What Really Brought Von Richthofen Down? | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Fri, Sep 24, 2004

What Really Brought Von Richthofen Down?

New Evidence Points To Old Injury

Acknowledged as the greatest German ace of World War I, Baron Manfred von Richthofen died April 21, 1918 -- shot down by allied ground fire. But new research indicates it was the baron's bullheaded determination to fly that may have actually killed him.

Two American neuropsychologists, Thomas L. Hyatt and Daniel Orme, suggest von Richthofen's ability to fly was impaired nine months before his death when his skull was grazed by a bullet. The baron reportedly lost control of his arms and legs for a short time and was temporarily blind, after the bullet dug a four-inch gash in his head. Only at the last moment was he able to fly his Fokker into a crash landing. He collapsed immediately afterward.

"Using today's standards, he clearly should have been grounded," says Orme, a clinical associate professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia who used to evaluate pilots for the Air Force. "Perhaps the guy who shot him back in July of 1917 should get credit for the partial downing of the baron, setting the stage for his ultimate demise." Orme spoke in an interview with HealthDay.

Orme says the skull wound might have explained von Richthofen's increasingly strange and petulant behavior between the time he was wounded and his death months later.

The two scientists describe in their report for the periodical "Human Factors and Aerospace Safety." They likened the head wound to a "very severe concussion." They speculate that the baron's brain might have been bruised when he was wounded, leading to an injury of the frontal lobe.

If that was indeed the case, Orme said, "people do things they wouldn't normally do. They can be impulsive, have difficulty monitoring their own behavior, difficulty recognizing if what they're doing is appropriate."

In the weeks and months after he was wounded, von Richthofen changed. Friends -- even his mother -- noticed that he was "much more immature. He was moody and brooding," according to Orme.

Of course, how do you prove something like this? Dr. James Grisolia, a neurologist at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, tells HealthDay you really can't. "The investigators' idea is plausible, but it's always hard to make definite judgments about historical figures when we can't examine them."

FMI: www.ashgate.com/subject_area/_aviation/aviation_journals.htm

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Prelim: Piper PA-23

Pilot Also Reported That Due To A Fuel Leak, The Auxiliary Fuel Tanks Were Not Used On June 4, 2025, at 13:41 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-23, N2109P, was substantially damage>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: One Man’s Vietnam

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): Reflections on War’s Collective Lessons and Cyclical Nature The exigencies of war ought be colorblind. Inane social-constructs the likes of racis>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Capella Aircraft Corp FW1C50

Pilot Reported That He Was Unfamiliar With The Single Seat Amateur-Built Airplane And His Intent Was To Perform High-Speed Taxi Testing Analysis: The pilot reported that he was unf>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Timber Tiger Touts Curtiss Jenny Replicas

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): First Kits to Ship October 2023 Having formerly resurrected the storied shape of the Ryan ST—in effigy, anyway—Montrose, Colorado-based Tim>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.04.25): Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO]

Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO] Area navigation based on performance requirements for aircraft operating along an ATS route, on an instrument approach procedure or in a d>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC