Nova: First Air War

I admit to being disappointed by this DVD. I was expecting so much more than what was here. But, what was here was fairly good. So...good and bad.This is really the story of Vintage Aviator, a New Zealand based group that restores and manufactures vintage WWI aircraft. It has less to do with the "first air war" than their efforts to experiment with a few types of British and German aircraft. They give a very brief thumbnail sketch of the air war in WWI and how air technology advanced by leaps and bounds in a few short years.I think they do a good job of looking at how difficult it was for the early pilots to shoot each other down. On the other hand, that wasn't really in doubt or important. I mean, I think anyone would know that it would be difficult for pilots to fire pistols and rifles with any hope of hitting anything - a waste of time and testing effort. Better was their exposition of interruptor gears and the "Fokker Scourge".They do a good job of looking at a very few aircraft: Fokker Eindekker, pusher configurations, Albatross, SE5A but that's it. It's very British-oriented with no mention of excellent French aircraft such as the Nieuport and SPAD. No mention of the Fokker Triplane either.Good and bad. They did some things well, others not so well. Three stars and not worth the asking price.

Only thing that really stinks about this, is after watching you're going to want to go to New Zealand and see the real thing. Well some of the reviews put this video down because it is mostly modern footage shot in New Zealand , I really enjoyed it simply because it is remarkable that somebody is actually remaking these aircraft. Note that I used the word remaking not reproducing oh, they are making them , exacting as to how they were made back then

Very well done. It is a detailed history of some of the planes, and how they were built, and used

A nice little documentary of reconstructed aircraft in New Zeeland. That's all there is. So I think the title is misleading and it's a short documentary. Given the title, the length of the documentary, and the price I can't recommend it much. There are several WWI documentaries that actually give more information on the historical subject than this Nova program. Even given the limited scope of the material, there are quite a few aircraft that have been rebuild that there isn't any information on at all.

Excellent cinematography! The beautiful footage of the WWI aicraft recreations is almost worth the cost of the DVD. It would be an excellent $9.95 or $14.95 value... however the $24.95 price of admission that I paid was way to high in my opinion! As I write this I see that the price has already been lowered to $16.79. For the enthusiast that would probably make it "worth your while". I watched it once... that will probably be the only viewing of this DVD for me.

This is a nice documentary with beautiful footage of many authentically reproduced airplanes from both sides of the first world war. If you want intricate detail about the first air war, it might be best to rely on books, but this is a very visually appealing and interesting program that maximizes the video format both in the air and on the ground, including some fun experiments in the air to get an authentic feel for what the aviators experienced. It's great to see that there are passionate people, these ones being in New Zealand, who have taken such care and invested so much in reproducing these important historic aircraft.

Good history of early Air combat.

As pointed out in another review, this video shows a New Zealand group, called "Vintage Aviator" which, build replicas of WWI military aircraft to the finest detail and then, flies than in simulated air combat and reported first hand, the positives and negatives of each machine, instead of repeating what was stated in some old book.Contrary to the other review, I see this as very positive because, it is impossible to find 100 years old, lumber and canvas war airplanes in flyable condition to do this performance evaluation.I applaud the effort and dedication of this group of people, to re-create these historic WWI military aircraft as equal as possible to the original ones. This is a must see for the aviation enthusiast!