That added to the list I found would give him 82 kills.

Also note that 19 kills were with the Fokker Tripes begining in Sept. 1917. Only 2 kills in an Albatross between the F.1 and Dr.1. Not sure why he risked the Albatross since he hated the Albatross D.V.
So he seemed to prefer the Dr.I rather than being forced to fly it on the day of his death.

I actually found exactly what you were looking for last night but can't remember where I read it, was a good article.
I read he was struck by a single 30 cal bullet from the lower (right?) armpit.
He never should have been flying so low taking high risks over enemy lines neither, as he always preached! Db's right about the head wound as well, but I also read that he may have also believed or let influence him that it was going on Germany's last real change to swing the war in their favor.

Excellent
 

Excellent reply and the one I was looking for on the first question! I too believed he suffered from combat fatigue and never got over his head wound. TVC also hit the nail on the head. The one thing he preached was never fly too low over enemy territory. The very thing he did while chasing Lt. May. Besides suffering from combat fatigue, he also had "target fixation" along with (as some historians claim) believing he was somewhere else over his own lines (see reference in the book The Last Flight of the Red Baron). Marty

Another thing I found that is suppost to be a quote from him is the main thing a plane needs in combat is speed. If he wanted speed why was he flying a triplane with all that drag?

You know I wondered that myself, I just recently read he was waiting for the DVII, which was not ready so he took the Dr. I. The Dr. I was a great dog fighter by all accounts, but tactics of the time told you NOT to get in a dog fight like you see in the movies. Boom, zoom, and get out...

That was the double whammy of flying low. Enemy ground fire and loss of speed. The advantage the tripe had was an ability to climb quickly, then dive on the opponent. He didn't use the tripe properly that day, of course even in a D.VII he would have a good chance of getting hit by ground fire that low.

One of the channels on dish had an artical about how he died. A doctor looked at how the bullet went through him, when the Camel fired last, and how long he flew till he crashed. The men on the ground said he was alive when they got to him. The doctor said if the Camel fire had hit him he would have been dead long before he crashed.
My great uncle was in WW1, he told my dad about an airplane flying over. They had been told not to waste ammo shooting at airplanes. One of the guys had a larger gun than the rest, BAR mabe. He picked that gun up and shot at the plane. Uncle could see pieces coming off the plane but it flew on out of site.

Also, keep in mind he had an open head wound which was not heeling. it had been stated that this had caused eratic, inconsistant behavior.

Depends on the bullets used. Anti-personnel rounds were copper clad .30 caliber. I have fired these at 100 yards at 1/2" boiler plate and they cut through like a drill. At 200 yards they put 1" deep dents in it. This was done with Nagant, Mauser, Springfield and Enfield rifles. Same rifles shot at a 2 foot diameter living pine tree results in a 1/3" entry hole and a 6" diameter patch of missing and splintered wood on the exit side and a 1" hole in the target behind. My father used this to demonstrate the futility of hiding behind a tree, chance of survival is better out in the open.
The purpose of the full metal jacket was to wound, not kill. The idea was that a wounded soldier was unable to fight and would take two buddies out of action saving him. I am sure the AA ammunition had at least tracers but will continue looking for specifics.

"Just how deadly is the .30 Caliber? 95% of all small arms casualties in World War I and World War II were caused by .30 caliber rifles. They also shot down 95% of planes during World War I and a significant number of planes during World War II." source
Note: casualty means dead and wounded, not just dead. More wounded than dead usually, some wounds leaving horrendous disfiguring and dismemberment.

TARGET FIXATION!!! He was so enthralled with shooting down another plane that he didn't pay attention to his surroundings. Steve

Forgot to mention that the machine guns in the aircraft are identical to the machine guns used by the ground forces as anti-personnel and AA.

I think EXCAPE FIXATION, he had a Camel on his tail.

You know what one buzzard said to the other as they walked away from a pile of bones, camels taste better and are milder too. Remember the Camel comerical. LOL

Anyone flying the Eflite Nieuport 17? I just bought 2 of them and waiting on them to arrive. Do they need any mods to fly good?

Just a little note on the Vickers guns (the type that possibly killed MVR):
"Vickers machine guns were among the longest-living 'first generation' machine guns, as these were declared obsolete by British Army only in late 1960's."
Must have been a pretty good weapon.

If it is like their Jenny, dihedral needs to be added. They don't tell you about in their manual though.

I have the Jenny. I finally made new tail feathers out of stronger pink foam sanded down. The pink foam is a ply with some kind of thin sheet in the middle. It is very stiff.

Yup. Big difference between a bolt action rifle, a BAR and a Vickers. Like the difference between shooting a pigeon with a BB gun and a shot gun. A direct hit is a kill but More metal in the air = more probability of a hit. Although the BAR has full auto capability it has a very small magazine compared to the Vickers belts.

DRI
 

The tripe was a superb dogfighter in close but lacked speed. MVR was quoted once saying it climbed like a monkey and manuvered like the devil. WWI fighters all had some trade off, speed and stabilty or a good gun platform, vs instability, (the tripe was unstable and had to be flow all the time) etc. Imagine a flat board on top of a large ball bearing. That is how the DRI acted in flight. The epic fight between 56 squadron and Werner Voss demonstarted clearly the DRIs ability to dogfight with the best of Britains crack pilots. Voss managed to put bullets into all of the SE5as, effectivly totaling a couple of them (discovered after landing). If you look on youtube you can find a video explaining the fight. Search under Voss/dogfights. Marty

Similar choices are made designing modern fighters. The closer you get to instability, the more agile the plane will be. As we all probably found out the hard way.:( At least we don't die when we push the envelope.

Voss rules!! Probably the greatest pilot of WWI!! What do you all think? Steve

Based solely on number of victories, (His final total was 48 confirmed victories) he wasn't as "victorious" as MVR. So, what criteria is there for "greatest pilot"? Not bashing Voss, just wondering about criteria for choosing a "best".

Udet

Udet, second highest number of victories at sixty-two. He survived the first world war war though Goering made Udet the scapegoat for the Luftwaffe's failure, and he was forced to commit suicide in 1941. I would say surviving is high up there on the "greatest" pilot list, eh?

Udet has my vote.

Lots of victories, and lived to tell about it.