THE legend of Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, has taken a knock. The victories notched up by him and other great flying aces of the first world war could have been down to luck rather than skill.
Von Richthofen chalked up 80 consecutive victories in aerial combat. His success seems to suggest exceptional skill, as such a tally is unlikely to be down to pure luck.
However, Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury of the University of California at Los Angeles think otherwise. They studied the records of all German fighter pilots of the first world war and found…
