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CjBobrow
25 June 2016, 08:37 AM
OK please do not flame... I'm doing a short (15min) presentation on aviation ghosts and apparitions, this will occur during the graveyard watch at NASM's 40th anniversary party when the museum will be open overnight...

http://airandspace.si.edu/events/40th-birthday/

I'm looking for contributions please....

I've been looking at some items I have and there is a wide variety out there.

What I'm inclined to focus on if at all possible is WWI.

This one caught my attention hoax or not...

http://www.angelsghosts.com/real_famous_ghost_picture_from_wwi

http://www.angelsghosts.com/uploads/ghost-photos-world-war-1-ghost-picture-42013-xl.jpg


Peter Kilduff sent me this years ago... though not much of a "ghost story"

Here's a WW I air ghost story that can be verified by existing records: On 27 September 1916, a flight of Jasta 2 Albatros D.IIs caught up with a patrol of six Martinsyde G.100s near Bapaume. In his book _Hauptmann Boelckes Feldberichte_ (1916) Oswald Boelcke described how he got behind one of the Martinsydes and continued to fire at it, seemingly without effect. This episode has often been called Boelcke's encounter with a "ghost ship."
As Boelcke noted, though: "I was astonished at the opponent's tenacity. I must have long since really finished him off, but he flew on in the same way, around in a big circle. Finally it became apparent. I said to myself the fellow is long since dead and the machine is held on course by the rubber cords on the steering mechanism being in the right-hand position. Therefore I flew right up next to him and saw the occupant slumped over to the right, lying dead in the fuselage. In order to know later which of my shot-down aircraft this one was (as it indeed had to come down), I noted the [rudder serial] number -- 7495 -- pulled away from him and then took on the next one."
Boelcke and Offizierstellvertreter Leopold Reimann attacked the Martinsyde, but neither actually shot it down. Consequently, neither was awarded credit for it. Eventually, the "ghost plane" landed within German lines, where the pilot's body was recovered and buried.
The "RFC Western Front Casualty List" lists Martinsyde G.100 #7495 of No. 27 Squadron as lost that day and its pilot, 2/Lt Stephen Dendrino, age 27, as having "left [his] aerodrome [at] 9.20 a.m. [and was] officially reported to have died whilst [a] prisoner of war [on] 27/9/16." He was buried at Neuville-Vitasse, France.

MattyBoy
25 June 2016, 08:58 AM
Hi CjB,
The only one I know of is RFC pilot Desmond Arthur who died in 1913:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Arthur

Best Regards,
Matt.

CjBobrow
25 June 2016, 09:21 AM
Hi CjB,
The only one I know of is RFC pilot Desmond Arthur who died in 1913:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Arthur

Best Regards,
Matt.

Thank you this is a keeper!

FliegerJG1
25 June 2016, 05:26 PM
Hi,
The thread link below will take you to some discussion on mysterious WWI sightings...maybe something there might help you. :)


WWI mystery sightings (http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18896&highlight=Caidin)

Gregvan
25 June 2016, 10:07 PM
Hi Carl,
Yes, you definitely should include the Montrose Ghost. It's the most well-known aviation ghost story from WWI.

If you care to venture beyond spooks and ghosts, there was a whole book published recently (and reviewed in OtF) about UFO apparitions in WWI.

Greg

Graham Broad
26 June 2016, 04:30 AM
[QUOTE=CjBobrow;693397][B]OK please do not flame... I'm doing a short (15min) presentation on aviation ghosts and apparitions, this will occur during the graveyard watch at NASM's 40th anniversary party when the museum will be open overnight...

http://airandspace.si.edu/events/40th-birthday/

I'm looking for contributions please....

I've been looking at some items I have and there is a wide variety out there.

What I'm inclined to focus on if at all possible is WWI.

This one caught my attention hoax or not...

------

Great topic.

Although it doesn't recount stories from the flying services, Canadian historian Tim Cook's superb article "Grave Beliefs" in The Journal of Military History 77 #2 (April 2013): 521-542 deals with this sort of thing generally, and tries to explain it in context. Very much worth a read.

CjBobrow
26 June 2016, 06:24 AM
Yes the UFO sightings particularly those that fall within the "Airship Sightings" hysteria prior to the war are curious indeed... that said what I'm focused on is Ghosts & Apparitions for this talk as it is during the "Graveyard Watch"*

*According to Michael Quinion it is an "evocative term for the night shift … when … your skin is clammy, there's sand behind your eyeballs, and the world is creepily silent, like the graveyard.

MASTIFF
26 June 2016, 09:02 AM
Cj -- Not quite WW1, but an interesting read is "The Airmen Who Would Not Die" by John G. Fuller.

Cheers,
Tony