One of the many imaginary
alter egoes of
Snoopy. When in his
flying ace mode, Snoopy sits atop the
roof of his
doghouse wearing a
skull cap,
goggles, and a
scarf, and clutching imaginary
machine guns. His
arch enemy is
the Red Baron, whom he must
dogfight every time he goes into the air. And he likes to
narrate his missions.
As the dawn breaks, I wave to the poor blighters below. Blighters like it when you wave to them.
The World War I Flying Ace is an American stationed at an Allied
aerodrome "somewhere in
France"—in the book
Snoopy and the Red Baron, he is based near the town of
Pont-au-Mousson. He flies a
Sopwith Camel, which more often than not returns to base
riddled with bullets and
belching out smoke from its tail. Before every mission, the Ace eats an
English muffin, which is usually too cold for his tastes.
Other Peanuts characters figure into Snoopy's flying ace fantasy as well. Woodstock is the Ace's mechanic. After the Ace is shot down trying to destroy an ammunition train (Linus Van Pelt's wagon), he attempts to kill a sentry (Charlie Brown) and evade two machine gunners (Sally Brown and Lucy Van Pelt) on either side of the barbed wire (their jump rope). And so on.
Most common quote: "Curse you, Red Baron!"