My inspection of this photo on ebay

[Willi Von Klugerman]

I'll test my knowlege of WW1 aviation and I want you all to see if I got it right

Heres the photo on ebay.
WWI Military Bi-Plane Crash Disaster Real Photo ub364 - eBay (item 400056378238 end time Jun-23-09 18:58:08 PDT)

Okay,at first sight,it looks like a German aircraft.But as I looked closely,the cross insignia is just a cloth over the national cockade.I presume its a hospital aircraft.And as I looked closer,you can barely make out the cockade thats underneath the cloth.My best guess is that the cockade is of the earlier U.S. Air Service star cockade.I don't know the aircraft though.

So whats my results

[Cigogne]

It is a Curtiss Jenny that has crashed. The overpainted circle is the star in the blue circle w/ red dot of the US Air Service. The cross is probably the Red Cross of an aerial ambulance aircraft. They painted red crosses on modified Jennies that could carry a stretcher behind the pilot.

Or... the other answer would be that this aircraft was painted to play the role of an "aggressor" aircraft in the training role. I think the earlier explanation is the more correct.

[Doc]

Since I collect photos of air ambulances, I would like to think this is an ambulance Jenny, as it one I have not seen before. However, I have lots of Jenny ambulance photos and I have never seen one marked like this. Generally, the markings on the ambulances were well-done-- this looks like a very slip-shod and temporary marking. If it were an ambulance aircraft, I would expect the "star and circle" to have been completely painted over, and I don't think the cross would have extended all the way to the trailing edge-- it would have been centered on the wing. We have to remember, in the 1918-19 period, all these air ambulances were used on training airfields in the USA, and were such a novelty that they were frequently photographed-- sloppy appearing work like this would have made the base commander and his medical staff look bad. Further, since they were not combat zone aircraft and there was no protective requirement for "red cross" markings, there is no reason that an ambulance aircraft would not have been painted nicely if at all. I suspect this may be an exercise marking, as Cigogne mentioned. In fact, it almost looks as if the cross is on a piece of cloth which is relatively loosely applied to the wing as if for short-term marking, rather than doped and tightened. Really weird. Doc