Just started reading this book called, Terror Of The Autumn Skies by Blaine Lee Pardoe (The story of Frank Luke) only about 60 pages into it but so far so good. Anyway, the book talks about how the planes were merely wood framing covered with doped canvas (basically a lacquer used to make the canvas more durable) that sounded like a drum beating when machine bullets penetrated. They also flew at elevations of up to 21,000 feet were they had to wear heavy clothing and scares to keep them from freezing from the icy winds and to keep belching smoke and castor oil fumes out of their lungs. To top things off they kept fuel bladder under one of their arms that they had to keep pumping to keep fuel flowing to the engine.

That is why flying, especially when aviation was still in its infancy, can be so stressful. There's just so many things you'd have to deal with, And back then, there was the added trouble of the things you mentioned here, I don't think I could take watching all
those meters, dials, gauges, and whatnot.

Not sure it would be for me. But if had to choose between being in WWI trench warfare meat grinder or figjter pilot I going with fighter pilot. Btw rookie pilots usually only lived about 3 weeks before getting killed.

Frank Luke was a spectacular pilot, but he was a loose cannon and reckless. Predictably he didn't live very long. The most dangerous time for any pilot was the first month on the front. If you managed to live through these first few weeks your chances of surviving went up dramatically as you'd begin to see and process what was happening in the air better. The first time Eddie Rickenbacker went up he didn't see a single enemy aircraft. He landed after the mission and was surprised to hear that enemy.aircraft where all around his squadron. Airplanes came from above, out of the sun and tended to arrive and disappear unexpectedly. Until you really learnd to see in the air you were vulnerable to taking a bullet from an enemy you didn't even see.

That’s amazing; he’s lucky some grizzly veteran didn’t sniff him out.

On aircraft arriving and disappearing unexpectedly. I know it was a tactic to cut your engine right before you engaged so the enemy could not hear you coming. In the book I’m reading Frank Luke cut his engines and glided to within 100 feet of enemy fighter before he unloaded.

Sounds like something I would do.

*Cloudbuster* wrote: Frank Luke was a spectacular pilot, but he was a loose cannon and reckless. Predictably he didn't live very long. The most dangerous time for any pilot was the first month on the front. If you managed to live through these first few weeks your chances of surviving went up dramatically as you'd begin to see and process what was happening in the air better. The first time Eddie Rickenbacker went up he didn't see a single enemy aircraft. He landed after the mission and was surprised to hear that enemy.aircraft where all around his squadron. Airplanes came from above, out of the sun and tended to arrive and disappear unexpectedly. Until you really learnd to see in the air you were vulnerable to taking a bullet from an enemy you didn't even see.

The Germans were the first to pioneer the art of "attacking from the sun".

Soon co-pilots began carrying welding goggles with them so they could alert the pilot if they saw an enemy squadron "attacking from the sun".

Rickenbacker was so shook up by his first encounter with anti aircraft fire that he didn't notice much else! Black smoke, explosions, shrapnel and his little Nieuport scout being buffeted and pitched all over the place by the air displacement of the exploding shells. For veteran pilots anti aircraft fire was a routine experience,and they quickly realized that the odds of actually being hit were pretty remote. For a new pilot it was quite a shock to the system however.

Yes - cutting the engine was a common practice. Unlike in our game, altitude confered a major advantage in any skirmish, and the preferred method of attack was diving down from above onto your adversary. We romanticize World War 1 with epic dogfights and daring maneuvers, but the most effective method of taking out an opponent was to sneak up on him from behind and hopefully shoot him down before he even realized your were there. Cutting the engine and gliding down from above was a common technique.

At the beginning of the war the Germans had better aircraft and were ahead of the allied forces in terms of developing a tactical understanding of aerial combat. The great ace (and Richthofen's mentor)
Oswald Boelcke developed his famous "Dicta Boelke" which is a list of fundamental rules and best practices to use a modern term for aerial combat. This list was comprised of 8 rules and is very interesting to read as it gives great insight into the realities of combat with the aircraft of the time which were underpowered and of course had no instrumentation or navigational aids.

It's no surprise that rule number on the list said: Try to secure the upper hand before attacking. If possible, keep the sun behind you.

Aerial combat, in fact most types of combat follow one major pattern, surprise is key

I'm interested can you get us a link or something to this "Dicta Boelke"?

Anyways, the split-s maneuver consists of rolling upside down, and then doing a half loop, ending in you going having turned around, right side up.

The immelman is essentially the same.

The scissors maneuver consists of two planes zigzaging either vertical (vertical scissors) or horizontal, trying to get a shot on the other while not getting shot themself

Just google it. It is posted on Wikipedia and several other sites as well.

Its basically "be merciless. Shoot the guy in the plane, not the plane. Attack from above, below, behind, or from the sun. Dont get shot.