Much has been said about “the right stuff” that separates fighter pilots from everybody else.People have tried to define the fighter pilot archetype as aggressive, type A, and arrogant. They aresupposed to be playboys and hard partiers, and certainly, many fighter pilots have fit that mold. MaxImmelmann wasn’t one of them. Small, quiet, a vegetarian and tee-totaler, not many would expectImmelmann to be the aviator to strike fear into the hearts of British pilots on the Western front.Nicknamed the Eagle of Lille, not by the German propaganda machine, but by those very same Britishpilots, Immelmann, was not the typical fighter pilot.

We specialize in Air-to-Air Combat. Everyone else in our squadron specializes in Air-to-Air combat. We all secretly dream of becoming fighter Aces, and so it is surprisingly that none of us had heard of the world’s first fighter ace – Adolphe Pequod. It’s time to remedy that.

The Roland Garros Tennis tournament is a two weeklong event held In Paris at the end of May every year. The event draws more than 600,000 spectators to watch the world’s best tennis players compete to be the Champion of the French Open. Not surprisingly if you google the name Roland Garros today, you’ll see pictures of tennis courts and perhaps Rafael Nadal, who’s won a record 14 times. Therefore, it may be surprising that Roland Garros was not a great tennis player. He was a pioneering aviator, a hero of France, and the world’s first fighter pilot.