Students building flying WWI Replicas

Students of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) are in the process of building WWI replicas as part of their education. AIM is a program teaching students to become aircraft technicians at eight campuses. Most of the individual classes at AIM focus on specific aircraft components and systems. The difference of the WWI Student Project is that students are allowed to work on whole aircraft.

The program is set up so each campus will build an individual aircraft as teams. Each team started out by evaluating and selecting which type of aircraft they wanted to build. The aircraft will use modern engines and using modern construction techniques (modern wing designs, metal structures instead of wood, etc.)

Once the planes are completed, they will go through pre-flight and flight-testing and then will be available for local events and air shows. They will also be transported to the AIM location in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they will be flown and be evaluated by judges.

Each team is maintaining a blog to track the progress of their projects, and post photos of the students doing the work. According to these blogs many of the teams are learning about WWI in the process, often visit regional museums to see historic examples of the replicas they are building.

Team Atlanta - Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter

Team Dallas - Sopwith Pup

Team Indianapolis - Nieuport 11

Team Kansas City - Morane Saulnier AI

Team Manassas - The Avro 504

Team Orlando - Fokker DVIII

Team Philadelphia - Nieuport 17

Team Virginia Beach - Nieuport 24

WWI Aviation Monuments - Memories in Public Art

In the Fall 2007 issue (Vol. 22, #3) of Over the Front (League of WWI Aviation Historians), there was a great article about monuments in the US erected in tribute to aviators of the Great War: Soaring Like Eagles Into New Heavens: American First World War Aviation Monuments and Memorials (Part 1), by Michael Barton.

The article includes photos and provides some background on several monuments including:

“The Aviator,” memorializing James Rogers McConnell – located at the University of Virginia. McConnell started out as an ambulance with the American Field Service, then switched to aviation and eventually flew as a member of the French escadrille, N124 (aka Escadrille American or Escadrille Lafayette). The sculptor was Gutzon Borglum who is best known for his work on Mt. Rushmore.

“The Aviator,” memorializing Louis Bennett Jr. – located in Wheeling, West Virginia. Bennett flew with No. 40 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps. The sculpture was created by Henry Augustus Lukeman, who did several different WWI memorial sculptures around the United States.

The Norman Prince tablet – located in Memorial Hall, part of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. Prince started the war in the French Foreign Legion and is mostly credited with coming up with the idea for an all-American, volunteer flying unit that would eventually become the Escadrille Lafayette and by extension the Lafayette Flying Corps. Is first flying assignment was as a bomber pilot with escadrille VB 113.

The tablet was designed by John Paramino. Also described in the article is the elaborate crypt in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. where Prince’s body was eventually placed. The body of Prince was originally supposed to end up in the crypt of the Lafayette Flying Corps Memorial in France. Due to a disagreement with other organizers of the monument about the prominence of Norman Prince in the promotion of the monument, his parents instead financed the abbey in the National Cathedral where is crypt resides.

Maintenance and protection of these types of monuments is at a critical stage. Many were created between the WWI and WWII are anywhere from 75-85 years old. As geographies of cities and towns have changed, many of these monuments are no longer in what would now be considered prime locations. The area around these monuments and the monuments themselves may be in need of a little TLC. In some cities, much larger and more prominent memorials to WWII and other conflicts have eclipsed the prominence and recognition of memorials to the Great War.

Since the official change of “Armistice Day” to “Veterans Day” it seems that all things about WWI have fallen out of the public’s attention. With the number of surviving veterans of WWI now countable on one or two hands, memories of the war dead and even those who knew them are now passing into permanent history.

Unfortunately vandalism of these monuments is a concern, and more recently so is theft, as the value of metals of all kinds is on the rise. A recent article in the New Yorker laid out the dollars and cents of the scrap metal business, and mentioned the malicious destruction of statues and public objects of art in the quest for scrap metal dollars. Monuments and even veterans’ graveside flag-holders are at risk. As we get closer to the 100th anniversary of WWI, it would be a shame to see its memorials disappear into scrap heaps of greed.

Many cities now require new monuments of any variety to include endowments for their perpetual up-keep but municipal budgets often have no available funds to maintain or repair their existing memorials. In many cases repair and up-keep of war monuments falls on the shoulders of local veteran groups and community organizations.

Brittan in particular has organizations dedicated to the preservation and protection of its war memorials. In general there seems to be some of the same activity going on in France. (Note the recent refurbishment of the Lafayette Flying Corps Memorial in St. Cloud, among others.) Also, there are individual preservation efforts also going on around the U.S.

Of course there are also recent additions to the WWI monument inventory. The new St. Omer British Air Services Memorial funded by the British Cross and Cockade International should be recognized – with funds set aside for upkeep. The US Liberty Memorial Monument in Kansas City has also gone through a major upgrade and a new museum has been created at the facility.



The following photos were taken of monuments in Philadelphia:

The first photos are of the Aero Memorial dedicated to Pennsylvania fliers who were killed in action during WWI. In addition to the central statue it includes walled in spaces around it bearing quotes related to war and flying.

One of the quotes, from a poem by Stephen Spender, includes the fraise (“…the vivid air”) for which this blog was named. (This phrase was also used by the historian and author Philip Flammer for his book on the Lafayette Escadrille).

Thou hast caught splendor from the sailless sea, and mystery from many stars outwatched. - Stephen Phillips

Master and Maker. God of right the soldier dead are at thy gate who kept the spears of honor bright and freedom's house inviolate. - John Drinkwater

Born of the sun they traveled a short while toward the sun, and left the vivid air signed with their honor. – Stephen Spender

Death makes no conquest of the conqueror for now he lives in fame though not in life. - William Shakespeare

This monument was planned during the war by the Aero Club of Pennsylvania it was not erected until 1948. The whole space was refurbished in the past few years, and looks new. It has a prominent location across the street from the main entrance of the Franklin Institute, and also near the Philadelphia Free Library and not far from several art museums. The artist, Paul Manship, also created Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

The second set of photos shows a monument very close to the first dedicated to African-American veterans of all wars. It features figures in mostly WWI uniforms. For obvious historic reasons, there are no figures in flying gear.

The third set of photos is of a more typical Dough-Boy statue on the end of a neighborhood known as Northern Liberties. It is dedicated to veterans of the sixth, eleventh, and twelfth political wards of that part of Philadelphia.

Readers, do you have any significant WWI monuments in your area – aviation themed or otherwise? If so, are they in good condition? Do they get any notice by members of your community?