Red Baron flies again

Peter Brueggemann, 53, a German-born doctor from Holt, Norfolk, who built a working version of the Red Baron’s First World War Fokker Dreidecker Dr.1 fighter, has finally taken to the skies in it after getting clearance from aviation inspectors. It took nearly 10 years and £70,000 to replicate Manfred von Richthofen’s fighter plane, including equipping it with two fake Spandau 7.92mm machine guns. He even acquired the title baron and is known locally as the Red Baron of Norfolk.

Dr Brueggemann intends to one day fly the threewinger home to Germany, where the plane has been “adopted” by the German air force. Von Richthofen was the top fighter ace of the First World War, officially credited with 80 air combat victories.