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comes harmony — a sense of values” (Lewis 2003, 160). Mastery over machines elevates the human to a state of harmonic detachment. In such a state of elation. the pilot could tell the beauty of the aeroplane, especially scouts, whose description is a topos of most memoirs. Unlike the early, clumsy two-seaters like the MF.7 “Longhorn”, MF.11 “Shorthorn”, RE.2 or FE2.b, which were slow. vulnerable, and primitive-looking, the fast single-seater scouts are depicted as fast and powerful as predators, and slender and elegant like birds. The first twc were the Fokker E.III on the German side, the French Nieuport 11 and 17, anc the British Sopwith Scout. Kehrt defines the revolutionary monoplane Fokker EI] as a ground-breaking “instrument of violence” (Gewaltdispositiv) whose strength consisted in the compact unit of man and machine: the forme commanded both the steering and the firing through the propeller, so he only had to point the aeroplane itself against the target (Kehrt 2010, 183).  Hans Buddecke saw in this fast scout the “ideal” of aerial warfare (Buddecke 1918, 43) and German ace Oswald Boelcke wrote that the small monoplane that “flies wonderfully and is very easy to handle” was like a “child” to tend and protect (1917, 47); Immelmann’s comment sounds soberer and _ technically detached: “They are pretty machines, light, fast, and agile. The pilot flies alone. He operates the machine gun that shoots through the propeller. The plane is only intended for fighting enemy planes, not for reconnaissance” (Immelmann 1916, 50). To Ernst Udet, the monoplane looked “wonderfully graceful, sleek as a falcon” (Udet 1935). McCudden, on the other side of the front, wrote that “the

Figure 3 comes harmony — a sense of values” (Lewis 2003, 160). Mastery over machines elevates the human to a state of harmonic detachment. In such a state of elation. the pilot could tell the beauty of the aeroplane, especially scouts, whose description is a topos of most memoirs. Unlike the early, clumsy two-seaters like the MF.7 “Longhorn”, MF.11 “Shorthorn”, RE.2 or FE2.b, which were slow. vulnerable, and primitive-looking, the fast single-seater scouts are depicted as fast and powerful as predators, and slender and elegant like birds. The first twc were the Fokker E.III on the German side, the French Nieuport 11 and 17, anc the British Sopwith Scout. Kehrt defines the revolutionary monoplane Fokker EI] as a ground-breaking “instrument of violence” (Gewaltdispositiv) whose strength consisted in the compact unit of man and machine: the forme commanded both the steering and the firing through the propeller, so he only had to point the aeroplane itself against the target (Kehrt 2010, 183). Hans Buddecke saw in this fast scout the “ideal” of aerial warfare (Buddecke 1918, 43) and German ace Oswald Boelcke wrote that the small monoplane that “flies wonderfully and is very easy to handle” was like a “child” to tend and protect (1917, 47); Immelmann’s comment sounds soberer and _ technically detached: “They are pretty machines, light, fast, and agile. The pilot flies alone. He operates the machine gun that shoots through the propeller. The plane is only intended for fighting enemy planes, not for reconnaissance” (Immelmann 1916, 50). To Ernst Udet, the monoplane looked “wonderfully graceful, sleek as a falcon” (Udet 1935). McCudden, on the other side of the front, wrote that “the