Replica World War One planes spotted flying over Eastbourne

The planes are replicas flown by a team of pilots from The Great War Display Team.

The Great War Display Team are a group of highly experienced pilots who display replica World War One aircraft in a safe, carefully choreographed, low level dog fight routine to replicate how aircraft were flown during the Great War over the trenches of Northern France and Belgium.

Spotted over Eastbourne was the German aircraft, the Fokker Dr1 Triplane.

Designed by Reinhold Platz, the Dr1 was a direct attempt to copy the successful Sopwith Triplane. Armed with two forward firing Spandau machine guns, it was highly maneuverable, and was a favourite mount of a number of German aces such as Werner Voss and the legendary Manfred von Richthofen. It entered service in 1917 and Von Richthofen's Jasta was the first to be equipped with an eventual total of 320 being built.

The plane that was being flown was built by its owner and team pilot, Peter Bond in 2010. It replicates the Dr1 flown by Leutnant Ludwig "Lutz" Beckmann also of Jasta 6 in March 1918 which was then based at Lechelle. Beckmann survived the Great War having shot down eight allied aircraft. He went on to win the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in WW2 and commanded a transport unit of the Luftwaffe flying aircraft such as the JU52 in Russia. The Fokkers have similar colour schemes with the main difference being the colour of the snake band on the mid fuselage.