Thursday, February 15, 2018

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, 2

Continuing my tour of the great collection of WWI planes, replicas, memorabilia...
The German Gotha, first purpose-built bomber; terrorized London for a time
before attrition set in

The Brits' answer, the Vickers Vimy

Photograph of a Gotha; the museum is replete with photos, some
films, much else

Thus, close-up movie of a German 2-seater with the bombardier hand-tossing
anti-personnel bombs on allied troops

Quite a few of the life-sized dioramas depict real events; here a pilot, about to
abandon ship, learns he can maneuver his craft to a landing by standing outside
the fuselage and creating drag with a leg...flying a still fairly primitive in 1918;
interesting tidbit: the Brits did not allow use of parachutes until late in the war...
they were afraid the pilots would be less inclined to saving their craft...

The Centre has four Fooker triplane replicas, all air-worthy...

Scene depicting a Brit flyer who landed in a tree and was captured


The four Fokkers ("no, dem Fokkers was flyin' Messerschmidts" (favorite joke))

Model of one of the Zeppelins; they also terrorized London for a time until the
Brits figured out they were a bit, um, flammable; note the table service from
one of the trans-Atlantic versionsof later years

Art Nouveau clock with airplane model surmounting it; a model of the Etrich Taube
(devil) first produced in 1910; the Taube was the most bird-like of all planes ever
built (see previous post for life-size version)

Baron Manfred von Richtofen; greatest ace of the war with
80 victories; crashed near an Australian artillery battery
and thus much of his personal effects came to this part of
the world

Another German ace, Hermann Goering, who went on to
greater infamy in the Third Reich; he was one of the major
weaknesses in the German military, his bone-headedness so
legendary that the Allies carefully avoided bombing the Air
Ministry in Berlin; it is the only WWII structure that has
survived the war and reconstruction

Richtofen's hankie


About the Red Baron's last flight

Australian troops looting his plane and person for souvenirs; he was quite well
known and recognizable, perhaps the best known individual of the war

A favored prize was the black cross taken from German crashes

Photo of German aerodrome

Films and other media


I really wanted this T-shirt but Vicki reminded me I now
have a T-shirt for every day of the year; and have already
bought three in NZ this year

3 comments:

Tawana said...

Well, you could have bought the T-shirt for Wes!

Tawana said...


The new National Geographic History magazine arrived today, and it has an article and several photos on “The Red Baron.”

Rebecca said...

I note that M is conspicuously absent from these photos! ;)