this article was taken from: "Death of an Air Ace, 1918," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997).

A little more than a decade after the Wright brothers' historic flight at Kittyhawk, the demands of war transformed the airplane into a weapon of death. Made of wood, canvas and wire, these early fighters took to the air filled with gasoline, ammunition and the likelihood that too steep a dive would rip the wings to shreds. It is no wonder that the pilots of these flimsy fliers measured their life expectancy in weeks. These early pioneers of the air did not have the luxury of a parachute. Just strapping oneself into the cockpit and taking to the air was an act of bravery. Careening into a mid-air duel-to-the-death with an enemy opponent required a special courage.

Raoul Lufbery had this special courage. His flying career began in 1911 when he became the mechanic for French pilot Marc Pourpe. The pair barnstormed
their way through China, Japan, India, and Egypt finally landing in Paris just as war broke. Pourpe joined the French Air Service while Lufbery tagged along as his mechanic. To avenge Pourpe's death at the end of 1914, Lufbery applied for pilot training and earned his wings. He joined other American pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille and scored his first kill in August 1916. By the end of 1917, Lufbery was a leading ace with 17 official kills.

With America in the war, the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille were absorbed into the American Air Service where their valuable experience was used to train the fledgling pilots. Lufbery was assigned to the 94th Aero Squadron as a teacher and advisor.
On the morning of May 19, 1918, a German reconnaissance plane flew a low level photographic mission over the airfield of the 94th Aero Squadron. An American flyer immediately took to the air to challenge the intruder. His attacks, however, were ineffective and he soon exhausted his ammunition as the German pilot made a run back to his own lines. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who would finish the war as America's top ace, described what happened next:

"In the meantime, Major Lufbery, who had been watching the whole show from his barracks, jumped on a motorcycle that was standing in the road and rushed to the hangars. His own plane was out of commission. Another Nieuport was standing on the field, apparently ready for use. It belonged to Lieutenant Davis. The mechanics admitted everything was ready and without another word Lufbery jumped into the machine and immediately took off.
"With all his long string of victories, Lufbery had never brought down an enemy airplane within the Allied lines. All seventeen of his early successes with the Lafayette Escadrille and his last success - when he had gone out to avenge Jimmy Hall - all had been won across the German lines. He had never seen the wreckage of a single of his victories. Undoubtedly he seized this opportunity of engaging in a combat almost within sight of our field with impetuous abandon. Knowing nothing of the condition of his guns nor the small peculiarities of his present mount, Lufbery flew in to the attack.
"With far greater speed than his heavier antagonist, Major Lufbery climbed in pursuit. In approximately five minutes after leaving the ground he had reached two thousand feet and had arrived within range of the Albatros six miles away. The first attack was witnessed by all the watchers.

"Luf fired several short bursts as he dived in to the attack. Then he swerved away and appeared to busy himself with his gun, which evidently had jammed. Another circle over their heads and he had cleared the jam. Again he rushed the enemy from their rear, when suddenly old Luf's machine was seen to burst into flames. He passed the Albatros and proceeded for three or four seconds on a straight course. Then to the horrified watchers below there appeared the figure of their hero in a headlong leap from the cockpit of the burning aircraft! Lufbery had preferred a leap to certain death rather than endure the slow torture of burning to a crisp. His body fell in the garden of a peasant woman's house in a little town just north of Nancy. A small stream ran nearby and it was thought later that poor Lufbery seeing this small chance for life had jumped with the intention of striking this water. He had leaped from a height of two hundred feet and his machine was carrying him at a speed of 120 miles per hour! A hopeless but a heroic attempt to preserve his life for his country!

I remember a conversation we had had with Major Lufbery on the subject of catching a fire in the air a few days previous to this melancholy accident. I had asked Luf what he would do in a case of this kind - jump or stay with the machine? All of us had a great respect for Major Lufbery's experience and we were anxious to hear his response to this question.

'I should always stay with the machine,' Luf responded. 'If you jump you certainly haven't got a chance. On the other hand there is always a good chance of slide-slipping your airplane down in such a way that you fan the flames away from yourself and the wings. Perhaps you can even put the fire out before you reach the ground. It has been done. Me for staying with the old 'bus, every time!'

"What an irony now to recall old Luf's suggestions! His machine had received a tracer bullet in the fuel tank. The same bullet evidently cut away the thumb of his right hand as it clasped the joystick. The next instant the little craft was but one mass of flame, from which there was no means of escape."

Did you write this article? -I f not it is poor form to not post a link to the source and credit the author.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/luf.htm


Interesting story, thanks for posting. But as Freycinet wrote please always provide the sources for material not your own.

my apologies...I always thought that the forums were kind of informal and not subject to original credit authoring....sorry guys!

very nice web site, many good articles...

There is a theory that in his haste to get airborne to attack the German plane, Lufbery may not have used his harness and fell out when the Noop 28 flipped over.

The is from The Aerodrome, the best internet site for WWI aviation history (the forums are very interesting) and provides many more details:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/people/14225-raoul-lufbery.html

HT

Very interesting Tom, and kinda makes sense to me. When I read the original article my 1st reaction was actually "why did he jump out of the plane flying at only 200 feet over friendly ground"?

He was on fire at the time..............

As the article says maybe he thought there was a chance the water would break his fall.

[/quote]

He was on fire at the time..............

As the article says maybe he thought there was a chance the water would break his fall. [/quote]



Mog, that assumes the article is accurate, which it isn't.

It says, for example the German plane was an Albatros.

It was, in fact, a Rumpler.

And he had said he never would jump, even from a burning plane because if you jump you have absolutely no chance at all.

Truth is, we'll never know if he jumped or fell or what he was thinking. We do know Lufbery did not have control of the Noop. His thumb had been shot off and the plane was inverted.

He was impaled on a fence.

Tragic end to a great hero and one of the most interesting of the WWI aces.

He was flying Davis's plane and that's why the Noop 28 skin in ROF is called Lufbery Davis. Nice tribute.

HT

Mogster, I understand that. But jumping out of a plane at 200 ft is suicide. And the idea of hoping to hit a stream seems a bit...far fetched to me. Yes, sitting in a burning plane is a horrible thing for sure, but how long would it have taken him to crash land the plane from 200 ft? Maybe even into the stream? Mind you, I'm not saying "geeze...why didn't he simply...", I have no idea what really happened there and honestly don't want to think about too much about how horrible the situation must have been, but the story as linked by Tom IMO makes quite a bit of sense.

Also remember the article quoted in the beginning of this thread was written by Rickenbacker, who wasn't there and not an eyewitness.

No one ever will know for sure, so it's fair game for speculation.

HT

It's a myth that Lufbery's plane burned with him in it. Presumably hit by return fire from the Rumpler, his Nieuport rolled inverted and he plummeted out and fell onto a garden fence near Maron. One theory is his control stick was shot away and in his hasty takeoff he had not secured his safety harness in the foreign machine (it was not his regular plane and he would have had to adjust all lengths of all the straps to fit him as the regular pilot, Lt. Davis, was of a slighter build).

One of many books that covers this is The Nieuport 28, America's First Fighter, by Theodore Hamady, 2008. On page 69 it describes how the two villagers who witnessed his body said the body was "lying on its back with arms outstretched somewhat from its sides, completely dresssed in a one-piece leather flying-suit." Also, "there was absolutely no blood on the pilot's face nor was he burnt on the hair or his face singed in the slightest. However, one of his thumbs was gone, on his right hand and he appeared to have a wound similar to a bullet hole in his left temple slightly back of and above his left eye." Later, it states, "Evidence suggests that Lufbery fell from his Nieuport 28 when the airplane, apparently out of control, tipped over. It is plausible that Lufbery's reaction to the severing of his right thumb and to the head wound reflexively caused him to snap roll the nimble Nieuport 28, throwing him, unfettered by the safety harness, and the cushion out of the airplane."

Several publications indicate the "jumped from a burning plane" was started by Rickenbacker's account of the events. Yet many villagers witnessed the events and stated Lufberry and the cushion (normally used by Davis to sit higher in the seat) fell out of the plane, and only afterward did it begin to smoke and then catch on fire just before terrain impact. By then, Lufberry was dead in the garden.