Big WW1-Anniversary-Airplane Overhaul!

When you step into a modern passenger plane today or see a jet fighter above your head and hear the boom when it breaks the sound barrier, its easy to forget that exactly 100 years ago, during World War 1, aviation was still in its infancy. The air planes were flimsy constructions made of wood, wire and fabric and their air-bases were usually not more than an abandoned field and some tents and shacks.

Immortal legend: Manfred von Richthofen's red Fokker Triplane.

Despite their simplicity air planes were something exotic and spectacular though. Wherever an airplane was spotted, people couldn't help but gaze at them and cheer to their pilots, who were idolized like superstars.

Albatros D.Va - the backbone of the German air force in 1917 and 1918.

These people were daredevils in the best sense of the word. Flying these fragile, but deadly armed machines to fight each other, thousands of feet above the ground. Without parachute. Day after day, sometimes from morning till sunset.

Sopwith Camel - the most successful fighter of the war.

No era in aviation fascinates me more than World War 1. Build just a few years after the first motorized flight, these machines are the definite flying machines for me. They didn't had much engine power, or sophisticated weapons or highly developed flight-control systems. Some 100 hp, a machine-gun or two and wire-controlled rudders had to do. But this primitiveness, this basic and natural flying with the pilots exposed to the elements and listening to their guts rather than looking at their instruments is the stuff legends are made of.

Fokker D.VII - the best German fighter plane.

Nieuport 17 - one of WW1's most classy (and good looking) designs.

Fast and powerful and aggressive: the S.E.5a.

To celebrate this legendary era, I did update all of my World-War-1 air planes. With improved textures and new mesh parts and a general design overhaul, these machines look better than ever before. I also have released a new creation: a 1915 Fokker E.III 'Eindecker' (monoplane). The game-changer of aerial warfare! The Eindecker was the first fighter plane with an interrupter-geared machine gun to fire through the propeller arc, which allowed the pilots a much higher firing accuracy than in any other plane. It took the Allies until well into 1916 till they had a match for the Fokker Eindecker. Until then, the E.III remained the definite fighter plane.

How it all started: The Fokker Eindecker.

All creations are available now! Check them out!