page_title: Patrick Anthony Langan-Byrne
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick Anthony Langan-Byrne / World War I
caption_attribution_description: Britische DeHavilland Airco DH-2, 1916 Quelle: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-468/ch2-2.htm public domain The photograph depicts a strut-and-wire-braced, double-bay biplane employing thin, untapered wings. A small nacelle situated on the bottom wing contained the pilot's cockpit and gun in the forward portion and the 100-horsepower Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine in the pusher position in the rear. The horizontal and vertical tail surfaces were mounted behind the engine on an arrangement of four strut-and-wire-braced outriggers, or booms, which extended rearward from the wings. Cutouts in the trailing edges of the upper and lower wings provided clearance for the rotating propeller, which had four blades to minimize the extent of the cutouts and reduce the required spacing of the outriggers. The smaller diameter four-blade propeller, as compared with a two-blade propeller capable of absorbing the same power, also reduced the length of the landing gear.
context_page_description: Second Lieutenant Patrick Anthony Langan Byrne DSO was an Irish flying ace of the First World War credited with ten aerial victories.
context_section_description: Langan-Byrne was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery on 9 October 1914, serving in 129th Battery, 30th Brigade. He was later seconded to the Royal Flying Corps, in which he was appointed a flying officer on 4 August 1916.
  Langan-Byrne began his victories on 31 August 1916, when he used Airco DH.2 No. 6011 to force an enemy aircraft to land. Three days later, he drove a German fighter aircraft down out of control for his second win. On 15 September, he switched to DH.2 No. 7911 and shot down another German fighter in flames. The next day, Byrne destroyed a Fokker D.II. Then, between 21 and 28 September, he ran off a string of five "forced to land" victories. His being shot down by four Germans on 23 September did not seem to daunt him.
  He was appointed a flight commander with the temporary rank of captain on 14 October just prior to his last victory on the morning of 16 October. That afternoon he was airborne for his second sortie of the day. He led "B" Flight right for Oswald Boelcke, commander of Jasta 2, who promptly killed him for the German ace's 34th victory. Langan-Byrne's grave site is unknown, though it is known he was buried. His Officer Commanding, Major Lanoe Hawker, lamented, "He was such a nice lad, as well as the best officer I have ever met." As a flying casualty of the Western Front with no known grave he is commemorated at the Arras Flying Services Memorial.
  Having scored all of his 10 victories in the Airco DH.2, he's the most successful pilot in the type.
caption: Langan-Byrne flew an Airco DH-2 such as this for all of his victories.
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