Dawn Patrol

[Ed O'Brien]

Mostly I fight gravity and wind. I dive from the occasional bird and I kill only bugs. BUT, at 103 MPH, 19,000 ft. Service Ceiling, 2.5 hour range, hand prop the wood prop -- The WW 1 Sopwith Camel has about the same performance as my L2. I can't imagine my L2 being a frontline combat fighter. BUT, if you put us both in a time machine, and a place machine too, because we'd have to get to Eastern France some how... we'd hold our own. Of course I'd need to borrow a machine gun. Curse you, Red Baron!

I fly today... A WW2 L2, and compared it with a Sopwith Camel, and think how little some things change... while I patrol sky in which everything changes, everyday. I guess, I AM in a time machine and a place machine too.
With regards;
Ed O'Brien

[Vasey fan]

Re: Dawn Patrol

I've had similar thoughts while puttering along. Back when I had the 7AC, I got bounced one day by a friend in another one & it turned into the slow speed dogfight of the ages. Looking back on it, it was probably as close as you could get to a fight of that era without having a Camel or Fokker or Pfalz or.......

I need a Lewis gun.

[N95334]

Re: Dawn Patrol

Talk about DOGFIGHT, does any one know where the term came from? I would guess it started in WWI but why was it called that.

[crispy critter]

Re: Dawn Patrol

It actually came during WWI....If you ever get to see 2 slow old biplanes trying to get in postion behind each other with old undependable guns that had an accurate range of 100 yards or so(give or take a little)....it looks like 2 old dogs fighting,rolling around,over,under,up,down,and all the way around each other.....it really does look like two dogs fighting. That's the story my grandfather told me anyway. My great grandfather flew camels and jennys back in those days...he didn't get to see any combat but he was there toward the later part of the war. I might be wrong on all of the above but that's the story I was told and it really makes sense.

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Dawn Patrol

The origins of the term, Dogfight:
Fighting dogs roll, pitch, swerve, jump, land, turn, spit, screech, scream, nash, bolt, bob, weave, swoop, pounce, run, dip, and flutter... what else would you call it.

My father, father-in-law, and grandfather -- Navy Pilots all
gave me the same origins of the term.
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[crispy critter]

Re: Dawn Patrol

Cool,then my grandfather was correct.....some of his stories didn't always add up...but they were always worth believing for as long as you possibly can,lol.

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Dawn Patrol

so if the fighter pilots were female.....would it be a cat fight??

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Dawn Patrol

In military history "Dogfights" have also been referred to as scrums, bounces, jumps, battles, charges, wheels, matches, stampede, execution, attack, and duels. Although I think these are literary/writer exercises. Fighter pilots pretty much just use "dogfight."
With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[Vasey fan]

Re: Dawn Patrol

Richard,

Nah, I think they would fly along & discuss Oprah's Book of the Month.

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Dawn Patrol

ouch......

I would like to think that if they fly they are above the whole Orca Book club thing....

which reminds me of a story.....hmmmmm
New thread time!!!!!!

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Dawn Patrol

My favorite is taken from the Battle of Britain: "A magificent pagent of bullet, smoke, fire, sky, fear and death. There were no men, there was no glory... only airplanes of the living and the dead."
Obviously not the fighter pilot rough and ready term of dogfight. .