Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (20 page)

Ceremonial flag celebrating the Escadrille’s years of service.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

A Nieuport 11 issued to the American volunteers of the Escadrille.

Eddie Rickenbacker, seated in his Nieuport 28 with offset machine guns. Captain Rickenbacker would become the top American ace of the war, with 26 victories.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

An Army Air Service recruiting poster.

(Library of Congress)

Members of the American 96th Aero Squadron stand before their Breguet 14 bomber. The duel machine guns mounted on the rotating Scarf ring were a vital defense against German fighter attack.

(National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

Billy Mitchell was the first American officer to fly into enemy territory during World War I and would end up commanding all U.S. air operations. After the war he became a visionary—if controversial—advocate for developing American air forces, particularly aircraft carriers.

A battlefield sketch of an injured Allied airman being helped from his plane.

(Library of Congress)

An Allied aircraft’s final descent.

(Library of Congress)

German photograph of a “captured Russian aeroplane.”

(The British Museum)

A German anti-aircraft gun.

Wreckage of a downed German Albatros.

(Library of Congress)

“What England Wants!”—German propaganda poster from 1918 playing off fears of the devastating destructive capacity of air forces.

(Library of Congress)