Book Review: Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft

[Bullethead 12]

I recently purchased Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One, by Peter M. Grosz, George Haddow, and Peter Schiemer, published by Flying Maching Press. This thing runs over 500 pages and covers everything known to have been built in the Dual Monarchy or imported for use there, for the army only. No seaplanes, I'm afraid. The publish is pretty proud of this book, but you can buy it for substantially less if you look around. Same with other FMP titles.

 

SKINNERS TAKE NOTE: My copy is the 2nd edition of the book, and as such lacks all color profiles that appeared in the 1st edition. So, if you're looking to skin one of Stumpy's Austrian planes, or perhaps make an Austrian skin for a Fokker or Albatros, you'll have to look elswhere for colors. Here's what Grosz has to say about that, from the preface, page vii:

 

We have made one important decision to preserve the integrity of the book. During the eight-year period since the first edition appeared, original World War One aircraft fabric has been examined and analyzed with scientific precision. Painstaking microscopic analysis and exacting scrutiny have uncovered hard facts concerning color values, fabric structure, paint quality, and application techniques as were practiced by German and Allied aircraft manufacturers during the Great War. Much to our surprise and disappointment, a microscopic inspection of the so-called authentic samples used to prepare the color plates in the first edition has revealed that these samples failed to conform to the contemporary fabric, paint, or application practices. There is no doubt that the fabric samples on which the color determinations were based had not been taken from World War One Austro-Hungarian aircraft. It is our conviction that color determination based on examples of dubious provenance should not appear in a work of this kind, which is dedicated to accuracy and authenticity. Since the authors cannot vouch for the correctness of the color work, we have decided to remove the color section entirely from the second edition of Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One.

 

Given that this book is considered rather authoritative, it appears that the colors of the 1st edition were taken and run with by many folks, so a lot of the info on the net these days is still based on it. Thus, you have to use it with caution. Bottom line: nobody seems to know what colors were used.

 

 

But I digress. I didn't get this book for skin colors, but to learn about obscure airplanes. And in that area, the book is great. It covers everything, not just production machines but all the experimental prototypes that came to nothing. Most planes are presented with photos, physical and performance stats, numbers produced, and very good 3-view drawings. This data is organized by manufacturer, listed in the order of their numeric designation used in serial numbers.

 

The Dual Monarchy's aviation industry was interestingly arranged, hag-ridden by bureaucracy and monopolists, and handicapped at times by severe materials shortages. Still, it produced some very good machines, although also quite a few clunkers. One interesting thing is that some planes by different manufacturers tended to resemble each other. This was because nearly every company built planes designed by other companies and then modified them by their own engineers into designs of their own. However, each company had it's own style, too. And there were some planes that the Museum of Diseased Imaginings would be proud to display .

 

Anyway, it's a great book, especially if you're into building plastic or 3D models. If that's not you, you still might be interested in learning the difference between UFAG and Oeffag, or why Austrian Albatros D.IIIs were superior to not only to their German originals but also their 1918 opponents.

 

 

[Olham 164]

Austrian Albatros D.IIIs were superior to not only to their German originals but also their 1918 opponents.

 

Yes, that was the terrible lower wing problem, that the Austrian engineers solved by building it with

two holms/spars instead of only one.

Army decisions are often rather political or some money-makers' decisions. In this case, I think it was so,

that the wings had been made in a larger amount already, when the first news came in, that some had

broken. They said, they didn't have the time to change the wings again, the fighter was urgently needed.

OeFFAG must have decided early on, when they got the blueprints, that they would change the wing.

Correct me, if I'm wrong.

It's a shame to see, how much better the German Albatros could have been. It could have been used until

the end of the war, perhaps.

 

Does anyone know, whether the Albatros OAW had a stronger wing? Cause that one was used longer.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Damn, that book is expensive! You could buy a bottle of real quality rum or whisky at that price.

 

Olham, as far as I know, the OAW Albatros had the same wing problems as the other German Albs. The only difference was in the rudder, which was somewhat larger and of different shape in the OAW version.

[Olham 164]

A pro for the book is: it won't get emptier and emptier.

[Rickitycrate 10]

Nice review, thanks. This book happens to be on my wishlist. Nice to know it is a worthwhile tome.

[carrick58 23]

Never read anything that stated The OAW Albatross D-3 had any mods to the wing, But I did read that the Austrian build D-3 were changed, Some think that the aircraft was a different model. Some authors state that the Oeffag version had a stronger wing and body design thusthey could take stronger engines without extensive modifications. They fitted a 185 hp motor for power. However, the Oeffag company did maintain the common fuselage, undercarriage, and tail surfaces of the D-3 but the wing design and body were changed. With that said, They did build a strong and beautifully crafted airplane.

[Panama Red 22]

The "Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One", Flying Machine Press drawings show that the Austian Alb DIII (Oef) used the SAME rudder as the standard German Alb DIII, not the rounded Alb DIII (OAW) rudder version.

 

 

[Bullethead 12]

OeFFAG must have decided early on, when they got the blueprints, that they would change the wing. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

 

That's exactly what happened, according to this book. The Austrians knew of the D.III's wing problem when they decided to build Albatri so the 1st thing they did was redesign the wings before starting production.

 

The Austrian experience really shows what a mistake the Germans made in not fixing the problem themselves. It doesn't seem to have been that much trouble or to have taken that much time. Oeffag obtained the rights and plans to built Albatri in late 1916. They decided to built an interim Albatros D.II(Oef) while waiting on the new D.III wings, the main hurdle of which was the new design passing static load tests on the ground. The D.II(Oef) used the same fuselage, engine, and tail as the D.III(Oef) but had the wings of the German D.II, so switching production between them imposed little disruption. They only built 16 D.II(Oef) before going to the D.III(Oef).

 

The winter of 1916-1917 was very bad in the Dual Monarchy, which prevented any flight-testing until March 1917. The new D.III wing had passed its static tests before the weather improved and production had already switched over by then. Thus, all 16 Alb D.II(Oef) and the 1st 5 Alb D.III(Oef) were test-flown and accepted that month. This suggests it only took several months of design and ground testing to solve the problem, all done concurrently with establishing a whole new production facility and detail parts fabrication from scratch.

 

I therefore believe that the Germans could have done it faster. Also, designing, building, and testing a new wing design would have had very little impact on production, because the main line would have been cranking out the original design while the R&D department would have been working on the new wing and the tooling department would have been making assembly jigs for it. Once all this was ready, changing over on the main line would have maybe cost a day or 2 at most to switch out the tooling. Of course, that's looking at it from the perspective of having worked in modern aircraft factories. Maybe back then, things weren't as efficient so the change might have been harder.

 

It's a shame to see, how much better the German Albatros could have been. It could have been used until

the end of the war, perhaps.

 

The Austrians did so by putting bigger engines in it. The original D.III(Oef) series 53 (44 built March-July 1917) had the 185hp Daimler. Then came the series 153 (281 built July 17 - Jun 18) with 200hp, and finally the series 253 (201 built May - Oct 1918 and another 59 after the war) with 225hp.

 

The series 153 was regarded as "a superbly designed aircraft, beautifully balanced and especially suited for aerobatics. Its rate of climb was equal to the Hanriot and Camel, but slower in level flight than the SPAD." From looking at the numbers, its performance was roughly similar to the Fokker D.VII, and the series 253 was even better. The main problem was that they Austrians never had enough of them.

 

One thing you wouldn't like about the 153s and 253s, however; they weren't as pretty as the German types. In the 153s, the prop spinner sometimes came off in flight and broke the wing or tail, so field units started flying without it. They discovered that this increased prop efficiency, giving them about 5 knots more speed, so it became a standard field mod and the 153s flew around with ugly flat noses. In the 253s, this was introduced in production by rounding the fuselage off bluntly just in front of the engine and behind the prop, like the nose of a DFW. This IMHO really spoiled the classic Albatros looks, but you can't argue with results.

 

Does anyone know, whether the Albatros OAW had a stronger wing? Cause that one was used longer.

 

IFAIK, Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke had nothing at all to do with Oesterreichisches Flugzeugfabrik AG, but was a satellite factory of the Albatros company. As such, it made what the main office told it, which was standard Albatros designs. I believe the reason why OAWs were used longer is because they were built longer there than at the main plant. As I understand it, the main plant had, from the beginning, been more of a 2-seater factory because that's what all warplanes were originally. It was also where the R&D happened. Thus, the OAW facility was set up to build fighters. As the OAW facility grew, it produced a growing share of the fighters, until it alone could meet demand and the main factory stopped making fighters.

[Olham 164]

BH: One thing you wouldn't like about the 153s and 253s, however; they weren't as pretty as the German types.

 

Yes, I know. But there would be the beauty of performance to compensate that. And a real fighter pilot would

surely have appreciated that much before good looks.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Congrats to you BH on scoring a copy of this outstanding book. It is on my own list of volumes to have one day. I keep watching for a first edition that won't cost me an arm and a leg, but so far the best price I've run across was $75. That's just a little more do-re-me than I'm wanting to part with at the moment. But hey, Christmas is coming, and Santa knows what I like pretty well by now.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Bullethead 12]

Congrats to you BH on scoring a copy of this outstanding book. It is on my own list of volumes to have one day. I keep watching for a first edition that won't cost me an arm and a leg, but so far the best price I've run across was $75. That's just a little more do-re-me than I'm wanting to part with at the moment. But hey, Christmas is coming, and Santa knows what I like pretty well by now.

 

Check out Amazon and instead of getting the one from their main store, click on the "new and used started at $xx" link. Thats what I did, and ended up getting it NEW for about $35 from some small bookseller up in New Jersey or some such. While I was at it, I got FMP's French Aircraft of WW1 as well. FMP wants $125 for it, but I got it NEW for $50 from some other small bookseller. I figured it was worth it..

 

As mentioned, however, take the color stuff in the 1st Edition with a grain of salt. Those colors apparently were based on counterfeit artifacts, probably from that same guy who's responsible for everybody thinking German naval hex was light blue.