The Great Warplanes
Portraits of military aviation's first fleet.
- By airspacemag.com
- Air & Space magazine, November 2006
Debuting in 1915, the petite French Nieuport 11 fighter was based on the design of several pre-war racers. Philip Makanna
Phil Makanna has more than three decades of experience photographing old aircraft. His impeccably composed portraits of vintage warplanes have made his “Ghosts” books and calendars the gold standard of aviation Christmas gifts. But Makanna has always focused on the aircraft of World War II. Then in 2000 he met the Aeroplane Collection.
The privately owned Aeroplane Collection is dedicated to restoring and preserving engines and aircraft from World War I. The collection currently owns 21 craft, both vintage and reproductions. Based in Paso Robles, California, it is also an easy trip from Makanna’s San Francisco home.
Makanna began photographing the aircraft, eventually making 31 visits to the collection. He watched as four “small piles of lumber” slowly became aircraft that left the ground powered by engines nearly 90 years old. All told, he spent five years making portraits of the fleet. The result is the book Ghosts of the Great War: Aviation in World War One (Ghosts, 2005). Makanna’s color portraits are complemented throughout by black-and-white archival images of the same aircraft types.
Helping Makanna get the air-to-air shots was Aeroplane Collection principal Javier Arango, who flew most of the camera plane missions and many of the warplanes. Arango also wrote the book’s introduction. In it, he notes that in 1914, when the Great War began, the world had very few airplanes: France, only 250; Germany, 300. But with the conflict in the trenches stalling out, strategists turned to aviation, and designers responded quickly. Fokker, for example, designed and built more than 60 prototypes during the war. “Almost every conceivable aerial variation was tried,” writes Arango, “from monoplanes to aircraft with five wings.”
By the end of the war, in 1918, France had produced 52,000 aircraft, Germany, 48,000, and Britain, 43,000. The numbers make it clear: The aircraft of World War I are “technological artifacts resulting from serial production,” says Arango. But Makanna’s photographs show that the old beauties also “still belong to an age of craftsmanship, exquisite details and individual pilots.”
More of Makanna's photographs Cecil Lewis.
Related topics: Aerospace Books Airplane Restoration Propeller Aircraft Military Aircraft WWI
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Comments (5)
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Posted by anne herrington on May 5,2008 | 12:21 PM
While I was reading my Air&Space smithsonian magazine I was thing about next possible theme for then next magazine issue, (what about an issue on old haunted Airfields of the great world wars?)
Posted by Garrett on May 29,2008 | 08:35 AM
I would like to know if anyone knows how to touch base with javier arango. A friend of mine builds 90% of full size Supermarine Spitfires and he javier may know a company in the USA interested to form a business partnership to market and sell the aircraft.
Posted by Neil Fairley on October 14,2008 | 04:03 AM
I live in the Paso Robles area. Is it possible
to see the collection?
I am a member of AOPA and an vet of WWll. My
interest in flying goes back to the days
Piper was the big name.My first trip in a private
plane was in the mid-30s.
Regards
Richard
Posted by Richard Jepeway on March 3,2009 | 02:15 PM
Hello Phil we met at Duxford some time ago.I am the brother in law of Ray Hanna.I use the present tense cause legends never die likewise Mark my nephew.I saw a wonderful photo of Ray very low in the Spitfire over cornfields nr Duxford.I would like very much to purchase a calender with this photo inside.Your photos are really superb.I hope you remember me.I wish you a very Merry Xmas and a happy New Year.
Yours etc John Rigby
Posted by John Rigby on December 21,2009 | 03:22 AM
Dear Mr. Makanna,
I am a representative to a wonderfully unique restoration project in Essex, England. We are saving and restoring the only complete WWI aerodrome in existance. The site is called Stow Maries Aerodrome.
Stow Maries was the station for a home defence squadron tasked with protecting London from Gotha and Zeppelin attacks. In fact, the last Zeppelin brought down over England was the victim of a Stow Maries Sopwith Camel.
The RFC walked away from Stow Maries in 1919 and not one building was destroyed over the last 90 years. If you wish to learn more please reference www.stowmaries.com.
Would it be possible for us to talk?
Thank you.
Scott Gilpin
Posted by Scott Gilpin on September 9,2010 | 04:35 PM