Wilhelm Frankl (20 December 1893 – 8 April 1917), Pour le Mérite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Iron Cross, was a World War I fighter ace credited with 20 aerial victories.

Once Frankl was equipped with an Eindecker, he became part of Germany's air superiority offensive, the Fokker Scourge, shooting down eight more enemy airplanes.

Although he died fighting for Germany on 8 April 1917, in later years the Nazis would ignore his wartime conversion to Christianity, and expunge his heroic record because he was Jewish.

[4] Before the concept of the synchronized machine gun firing safely through the plane's propeller became a practical reality, aerial victories were virtually nonexistent.

[5] Nevertheless, on 10 May 1915, while flying as an observer in Feldflieger Abteilung 40 (FFA 40), Frankl used a carbine to shoot down a French Voisin.

[6] Frankl's gallantry earned him the Pour le Mérite after his eighth confirmed victory; the Blue Max was awarded on 16 July 1916.

48 Squadron RFC, his Albatros D.III lost its lower wing under the stress of combat manoeuvres, and he and his collapsed craft fell 800 m (2,600 ft).

[9] Frankl's Jewish heritage resulted in his name and exploits being omitted from accounts of World War I fliers who won the Blue Max.