2-839-564 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Single-engine, single-seat, German World War I biplane fighter; 180-horsepower Mercedes D.IIIa water-cooled engine. Painted red and white as it appeared in 1930 film, "Dawn Patrol." The German Pfalz D.XII appeared on the western front in the summer of 1918. It climbed satisfactorily and its performance in level flight was comparable to that of the famous Fokker D.VII. But it could not turn as well and it was sluggish in combat. Despite these limitations, the Pfalz D.XII performed well enough to relieve the German Air Service of its shortage of competitive fighters late in the war. By the time of the Armistice, nearly 800 D.XIIs had been delivered to front-line service. The wartime history of the NASM Pfalz D.XII is obscure. After the war, it came to the United States as part of Allied war reparations. It was later sold as war surplus, brought to Hollywood, and appeared in a number of World War I aviation films. Given the lack of information on this particular airplane's wartime history, and its well-documented and illustrious movie career, NASM decided to restore the Pfalz as it appeared in the 1930 Hollywood aviation classic, Dawn Patrol.