"Escadrille Lafayette (Probably)"
Washington, DC - April, 1999 (Click to embiggen)
Hosted by Written Inc.Rewinding again, this time not so far as the Wright Brothers, but not terribly long after them. I can't see enough of this plane to tell if it's a Nieuport 28 or Spad S-XIII, but I deduce that it's one of these. I further suspect it's either an original or replica of one of the fighters from WWI's Escadrille Lafayette. If you look closely, you'll see the emblem of the US Army Air Corps (the forebear of the US Air Force which didn't split off from the Army until 1947. Escadrille Lafayette was made up of American aircrews, flying French-built aircraft for the ... French during WWI. The squadron predated the US entry into the war by a couple of years, and was initially named Escadrille Americaine. But the Germans too issue with that since the US was officially "neutral", so the squadron was renamed for the French General that served with the American Continental Army during the American Revolution. This wouldn't be the last time American pilots would fly with a foreign air force. Americans would later serve during the Battle of Britain in 1940, this time flying with England's RAF.
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Fighter....yet, it looks kind of like a toy. I imagine Mr. Roger's taking us for a walk through the factory that produced it. There is a humbling simplicity about this that makes me realize, hell, you do what you have to with what you have when it's time to fight.
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