6Foot5

Adam Russell · Dayton, Ohio

Air Show

The WWI Dawn Patrol Rendezvous at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Once in a while the museum lets people fly replica First World War fighters behind the building, and parks brass-era cars on the grass in case anyone forgot what 1917 smelled like. Not one of these planes has a cup holder. All of them are cooler than my car.

Cream-colored Nieuport biplane with a red cowling and French roundels taxiing in front of the museum hangars
A Nieuport taxiing out in front of the museum hangars, in the colors of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American volunteers who flew for France before the U.S. got into the war. The red nose is the only part of it in any kind of hurry.
Nieuport biplane banking steeply downward against a pale blue sky
Same Nieuport, coming down at an angle I would only attempt in a recliner.
Black and white photo of a WWI biplane flying toward the camera trailing smoke
The Nieuport again, in black and white, trailing smoke. In 1917 that would have been very bad news. Here it is just showing off.
Red Fokker D.VII replica with a striped top wing and LO! painted on the side, trailing white smoke across a blue sky
A Fokker D.VII replica in Ernst Udet’s colors. “LO!” was for his girlfriend, Lola Zink. The tail of the original said “Du doch nicht!” which means “Certainly not you!” That is a lot of trash talk to paint on something people are shooting at.
Polished brass radiator and headlamps of an early Ford with the Ford script across the grille
Ford put brass radiators on the Model T until 1917, then switched to black-painted steel. Somebody still polishes this one. A lot.
Close-up of a green-spoked wheel with a brass hub cap and a white tire on an antique car
A wheel off one of the antique cars. Green spokes, a brass hub cap and a tire whiter than anything I own.