The story behind the WWI fighter plane that inspired Snoopy's Flying Ace

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

During World War I, fighter planes called Sopwith Camels downed 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter in WWI. For those familiar with the Peanuts comics, it's the name of the doghouse that Snoopy flies in his fantasy sequences as a Flying Ace, a brave WWI pilot battling the Red Barron. The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has one on view. Here & Now's Scott Tong visits the museum to check it out.

And, Yomi Young, a friend of disability activist and author Alice Wong, tells us about Wong's legacy of building community. Wong died earlier this month at 51

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0:00.0	Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like,
0:09.3	why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:25.7	Big fan of the comics page, and certainly Snoopy, as the Red Baron, was always a highlight.
0:31.8	Of course, Snoopy having to sneak through the wire after he's brought down behind enemy lines,
0:37.2	you know, was always a fun part of that story.
0:40.9	Happy Thanksgiving on this very American holiday.
0:45.9	We take a visit to the Smithsonian and its esteemed exhibit on Snoopy.
1:02.2	Music exhibit on Snoopy? It's Thursday, November 27th.
1:04.4	This is here and now anytime from NPR and WBR.
1:07.5	I'm Chris Bentley.
1:11.2	Today on the show, in the spirit of gratitude and being thankful,
1:16.8	we're taking some time to remember someone who left the world a better place than they found it.
1:22.9	Alice Wong, the founder of the Disability Visibility Project,
1:27.5	Wong's friends are thankful not just for her tireless work advocating for people with disabilities,
1:33.1	but also for her care packages, her great parties, and her devoted friendship.
1:38.8	Alice wrote her own deaf announcement, and the kicker to that death announcement was,
1:45.5	don't let the bastards grind you down.
1:47.3	I think I'm quoting that correctly.
1:49.5	And I would say, don't let them grind you down.
1:55.4	Before we get to that story, though,
1:57.7	we are rediscovering some World War I history via the comic Peanuts. Remember this scene
	...

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