Emil Thuy (11 March 1894 – 11 June 1930), Pour le Merite, Württemberg's Order of Military Merit, House Order of Hohenzollern, Iron Cross First and Second Class, was one of the leading German fighter aces of World War I, with 35 victories.

[1] After the war, he was an adviser to the Finnish air force[citation needed] and was involved in the secret origins of the Luftwaffe within the Soviet Union.

He then enrolled in 1913 in the Faculty of Mining at the Technical University of Clausthal; he was interested in metallurgical engineering.

[3] In August, 1914, Thuy volunteered to serve as a pioneer, which was the German equivalent of a combat engineer.

[3] He then reported for duty with FFA 53, which was a reconnaissance unit that spotted and directed artillery fire from the air.

[5] Despite flying a two-seater plane poorly suited for combat, he scored his first victory on 8 September 1915.

[8] Thuy resumed his studies and upon graduation, joined his father in the family's factory in Hagen.

[3] Thuy was a member of a paramilitary veterans organization known as Der Stahlhelm, which was the armed wing of the German National People's Party.

[2] On 11 June 1930, while flying from Moscow to Berlin as part of this mission, Thuy crashed fatally in the vicinity of Smolensk.