In March of 1992, Baron von Helton created Jagdgeschwader 1 "Richthofen", an Online Cyber-Squadron dedicated to playing Sierra's original Red Baron flight simulator.

Named after the historical Flying Circus, JG 1 “Richthofen” holds the distinction of being the first German Online Cyber-Squadron and the third oldest Online Cyber-Squadron on the Internet- only the Arabian Knights (formed in January of 1992) and the Wing Walkers (formed in February of 1992) are more senior.

JG 1 “Richthofen” was of course ahead of its time. When JG 1 was founded, the Internet was still in its infancy and the idea of “online gaming” was an extremely new concept. Sierra's Red Baron, after all, did not come with multiplayer functionality. However, there was the ImagiNation Network (INN), and because of INN's existence, Red Baron Online was born.

Owned by the Sierra Network, (TSN), the INN was an innovative multiplayer on-line gaming system that would allow you to play cards, board games, golf, trivia, Red Baron, and even be tutored in your homework. By today's standards, it was archaic. For the day, however, it was cutting edge.

In between 1994 and 1995, AT&T would purchase TSN, making changes and enhancements to the original layout of INN. Then, on 6 August 1996, America Online (AOL) acquired INN. While AOL would run the network for another two years, before eventually closing it down in early 1998, one of the first services they would close was Red Baron Online.

On 31 August 1996, Red Baron Online was shut down, and with no outlet with which to fly Red Baron Online, JG 1 stopped functioning as an cyber-squadron. During this period, many JG 1 pilots continued to fly under their JG 1 squadron names in games such as WarBirds or Air Warrior's WW1 Arena. However, there was no real organization to it. JG 1 had always been conceived of as a World War One cyber-squadron, and when the WW1 genre dried up, JG 1 seemed to be all but disbanded.

In June 1997, with the announcement that Sierra On-Line was developing a sequel to the original Red Baron simulation, JG 1 pilots started reconvening on The Rook's Unofficial Red Baron Site. Because of the incredible interest in seeing JG 1 take to the air once again, it was decided to officially re-organize the squadron, once again under the leadership of Baron von Helton.

At first, JG 1 flew missions offline. Using the original Red Baron Mission Builder, missions were exchanged between members via email. Then, JG 1 had the opportunity to get involved with the open beta for Simguild's Flying Circus.

While Flying Circus, as a game, is often forgotten when recounting the history of online simulations, it does represent a very important milestone for JG 1. Previously, with INN, air battles were restricted to 2 versus 2 affairs, never allowing the squadron to fully fly with itself. With Flying Circus, however, JG 1 was able to field up to 20 pilots at once, finally allowing the squadron to fly with a large section of its official roster. This, along with the advanced qualities of the game when compared to the original Red Baron, drastically changed how JG 1 both flew and fought.

JG 1 would fly Simguild's Flying Circus almost exclusively until Red Baron II was released on 30 October 1997. By 2 December 1997, the majority of JG 1 was once again flying on a Sierra owned online gaming system, this time called the World Opponent Network (WON.net). However, WON.net was plagued by terrible problems, and many JG 1 pilots found themselves instead flying off of Kali.

On 24 January 1998, Baron von Helton retired from JG 1, deciding to focus on his Revenge of the Jastas patches. At this point, JG 1 was comprised of over 50 pilots, many of whom had very different ideas as to how JG 1 should adapted and evolve. The main conflict during this period was over whether JG 1 should be a “multi-sim” squadron, flying both Flying Circus and Red Baron II, or whether it should dedicated itself solely to one or the other.

Citing Red Baron II's poor flight models, as well as the continuing problems with WON.net, approximately half of the squadron wanted to see JG 1 exclusively dedicate itself towards Simguild's Flying Circus. This schism resulted in JG 1 being reduced to approximately 18 Red Baron II pilots, as many of the Flying Circus advocates left JG 1 in order to join or start new squadrons.

Despite the internecine conflict, however, JG 1 continued to grow. In June 1998, JG 1 was the first World War One cyber-squadron to see the need to create a dedicated ground attack wing. At first called Bogohl 1 (BG 1), this group was soon re-designated Schlasta 2, and specialized in multi-functional bombing, reconnaissance, escort and ground attack duties, much like the real Schlachtstaffeln did in World War One. Schlasta 2 was eventually demobilized in November 2001.

JG 1 also had the honor of being involved in the beta testing of Red Baron 3D, which was eventually released on 27 October 1998. Red Baron 3D, a heavily patched version of Red Baron II, fixed the majority of problems found within the original game, and as a result, JG 1's numbers swelled.

In March 1999, JG 1 participated in its first "War Tournament", flying alongside the KA7 squadron against the Wing Walkers, the Lafayette Escadrille and the RAF 209. In April of that same year, JG 1 also became involved in the "Great War" tournaments, hosted by the RAF 209 and JG2.

It was also in April 1999, when the “Stabs Offiziere der Flieger von JG 1” (Stofl) was officially founded. The Stofl (then called the SODF), was designed to consist of the Jastaführers (Jasta commanders) and the Geschwaderkommandeur of JG 1 so that they could vote on matters ranging from promotions, medals, commendations, and various other intra-squadron matters.

On 9 October 1999, JG 1's Jastaführers began work on a homegrown online tournament called Flanders in Flames (FiF). Now legendary within the World War One online community, Flanders in Flames was first laid down under the leadership of Ernst von Leep and Paul Lowengrin.

This tournament was designed to be as realistic as the Red Baron 3D game would allow, recreating authentic First World War dogfights and aircraft match-ups. Key components were an emphasis on two-seater missions and the repercussions of lost resources on both supply and mission capabilities.

In December 1999, Flanders in Flames I was flown, with JG 1 and the Lone Wulffe squadron fighting against the Wing Walkers and the Lafayette Escadrille. Flanders in Flames I was followed in quick succession by Flanders in Flames II through Flanders in Flames V, with “Flanders in Flames V: Bloody April” being flown in June 2001. Eventually, the Flanders in Flames tournament events would even bring new aircraft, new graphics and new flight models into the Red Baron 3D community.

By the Fall of 2001, the Red Baron 3D community started to shrink at an alarming rate. JG 1 still continued to host and fly the Flanders in Flames events, as well as take part in the "One Life to Live" event hosted by SE Aetos, but overall participation started to drop off.

Much of this was due to three separate events. The first was the release of Windows XP in 2001, which would not run Red Baron 3D due to problems with the way the operating system interpreted the game's conifg files. The second was the bankruptcy and rapid demise of 3Dfx Interactive, which meant that the 3D glide acceleration needed to run Red Baron 3D would no longer be supported on any new video cards released after 2002. The third was the release of Oleg Maddox's IL-2 Sturmovik, considered by many to be a watershed moment in flight sims.  While Red Baron 3D would rally in 2003 and 2004 with the releases of Glidos and The Promised Land's "Full Canvas Jacket Superpatch", much of the dedicated Red Baron 3D community was moving on.

For JG 1, this period of transition was difficult. JG 1's Stofl was well aware of the earlier 1998 conflict revolving around whether or not JG 1 should be a “multi-sim” squadron, and it was known that the unit was starting to lose members due to the changing nature of the online community. As a result, the JG 1 Stofl decided to act. While they reaffirmed that JG 1 should remain solely dedicated to the World War One era, and thus Red Baron 3D, they saw no reason that JG 1 pilots looking for new experiences couldn't belong to and form their own units for other non-Red Baron 3D games.

Thus, with the blessing of JG 1's Rittmeister, Paul Lowengrin, and under the leadership of Leonard Strickland, known within the IL-2 community as II./JG1_Hartmann, thirteen JG 1 pilots decided to create an extension of JG 1 Richthofen within the IL-2 community. In December 2001, II.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 1 “Oesau” (II./JG 1) was officially established as a World War Two squadron.  It would contain it's own command structure and day-to-day autonomy. However, it would still remain apart of the greater JG 1 family.

This created the "One Jagdgeschwader 1, Two Squadrons" framework which is still in place today- two groups, united by a common history, jointly working together to carry on the traditions first set down in March 1992.

By December 2003, JG 1 Richthofen was still in a period of change. With no clear successor to Red Baron 3D on the horizon, despite talks of a new World War One game called “Knights over Europe”, JG 1 Richthofen continued to shrink, losing members to both real life and normal online attrition.

By early 2005, the last JG 1 organized Flanders in Flames event for the Red Baron 3D community was held. Called Flanders in Flames X, it was a great success that would prove to be JG 1's swan song with regards to Red Baron 3D. Soon after Flanders in Flames X, JG 1 Richthofen gave control of it's day-to-day operations to it's sister group, II./JG 1. With that, JG 1 Richthofen as an organization went into a period of torpor, waiting for a new World War One simulation to be a true heir to the classic Sierra Red Baron games.

In early April 2009, Russian developers called «Neoqb» sent out a call to the World War One simming community for participants who would be willing to help beta-test a new game called Rise of Flight. According to their terms and conditions, «Neoqb» actively wanted to recruit approximately 100 people who were currently members of "stable virtual squads" that had established histories on the internet.

JG 1 Richthofen was honored to be selected as one of the participating squadrons, sending five beta-testers to the event: Paul Lowengrin, Otto Klaiber, Kristopher "RivRat" Kampfvelt, Michael Degelow and Walter "Rabe" Krupinski. Not only did beta testing the new Rise of Flight game give JG 1 a great opportunity to fly our old "wood and linen" crates again, but we all received a first hand look at the next generation of World War One simulations.

On 25 June 2009, "Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War" was released in North America with two flyable aircraft: the Fokker D.VII and the SPAD 13.C1. Within a week, both the Albatros D.Va and the Nieuport 28 became available. These aircraft were soon followed by a plethora of others, including two-seaters and large bombers.

By 28 June 2010, it was announced by 777 Studios, the North American publisher of the game, that it had officially acquired all rights to Rise of Flight and the «Neoqb» brand. Thus, the continued development of Rise of Flight was secured for the foreseeable future.

Moving forward, JG 1 Richthofen is continuing to grow and is actively working to revive the Flanders in Flames tournament within the Rise of Flight community.  This is a continuation of our 20 year commitment to create an immersive and fun online experience for all of our membership.

JG 1 Richthofen currently operates Jasta 4, Jasta 6, Jasta 10 and Jasta 11, with Jasta 6 being our European jagdstaffel.