During the summer of 2002, Brian and his former college roommate, Michael Selig (now an
engineering professor at the University of Illinois), developed a flight simulator for the
Discovery Channel's "Unsolved History: Death of the Red Baron". Michael focused on the
aircraft aerodynamics, while Brian created all of the other software (graphics, sound,
bullet physics, controls, networking, etc.) The simulation was developed in four months,
during the period from July through October 2002.

Although he was only in high school at the time, Matthew also played a critical role in the
development of the simulation, creating the 3D computer graphics models for the Red Baron's
Fokker DR-1 triplane as well as the two British Sopwith Camels and various ground objects.
He also worked on model data formats and control surface articulation.

The simulation involved three aircraft, including a Sopwith Camel biplane (flown by Wilfred
"Wop" May, an inexperienced pilot), a Fokker DR-1 triplane (flown by the Red Baron, who was
pursuing May), and another Sopwith Camel (flown by Arthur "Roy" Brown, who pursued the Baron).
It included a ballistics simulation of every single bullet fired by Brown and could detect if
a bullet hit the engine of the Fokker or even the body of the Red Baron himself. The simulation
was also fully networked, and allowed three aircraft to be flown simulaneously.

As development of the simulation neared completion, the date for filming also grew closer.
The very night before filming, there were still a number of tasks to be completed.
Christine and Matthew joined in to help create terrain elevation data while Brian performed
last-minute coding. Working until after 2:00am the morning of the shoot, the terrain and code
were completed. One task still remained, however. The final tree laydown would need to be
completed sometime prior to filming.

Frasca International, Inc. generously allowed filming of the show to take place in their factory
in Urbana, Illinois. Brian's software included graphics to drive a 3-channel visual dome, showing
a wide-angle view of the action during filming.

Filming for the show began around 8:30am and continued until 10:00pm that evening. It was a very
long and exhausting day for everyone. While the film crew setup their equipment, Brian setup
the computers and networking. In a back room, Christine and Matthew worked on the final tree laydown,
"planting" each tree's location in the world, via data files.

After the film crew was setup and Brian's computers were all ready, a makeup artist came by and
applied makeup to Brian and Michael. Then the bright lights came on and filming began. Filming
included various interviews with Brian and Michael about the simulation and the last flight of the
Red Baron.

Filming then moved to the 3-channel visual dome. Although Michael is a good pilot, he had
difficulty flying and shooting, so it was decided that he would serve as the Red Baron
and would fly the Fokker DR-1 in the simulation. Matthew, who was offscreen, served as May
and would fly a Sopwith Camel. Brian (who could fly and shoot) flew in the other Sopwith Camel,
and served as Roy Brown, in pursuit of and shooting at the Baron's Dr-1.

Throughout filming, there were many takes and re-takes. This was often a result of a lack of
a script. The director would often say, "Let's do that again and say the same thing you just did."
That was especially hard, since Brian and Michael were simply describing things in an ad hoc manner.

There were also a few re-takes that were a result of Brian actually scoring hits on the Baron's
Fokker, which was not a desired outcome. Since the premise of the show was that the Baron was
shot down by ground fire, those takes involving Brian scoring hits on the Fokker needed to be
re-shot.

After filming was complete, the film crew took down their equipment and Brian took down and
packed the computers. It was the end of a very long and tiring day.

A few weeks afterwards, Brian got a call from the director asking if some additional footage
could be filmed of the simulation. The next week, some special video equipment arrived via
Fed Ex. Brian performed some additional filming of the simulation and then sent the video
equipment and the digital video tape back to the director.

A month later, as the show was being put together and edited in California, Brian got another
call from the director asking if some special "close-up graphics" of the aircraft could be
created to highlight the machine guns. Matthew created some special graphics of the aircraft
barely two weeks before the show aired.

The program first aired in the USA on Wednesday, 18 December 2002 at 9:00pm ET.
It later appeared on television in Canada and in Europe throughout 2003.

More information can be found here:

Last update: 13-JAN-2008