we believe in the golden age of flight
when the world was trapped in trenches ... a new frontier opened above ... and a rare breed of men dared to claim it.
they flew machines barely stronger than the wind ... crafted from canvas and wood ... steered by instinct and courage. engineers turned dreamers into pilots ... and pilots into legends. every flight pushed the edge of what was possible. every spin, dive, and loop rewrote the rules of both war and invention. these flying aces weren’t just warriors, they were pioneers ... knights of the sky ... architects of the future.
let's capture that spirit of the golden age of flight ... pour le merite.
great war ... great stories
artwork courtesy of Steve Anderson
summer of 1918 ... North Sea patrol
early morning sortie ... a flock of Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 Kriegsmarine fighters ... fly by a two-masted schooner ... with her vertical airfoils ... an endangered species in the last days of the great age of sail
big tech ... in different ages
you schooner captain ... you may feel safe ... W.29s will be flying over you ... before you even know it
change begins ... at the end of the comfort zone
evening patrol, august 1918
replacement pilots as good as useless ... von Richthofen, Löwenhardt and Udet open the ball with a flight of Se.5s ... jasta leaders taking the hunt together ... bagging nine enemy planes by the end of the patrol
leadership ... in different ages
overall victory knowingly unattainable ... pilots of the blue max ... pushed themselves beyond the limits
better a lion for a day ... than a sheep all your life
april 20, 1918 ... sunset
on a mission ... the red baron bags two sopwith camels ... nr 79 and 80 ... his last two kills ... the following day he failed to return ... crash landed after being shot by ground fire
dignity ... in different ages
"i honor the fallen enemy ... by placing a stone on his beautiful grave" dixit the red baron ... reciprocated by his foes ... respectfully engraved with utmost honors and salute.
to our gallant & worthy foe
7 is a lucky number
many good reasons
to love the pioneering age of aviation
001
a plethora of color
don't get us wrong, we love bf-109s and spitfires, but put 5 of them together and they all look the same
wwi aircraft boasts a plethora of gorgeous colors and markings
002
transcend the hobby room
the odds of your significant other showcasing your work of a Tiger 1 SS Abteilung 501 may probably not be that high
the golden age of flight has that capacity to transcend the hobby room
003
benign appeal
why is that kids are always portrayed with bi-planes ... instead of those aggressive looking fighter jets
004
still relevant today
history is not just about names and dates. we’re reading the playbook of humanity, full of triumph and disaster. same patterns repeating over and over, pride before collapse, division before conflict, innovation before growth, whispering warnings & opportunities to anyone willing to listen.
ignore the past and you walk blind into the future ... or how one simple assassination set a whole world on fire dragging millions into a war no one truly wanted
why wait that long ...
this unlucky fella died poor ... unrecognized in his time ... while today his paintings sell for hundreds of millions
it just shows that what may seems niche or nerdy now ... can become timeless and valuable later
that’s why we should own our passion for scale modeling ... and make it as cool as it deserves to be ... that may sound crazy ... but that's one of the things that drives us ... and that sits in every single one of us
