« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2010, 10:24:12 PM »
This is what wikipedia says:
On 23 November 1916, Richthofen downed his most famous adversary, British ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC, described by Richthofen himself as "the British Boelcke." The victory came while Richthofen was flying an Albatros D.II and Hawker was flying a D.H.2. After this combat, he was convinced he needed a fighter aircraft with more agility, even at a loss of speed. He switched to the Albatros D.III in January 1917, scoring two victories before suffering a crack in the spar of the aircraft's lower wing. Richthofen reverted to the Albatros D.II for the next five weeks. He scored a victory in the D.II on 9 March, but since his D.III was grounded for the rest of the month, Richthofen switched to a Halberstadt D.II.
He returned to his Albatros D.III on 2 April 1917 and scored his 22 victories in it before switching to the Albatros D.V in late June. Following his return from convalescence in October, Richthofen was flying the celebrated Fokker Dr.I triplane, the distinctive three-winged aircraft with which he is most commonly associated, although he probably did not use the type exclusively until after it was reissued with strengthened wings in November. Despite the popular link between Richthofen and the Fokker Dr. I, only 20 of his 80 kills were made in this now-famous triplane. It was his Albatros D.III that was first painted bright red and in which he first earned his name and reputation.
Logged
"Now, if I had to make the choice of one fighter aircraft above all the others...it would be, without any doubt, the world's greatest propeller driven flying machine - the magnificent and immortal Spitfire."
Lt. Col. William R. Dunn
flew Spitfires, Hurricanes, P-51s, P-47s, and F-4s
