A mock World War 1 'Duel in the Air', or 'Dogfight' between 'opposing' British and German fighters of The Great War Display Team, with some background fireworks, pyrotechnics, machine gun noises from loud speakers and aircraft trailing smoke to add realism. Filmed at the Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow 2021.

Aircraft included:-
Sopwith Triplane - This is a replica of N500, the first Triplane prototype. First flown in June 1916, it by-passed normal test-flying and went straight to France to be test-flown in service with A Flight, No1 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service. Reputedly it was sent up in pursuit of an enemy aircraft within 15 minutes of arriving.
By early 1917 two RNAS squadrons, Nos 8 and 10, had Triplanes. They were very popular with pilots, being able to out-climb and out-turn any contemporary enemy scout aircraft and having great success against the German Albatross.
Only 150 were built and only used by the RNAS, with the exception of a few given to the French and one to the Russians. By late summer 1917 they started to be replaced by Sopwith Camels. N500 first went to France in clear-doped linen, and it is this stage of its life that the replica represents.

Fokker Dr1 Triplane - The Dr1 was a direct attempt to copy the successful Sopwith Triplane. Armed with two forward firing Spandau machine guns, it was very manoeuvrable, and a favourite mount of a number of German aces such as Werner Voss and Manfred von Richthofen, who claimed "it climbed like a monkey and was as manoeuvrable as the devil! It entered service in 1917 and Von Richthofen's Jasta was the first to be equipped. A total of 320 were built.

The team has two Fokker Dr1s - 403/17, G-CDXR, replicates the Dr1 flown by Lieutnant Johann Janzen [13 victories] of Jasta 6, of JG1. It has the unit markings of a black/white striped tail and black cowling, with Janzen's personal marking of a 'white snake' line on a black band, edged with white on the rear fuselage. Janzen became 'Staffelfuhrer' [Leader] of Jasta 6 and survived a crash-landing, when the control cables of his Triplane were shot away in combat.

The other Dr1, 556/17, G-CFHY, replicates that flown by Leutnant Ludwig "Lutz" Beckmann also of Jasta 6 in March 1918 which was then based at Lechelle. Beckmann survived the Great War having shot down 8 allied aircraft. He went on to win the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in WW2 and commanded a transport unit of the Luftwaffe flying aircraft such as the JU52 in Russia.

Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a - The RAF SE5, originally with a 150HP direct-drive Hispano-Suiza engine, first flew in November 1916. Only 77 of these were built before the engine was replaced by a geared 200HP version. The type went into squadron service in March 1917 and, with another engine change to the 200HP Wolseley Viper, they continued in service right up to the end of the war, with a total of 2765 built by armistice day. It was very robust and the first British aircraft to have 2 guns; a Vickers machine gun in the fuselage and a Lewis gun on the top wing. It had a superior performance at higher altitude than the Sopwith Camel and was also faster.

One is a 7/8th scale replica representing the 24 Squadron, Royal Air Force aircraft, coded F5459/Y, flown by 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Montagu Harries during October 1918. On 29 Oct 1918 flying S.E.5a (F5459) he assisted 2 colleagues in downing and destroying a German C6 Observation aircraft over Bois l'Evegne, France. This was his 11th and last victory of the war. The replica aircraft is registered as G-INNY and was built in 1983.It's powered by a Continental Motors C90-8F Engine and is based at Sywell Aerodrome.


SE5a, F8010, was built in 1978 and was the first SE built from the Replica plans in Europe. First flight was in Dec 1978 and the story was featured in Aeroplane Monthly at that time. It was completely refurbished in 2000. It represents Zulu of 85 Squadron, which was led by both Billy Bishop and Mick Mannock in 1918.

Junkers CL1 - A ground-attack aircraft, based on the Junkers J8 but with an extended fuselage to carry a gunner. First flown in late 1917 only 47 were built by the time of the Armistice. The first ever cantilever monoplane and had a metal frame with corrugated aluminium skin. It entered service on the Russian front in mid 1918 as a ground attack aircraft with 3 machine guns and an ability to drop sticks of grenades.
This aircraft is actually a modified Bowers Fly-Baby, remodelled to look like a typical CL1.

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