I have posted this before in many places, but will do so again here.

When I was doing work for 17 Hours, I did research on all of the types of aircraft flown during the war. My research indicated that, for the entire war, on all fronts, and including trainers, there were over 700 different aircraft types used.

This number seems huge, but if you're just talking about the western front it reduces the number a bit. Throw out planes from 1914 and early 1915, and examples of only one or two aircraft flown, and it reduces it even more. If you assume at least ten of a type showing up on the front western front, and exclude trainers, then the number gets down to just over 100.

This does not include seaplanes, which, IMO, would need to be included in a proper WWI aviation sim.

At any rate, you can pare the list down to 100 types and have a well-rounded WWI Western Front aviation sim from the middle of 1915 to the end of the war. You can reduce that number, but after awhile you will begin to exclude aircraft that were more common. Red Baron excludes a number of 'common' types that were seen extensively on the front.

Building a WWI sim can be daunting if your realism goal is high.

This should be fun.

Droops