" A Day In The Life"

[leo]

Here in Pittsburgh, the History Channel presented an hour ling show, "A Day In The Life of A World War One Aviator". I t concentrated on Americans who flew for the RAF, the RAF and the Sopwith Camel. There were some nice shots of replica aircraft, some old movies of the same and some interesting tidbits. First it claimed that Allied pilots chose not to wear parachutes. I don't believe they had a choice as they weren't supplied. It said of the 300 Americans who joined the various Allied Flying Corps, 221 flew with the RAF.
Of these, 100 were killed, wounded or captured. It also said thatf 1500 airmen tracked by the British 89% maet the same fate between 1917 and 1918. It put great emphasis on the camel to the complete lack of mention of any other Allied fighter and repeated the "Camel shot down more enemy planes than any other plane" story. In fairness, it did mention the Camel as being dangerous to those who flew it. Interesting.

The footage of the Rhinebeck replicas was nice, but I thought the rest of the show was pretty weak. Oh well, anything with WW I aviation content is worth watching at least once!

I caught the show late, and I just couldn't hang in there for the whole thing. What I saw I enjoyed. Did anybody hear the statement that the most common injury suffered by these pilots was broken ankles? Or, perhaps I was dozing and got a garbled message.
DD

[Amy]

I caught the bit about the most common injury for pilots being broken ankles as well.

As stated in the other thread regarding this program, it was an entry-level show, but what the hey, I still liked it.

Besides, they showed a pic of Frank Luke I'd never seen before.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Amy:
* *I watched it the other night, I found it interesting, they could not get the uniforms right, breeches had large flares on the thigh. Whoever did the research failed to read far enough. all the actors needed haircuts. Had they showed with their hair that long they would have had their head's shaved. *I had previously read that about the broken ankle as a common injury in training schools. *Parachutes, the Allies, did not a parachute that was anywhere ready for service use. *The Germans began to issue parachutes to Jastas in March 1918! *Oh, well, it's Hollywood! :
* * * * Blue skies,
* * * * * * *Dan-San 8)

[leo]

The program claimed that pilots often brokr their ankles if they kept their feet on the rudder bar.

Did anyone catch the quickie of Alex Revell?

"A Day in the Life"

"Now we know how many holes it takes
to fill the Albert Hall.
I'd love to turrrrrnnnn yyyyyoooouuuuu
ooooonnnnn!

Four thousand holes
in Blackburn,Lancashire