Manfred von Richthofen remains
             one of the greatest legends of
             aviation. Born in a part of Germany
             that is now Poland, Richthofen was
             the son of an aristocratic Prussian
             family. A far better athlete than
             scholar, he wanted to become a
             calvary officer, but the changing
             nature of war had eliminated the
             need for calvary, so, he turned to
             the "new calvary," aviation. When
             World War I began, Richthofen
             joined the Fliegertruppe as an
             observer in order to get into combat
             more quickly. After just 24 hours of flight training, he made his
             first solo flight. He crashed trying to land. By 1916, he was a
             combat pilot, and scored his first confirmed victory on
             September 17. On November 23 of the same year, he shot down
             the British ace Major Lanoe Hawker, his eleventh kill. On
             January 4, 1917, Richthofen shot down his 16th plane, making
             him the top living German ace at the time. He recieved the
             Orden Pour le Mérite (a.k.a. the "Blue Max"), one of
             Germany's highest honors. Given command of Jasta 11, he began
             to paint his aircraft red, so that he could be easily identified.
             However, it was also said he did this because of the color of his
             old Uhlan calvary regiment. To show solidarity with their
             commander, the pilots of Jasta 11 begin to put some red on their
             planes. Later, British pilots would paint the noses of their
             planes red, to show they were hunting this "Red Baron." In April
             1916, Richthofen wrote an angry letter to Berlin, complaining
             about the tendency of a biplane's lower wing to break off during
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