By Bill Stansbeary
Andy Parks, president of the Lafayette Escadrille Foundation, with the foundation’s 3/4 scale Sopwith “Pup.”
Platte Valley Airpark held their annual fly-in on May 18.
Proceeds benefited the Lafayette Foundation/World War I Aero Museum, attempting to preserve and protect existing artifacts and records.
Based at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum at the Aviation & Space Center Of The Rockies, the Lafayette Foundation boasts the world’s most complete collection of WWI aviation artifacts.
Aircraft of WWI vintage represented were the 1917 Fokker DR1 Triplane, 1918 Fokker DVII, 1917 Royal Aircraft Factory SE. 5a, and the 1916 Sopwith “Pup.”
Morrie Quick, 84, who still flies the museum’s replica, says that the Fokker DR1 was a “magnificent fighter airplane.” Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron,” made Anthony Fokker’s DR1 Triplane famous.
Jerry Priddy, the owner of Richthofen Castle, lent out items from his collection for the occasion. They are standing beside a Fokker DR1 Triplane.