How did you get started

[stephen]

Hey, Rex! That's a scream!

Third grade, Center Grove Elementary, 1973. Got FLYING ACES OF WWI by Gene Gurney in the school's monthly book catalog. Hooked ever since.

Gee, have I been studying this stuff for 28 years? Eek. I need a life.

[leo]

I got started on WWI avaiation after seeing Dawn Patrol with Errol Flynn and David Niven.
After that, I read every book I could get my hands on,

Hey, Rex! That's a scream!

Third grade, Center Grove Elementary, 1973. Got FLYING ACES OF WWI by Gene Gurney in the school's monthly book catalog. Hooked ever since.

Cool! I'll bet you can't get books like that from the school book club anymore.

[WFS]

I've been a history buff for as long as I can remember. When I was thirteen my folks gave me a set of American Heritage US history Encyclopedias. The WWI vol. had about four pages of aircraft illustrations. I thought they were the neatest looking planes that I'd ever seen. Then I checked out "The Canvas Falcons" for a school report a year or two later. When I read about Frank Luke I was hooked. Of course, I've spent the last thirty years trying to unlearn what I read in Longstreet.???

[Droops]

Peter L. said it. The flight sim Red Baron did it to me. Here I was, 35 and bored at the store. I had done some arcade tank computer games, and saw Red Baron on the shelf. I figured "hey, I'll shoot these old planes instead of tanks for awhile, it should be fun."

Yea, right. Having been a history major in college, I can get sucked into a topic like this. I'm behind the curve, but trying hard to catch up.

John

[MSzwarc]

I didn't become interested in WWI aviation until my forties, when I started building stick and tissue models again. I found that I was attracted to biplanes, especially Nieuports. I began reading anything I could find on WWI aircraft--how they were built and how they were used. Then I wanted to know about the men who flew these machines. I wanted to read their stories in their own words, so I began reading personal accounts/memoirs of WWI pilots. I find that with everything I learn, there is something more I want to know.

Mike

[Amy]

I've always had an interest in history, but Frank Luke 8) got me hooked on WWI aviation. *And I've been paying the price (literally) ever since. *This is one heckuva expensive "interest".

[scott_long]

When I was 8 yrs old, my sisters got me a model of a Nieuport 11 for Christmas and 'Santa' brought me a 3 book set (Sink the Bismarck, The Flying Tigers and.....Flying Aces of WWI). I was hooked immediately on WWI aviation.

That was followed shortly with the Milton Bradley game Dogfight that my buddies and I played religiously for several years, and Enemy Ace comics. The rest, as they say, is (literally) history!!

I still have my original Flying Aces of WWI around boxed away somewhere and my son read it when he was about 10....but now, at 19, girls and fast cars have all of his attention.

[Ross_Moorhouse]

Seems that we all started about the same age, give or take a few years.

I keep finding that planes made of wood and fabric covered are far more attractive than, shudder, JETS.. :

[gregoire]

By a French TV shoew about early aviation (Le Faucheur de Margueritte) about early (prior to 1914 is early 14 to 20 is war after 20 is modern ) I then get interested to ww1 latter my interest in ww1 (non specificly aviation related) grew