Here’s an example of a way to teach some history. Picture a man, wearing the Ernst Udet “Du Doch Nicht!” t-shirt, who comes upon a boy young enough not to see any value to tact.
The T-Shirt ©Ewan Tallentire Great War Stories Gift Shop
Tactless Boy: Duh doc night? What’s that?
History Guy: (in perfect German accent) Du doch nicht means, ‘no you don’t’, except stronger than that. Maybe like, ‘No way José!’ You know who said it?
Tactless Boy: Nah. Don’t really care, either.
History Guy: Ernst Udet [1896 -1941]. He was an ace in World War One. Ever heard of the Red Baron?
Tactless Boy: Was he an old guy like you?
History Guy: Well, he died ninety-nine years ago, in combat. He was Germany’s best ace. In fact, he was the best ace of that war. Ernst Udet was Germany’s next best ace, but he lived, and after the war he did things like show off how he could pick up a handkerchief off the ground with the wing tip of his airplane.
Udet the stunt pilot
Tactless Boy: That’s stupid. An ace is a card.
History Guy: This kind of ace is someone in an airplane who shoots down five or more enemy airplanes. You know what airplanes were made of then? Cloth and wood. And wire. And an engine. And a gun. And that’s about it.
Tactless Boy: A gun. That would be cool.
History Guy: They would be flying in this airplane a mile or two up. They might not have a seatbelt, so sometimes they fell out. Mostly they didn’t have parachutes. But Ernst Udet did, so he lived when he got shot down in one of these airplanes [a Fokker D-VII].
Tactless Boy: I guess it wasn’t a very good airplane.
History Guy: Actually this was one of the best of its time. See this propeller? The pilot could turn the airplane straight up and have the airplane hanging from the propeller, and it would stay there and not fall down. Unless the engine quit.
Tactless Boy: Or got shot!
History Guy: Right. I can see you’re getting interested!
Written by my friend Karen Tallentire and reproduced with her permission. A technical writer and former USAF officer, Karen does website and promotional work for the Vintage Aero Flying Museum and its related Lafayette Foundation.
James Patton
James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges. An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and is affiliated with the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.
The Fokker DVII could not hang motionless on its propeller. The engine was not powerful enough and it would start to turn itself in the opposite direction. But it could pull up the nose pretty far.
Thank you.
The term hanging on the prop is misunderstood.
In todays terms it could be interpreted as going vertical with no farward speed.
But refrence to the Fokker D VII what it was refering to as being able to fly slowly at a very high attatude without stalling. This gave it an advantage over its apponents as it could fly slower befor stalling.