Replica biplanes unveiled to mark 100th anniversary of Vimy battle
LANGLEY, B.C. — When air cadet Richard Knopp was helping to build a replica World War One biplane with other volunteers, he imagined what it was like to sit in the pilot’s seat 100 years ago.
Knopp learned to fly a modern aircraft last summer and the 18-year-old realized his predecessor’s cockpit was much more narrow and lacked a glass shield, leaving the pilots with nothing but goggles for protection.
“It’s hard to imagine doing that. You stick your head out the window of the car and you feel that (air), then imagine going twice as fast and 3,000 feet up. How’s the wind up there going to feel?” he reflected while gazing at the biplane inside a Langley, B.C., airplane hangar.
“It was like seeing history come alive.”