Paul Frank Baer

Paul Frank Baer (born January 5, 1896 in Fort Wayne ( Indiana ), † December 9, 1930 in Shanghai ) was an American pilot.

Use in the First World War

Baer joined the French Foreign Legion on February 20, 1917. He began pilot training, which he finished on June 15, 1917. He was then transferred to Escadrille 80 in Souilly on August 14, 1917 . On January 6, 1918, he was transferred to Escadrille 124 Lafayette, which shortly thereafter, on February 18, 1918, became the 103rd Aero Squadron of the US Army Air Service. On March 11, 1918, he achieved his first confirmed aerial victory at Cenay-les-Reims. This was also the first aerial victory for the 103rd Aero Squadron. Immediately after his 9th victory in the air on May 22nd, 1918, his plane was so badly damaged that it crash-landed near Laventie and he was taken prisoner by the Germans.

post war period

Baer returned to Fort Wayne on February 28, 1919. He became a test pilot in Detroit . In 1927 he became an aviation inspector with the Department of Commerce in San Antonio , Texas . Then he took a post in South America. Here he helped set up an airmail service. Baer died in an air accident on December 9, 1930 in Shanghai. He transported mail and passengers for the Chinese Airway Federal Inc. When taking off on the Yangtze River in a Loening seaplane, he brushed against the mast of a junk. The plane crashed. The pilot and the passenger on board were killed.

literature

• John Guttman: SPAD VII Aces of World War I. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1841762229

Web links

• Paul Baer