Members of the Vintage Aero Flying museum considered by stopping at grass landing strips across the heartland of America, these modern day Fly Boys were the news-of-the-day for many towns along the route. Their blog covered the outstanding greetings our crews received as they shared the history of our aircraft, their construction and engineering and the history and personalities of the WW-I Aces who flew these aircraft.

The great thing about this DVD is the honest presentation of the series of events. From the calm landings at mid - America grass landing strips for crop dusting aircraft belonging to local farmers to a near fatal nose over crash of the full sized Fokker D.VII. The most impressive thing you will see is the actual flying characteristics of full sized replicas. No CGI was employed in the making of this video.

You will see from the cockpit a full sized Fok. Dr.I looping and barrel rolling. (remebering this machine has a 170hp Lycoming not an original 120hp Oberursel Ur.II rotary.) It is tough to fly even without a rotary. You have to fly this machine all the time you are in the air.

The Fokker D.VII was modified in about 2007. The extension of the nose was done to accomidate the lighter Ranger 200hp motor and keep the CoG. Since the crash in this film it has been rebuilt and the nose brought back about 6 inches and the ailerons now have a bit of wash out to them. The lower wing now has a reasonable attempt at lozenge camouflage. (Though I am still pulling for the Ross Walton's version at the next recovering.)

The Fokker E.V replica is the most stable machine to fly and even though its powered by a radial the sight of her climbing with in 50 feet of start is more than enough to impress anyone. In its construction the team discovered a small flaw in the original and brought the spine of the rudder forward about 1.5 inches. It helps that we at the Lafayette Foundation have an original rudder to compare with.

As "vintage replicas" they are modern reflections of the originals. Living history types are fortunately built stronger and are more reliable than the originals even in crashes. The are meant to shadow and reflect the original types. Where the original aircraft were not expected to last beyond a limited life span in combat use. These replicas will be with us for many years. Their mission is to enlighten and inspire future generations of historians, modelers and flyers. They are as close to the originals as we care to get and still feel safe to fly across country. If you have any interest in these types of real aircraft you will appreciate the efforts that thrive at the heart of this endeavour.

Even if I didn't have an intimate knowledge of these machines I would spend money to purchase this video. I can highly recommend it as great entertainment. Its is a much better attempt than the Red Baron movie 2008 at replicating the flight characteristics of vintage aircraft. And they spent most of their budget on the CGI.

$19.95 plus $5.00 for shipping & handling (total = $24.95). Please allow two weeks for processing. They can be purchased at;

http://www.vafm.org/Dayton/DVD.html

When contacting manufacturers and publishers please mentiomn you saw this review at AEROSCALE