WIX Archives

WWI Warbird Article

Posted by B Darnell on Thu Oct 09, 2003 03:30:55 PM

From the Greely, Co Tribune.

FORT LUPTON - Andy Parks looked at the three World War I vintage war planes, dismantled in a hangar.
He wasn't sure whether he and two friends would get to fly the planes in an upcoming movie.
"If we do, they'll probably dub DiCaprio's face over ours," he said with a laugh.
Parks discussed the filming of an upcoming motion picture, "The Aviator," staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. The movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, is the story of eccentric aviator and Hollywood mogul Howard Hughes.
The LaFayette Foundation, started by the late Dr. James Park, Andy's father, is providing three authentic World War I replica aircraft for use in the filming. Wednesday, the dismantled planes - two SE5a's and one Fokker DVII - were loaded on semitrailers for transport to Santa Clarita, Calif., where the aviation portion of the movie is scheduled to be filmed Tuesday and Wednesday.
The bi-planes then will be dismantled and trucked back to the Platte Valley Airport, about 10 miles northeast of Fort Lupton, where the foundation and its museum have been since 1999. James Park founded the organization from his south Denver home in the 1970s.
The three planes, all 1917 models, are among six the foundation has at the airport, along with numerous
other artifacts from WWI.
"We now have more memorabilia than most national museums," said Parks, who is president of the foundation.
Parks, along with fellow pilots Mark Holliday of Lake Elmo, Minn., and Mike DeSanti of Fort Lupton, are accompanying the planes to California. They and several other members and volunteers of the foundation gathered at the airport to get them loaded.
Parks said Hughes, who died a recluse millionaire, at one time had 50 World War I airplanes. In 1927, he directed "Hell's Angels," a movie about WWI aviation, using many of his planes.
"That was the largest private air force in the world at the time and was probably the third largest military power," Parks said.
He said the Fokker DVII is probably the rarest airplane left in the world. Flown by the Germans during the war, only one thing detracted from its reputation. While it was winning battles in the air, the German army was losing the war on the ground.
Eventually, when the Armistice was signed in November 1918, the DVII claimed a more significant place in the history books by having its own special clause in the agreement. The Allies insisted that Tony Fokker's planes were to be handed over to them. No other aircraft was mentioned by name, and the Allies took great care that after the war, large numbers of the planes were piled into giant heaps and set on fire. Nevertheless, Fokker managed to smuggle 60 trainloads of planes and parts out of Germany into Holland, enabling him to set up his new company.
Parks said it was easier to dismantle the planes and truck them to California than to fly them.
"You never know what kind of weather you can run into this time of year. And these planes weren't built as cross-country aircraft. They went up for maybe two hours at a time during the war and sitting in one of them for two hours is more than long enough," he said.

WWI plane for the Aviator Movie

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