Manfred von Richthofen was one of those rare individuals who, with an airplane underneath him, became a hunter.

He was not a particularly good pilot. What he was was a tactician; he practically never went into a fight at a disadvantage. He tended to pick on observation planes (49 of his 80 kills), which after all was the main target of pursuit aircraft of the time.

But above all, he was by all reports a tremendous marksman. He always made sure to close to close range before firing, important at the time because fighters carried not a whole bunch of ammo.

In some ways, one could almost say that he was a "bully": sneaking up on nearly helpless opponents then punching them from behind... except that's how aerial combat works.

If I had to use one word to describe his style, it'd be "cerebral." There were better fliers. There were pilots who racked up tremendous scores in shorter times than he (Georges Guynemer, for example).

But it was his tactical strengths, as opposed to his "fire and passion", that made him so deadly.

It also didn't hurt that he often (but not always) flew superior aircraft to his opponents. During "Bloody April", when the Albatros DIII dominated anything the French and British could throw at them, he had 20 kills.