plane still in existance? I'd love to put some modern forensics to work, but I do not think large enough pieces still exist.

They do exist, but most are in private collections. Try searching WWI aero sites and you might get your answer.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

his flying boots are in a private british collection.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

To determine what?

Maybe that static electricity, flammable fabric and atmospheric conditions actually caused the downing of the Baron, a'la the Hindinberg.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

ODs a Mythbuster!

Sometime recently, I found some web links to various Richthofen collections around the world, including his boots and goggles and some pieces of the plane (I think I remember seeing the control stick?) I'm having trouble finding the links, but if I manage to remember I'll list them.

Meanwhile, I came across this bit if information below, true or not. It would be interesting if this were true and some individual in Poland may possess more parts of the aircraft. Has anyone else heard this account of the safe storage the Fokker remains? Urban myth? Personally, I think if there had been any significant remains, there would at least be a photo or two from post-WWI. Other information I've read said that his plane had been pretty-well stripped of all fabric before the end of WWI.

It has been reported that after WW I, Richthofen's airplane became part of Germany's aeronautical collection. This aircraft and others from the collection were evacuated before the serious air raids on Berlin took place in 1944. The aircraft were sent to Pomerania and other "safe" locations, now part of Poland.

One inhabitant recalled as a small child seeing a red fuselage and wings in a dance hall. During a severe cold spell, he remembered sawing up the wings for firewood. According to Prof. Steinle of the Deutsches Technik Museum Berlin, there is every reason to believe that this is how Richthofen's DR.-I 425/17 airplane met an ignominious end.

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"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903

Nonsense. It never made it anywhere near Berlin, and was stripped for souvenirs by the Australians after the crash. The control column and other airframe parts are in the Australian War Memorial, other bits have been dispersed to private collectors and national museums across the globe. It's often been said that if you re-assembled all the parts alleged to be from MvR's Triplane, you'd end up with about 3 airframes.

However, the final surviving Triplane (not MvR's) was preserved in Berlin, but probably never made it to Poland and was destroyed in an allied bombing raids.

My thoughts as well, if my question seemed naive. Some "red wooden airplane" might have been in Poland, though.

They writer could have misquoted the Prof. from the museum.

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"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903

I have a friend whose grandfather sawed a rather large piece of structure off the plane. He was in an Aussie Cav unit and so was able to store a larger bit than most to carry home.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

I'm pretty sure there was a Richtofen combat-flown surviving aircraft that survived the war...I think it was also a Triplane. I have always heard/read that it was in a museum in/near Berlin, and was destroyed in a bombing raid after Der Foolhardy wouldn't allow it to be moved.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

A triplane flown by von Richtofen, s/n 152/17 (he is said to have scored three kills in it, it had a red tail and top wing), was in the museum in Berlin during WW2, and many of the aircraft were evacuated to Poland, where some of them are now in the great museum in Krakow, but not the Triplane.

http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/indexen.php?mod=home

If you want to find out where all of the surviving pieces of 425/17 (the one he was killed in) are, post the question on the WW1 aviation forum at http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/

I'd like to find the fabric and entrance exit wounds. There is an autopsy of MvR, and putting the info together, prove where the fatal shot came from. Basic forensics.

There was a good documentary I saw a few years ago that proved that Richtofen was downed by ground fire. The Capt Brown story made for good publicity, but was not true. Afterall, there was more hero and mythmaking and die with your boots on to the story if he was shot down by another airplane, rather than getting it from a lowly ground soldier.

JH

Here you go! Just for comparisons sake.

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/6808-M ... la-image-1