construction

[carrick58]

I suppose this is a geekie question, but what kind of wood did they use to build the airplanes ? I know that Albatross used plywood for the covering ,but what about the Ribs ? What did the British use ? In the repair depots were local trees used or wait for a shipment of wood from england ?

[carrick58]

Thanks, the Vid is awsome.

[OvS]

Thanks, the Vid is awsome.

 

Spruce, Birch, Maple... mostly hard woods in the internal bracing, and more pliable, however strong woods for the skins on the Albs and Pflaz types.

 

OvS

[Flyby PC]

"....Early aircraft designers and builders often used ash or hickory. They were looking for a type of wood that would be relatively lightweight in addition to being very strong. Just prior to World War I, Sitka Spruce was discovered by aircraft builders and found to be very well suited to their needs. The strength to weight ratio was discovered to be very favorable for aircraft use. Several other types of wood had similar strength to weight ratios but were not as easily harvested or as plentiful. At the time, spruce proved to be the best choice, not only because of the physical characteristics, but of equal importance was the fact that spruce was readily available and easy to use as a building material. With the advantages noted, spruce became very widely accepted as the primary material to be used in building an airplane".

 

http://www.sportair.org/articles/Aircraft%20Wood%20-%20Part%20One.html

 

There are two things which occurred to me about spruce. Judging by the low quality timber you might see on a building site, spruce wouldn't strike me as a particularly good choice, but then traditionally, it would be slower grown and probably much better quality timber than what gets used today. (I've heard that Scandinavians typically have a very low opinion of modern UK whitewood).

 

Second thing is I would bet that whatever the type of wood, the aircraft factories would get the pick of the very best timber available - with straightest grain and fewest knots. That said, demand was so high that Britain was plundering it's forests during WW1, so much so that the Forestry Commission was set up in 1919 and given 'the general duty of promoting the interests of forestry, the development of afforestation, and the production and supply of timber'.

 

[carrick58]

Wow, A lot of information to digest.

[Bullethead]

Second thing is I would bet that whatever the type of wood, the aircraft factories would get the pick of the very best timber available - with straightest grain and fewest knots. That said, demand was so high that Britain was plundering it's forests during WW1, so much so that the Forestry Commission was set up in 1919 and given 'the general duty of promoting the interests of forestry, the development of afforestation, and the production and supply of timber'.

 

Cool! Never knew that. What I did know was that the Brits had for centuries prior done this very thing to ensure they had enough oak trees to keep the Royal Navy afloat. This, however, had come to an end in the mid-1800s when they switched to iron hulls. So I suspect they just pulled the old documents out of the file and changed the types of tree they were interested in.

[zoomzoom]

On either side there would've been a whole lot of this going on:

 

 

But even more of the "woodworking" aspect needed on the German side I imagine, with fuselages clad in shaped plywood. Small damage could've been repaired in frontline shops. More heavy damage, and the machine may have needed to be sent somewhere else for more involved repair. Imagine though the amount of work (as exampled in the video...."skip through the talking bits and you get some rather nice shots of it") involved in maintaining a whole fleet of planes, not just the one seen here. Amazing. I'll bet there was a dearth of mechanics and woodworkers back home!!

 

ZZ.

Edited May 26, 2010 by zoomzoom

[Duce Lewis]

Great video Al!

I noticed the Observer took 4 Drums of ammo for his Lewis Gun ...1 1/2 Strutter I think

Anyone know how this compares to Ammo Load in OFF?

[Duce Lewis]

I might be talking out my butthole ( I've been known to do just that at times }

But this SOUNDS like it Should Work:

 

Take a flight in the Strutter with the observer, bring up the HUD ( F5 ), primerily the printed part, as that features a moving Ammo Counter.

It should read the total of rounds aboard. Squeeze off in short bursts all the ammo for the pilot's gun

 

Those rounds still shown, should be for the observer's gun. Now divide that number by 4, if you don't come up with 97. There's Some Skullduggery Afoot

I opened the xdp files for the Srutter

Pilot gets a 300 round belt for his Vickers

and the Observer gets 485 for his Lewis ...or 5 Drums!

[+RAF_Louvert]

.

 

Very interesting thread here started by a good question asked by carrick, and lots of excellent info already provided. Flyby PC noted Sitka Spruce in his reply, and this is still one of the top choices in aircraft building and repair when wood is required. I have used Sitka Spruce myself in several aircraft projects and it is a beautiful material to work with. Incredibly strong and relatively lightweight, but oh so expensive. And to be rated as aircraft grade for something like a main spar the grain has to run uninterrupted through 90% of the board's length, with no knots or defects of any kind. Keep in mind too that the main wing spars and such on the old planes were not a single board but where in fact several lengths glued up into a channel, I-beam, or box section, which increases the strenght of the spar exponentially.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

.

[carrick58]

Never knew that . Thanks all

[+Polovski]

4 drums, and 1 on the gun...