Never seen this kite before

[Olham 164]

AIR DEPARTMENT SCOUT "SPARROW"

 

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww1/f/2293/9/0/1

[Slartibartfast 153]

Greetings Herr Olham... must admit I wouldn't want to try and fly it either...

[Davy TASB 0]

Thats an extremely fugly old kite

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

What an awful little aircraft!...you'd have to be mentally deranged to fly that monstrosity!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Spooky! Makes me go all wobbles just thinking about trying to land it. B-r-r-r-r-r-r!

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

That's one ugly aircraft. Even the Fee is a beauty compared to that abomination.

[rwmarth 0]

So I take it you guys aren't too enamored with the fixed cockpit ladder?

[77Scout 3]

Here is a little blurb on it ... seems it flew as bad as it looked!

 

http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/black_scout.php

[Lewie 7]

I take it you've not seen the Blackburn Tripe? It's nearly the same airplane..

 

 

Then of course there's the Wight Quadraplane..

 

 

 

And my favorite , which I also made a scale RC model of.. The Austin Triplane.

 

[CaptSopwith 23]

I take it you've not seen the Blackburn Tripe? It's nearly the same airplane..

 

 

Then of course there's the Wight Quadraplane..

 

 

 

And my favorite , which I also made a scale RC model of.. The Austin Triplane.

 

 

Did Blackburn make a single good plane? My fiance picked me up a copy of 101 of the world's worst aircraft and Blackburn practically has its own chapter.

 

AIR DEPARTMENT SCOUT "SPARROW"

 

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww1/f/2293/9/0/1

 

That... thing, makes the "spinning incinerator" look positively stable! I wouldn't go within ten feet of that thing, let alone get in it.

[Lewie 7]

Well that's the Voison LA2 which was the first plane to carry a machine gun aloft and first to score a kill with it's MG. And the second is a Farman Shorthorn, and was one of the most common French observation aircraft of the 1914-1916 era. Happe's Bomber squadron Esc MF25 rose to their own fame flying the "Chicken Coop".

 

Neither were designed originally as pursuit planes, but they have their own level of successes.

[Lewie 7]

Did Blackburn make a single good plane? My fiance picked me up a copy of 101 of the world's worst aircraft and Blackburn practically has its own chapter.

 

 

 

That... thing, makes the "spinning incinerator" look positively stable! I wouldn't go within ten feet of that thing, let alone get in it.

 

Their early monoplanes were not bad aircraft.The Shuttleworth collection has an original one with it's original Gnome 50 hp that they fly on calm days.

 

[media]

[/youtube They also had a few inter-war planes that were notable, but nothing from WWI that was worth mentioning. ] Edited February 25, 2011 by Lewie

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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MY GOD! They're using a mechanic for a tail skid! Just goes to show you what regard the Other Ranks were held in.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

He must be in excellent physical condition. Imagine running so quickly at takeoff and then hanging on during the flight.

[Lewie 7]

Step ladders were in short supply it appears.

[carrick58 23]

mmmmmmmmm would look good under the guns of an Albatross

[Bullethead 12]

Ah yes, another example from the WW1 Aviation Collection at the 'Museum of Diseased Imaginings". We should start a thread where we post up pics of such things.

[Lewie 7]

On a more serious note I once had a notion to make the Blackburn Tripe for TargetWare's Richthofen's Skies, I even had half of an FM made up from the few 3 Views I could find online.

 

My guess is it would be a near disaster in ground handling. Because of the narrow track and the roll intertia of the extreme span of the tail surfaces and fuselage placement. Once it got up to speed, got some air flowing over it's various bits it probably wasn't so bad. It would have the same odd gyro precession the DH2 had, coupled with even larger tail surfaces, both capable of making for some really twitchy control inputs. Plus the forest of struts for the tailbooms and rigging which would make for a rearward center of drag which would attempt to damp the tail controls some. This aircraft wouldn't be anywhere near pleasant to fly, but it wouldn't be a complete handful once off the ground either. It would be decidedly odd, quite slow and not very maneuverable,at least in any extreme need.

 

I guess one should look to the other Admiralty aircraft that did get used by the RNAS, The Short 184 wasn't exactly a beauty either, slow, heavy and ponderous, but it was successful for what it did. Compare it to the early Franco-British Aircraft company's flying boats.

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

When you look at what we have today, in a little over the period required for a person's lifetime..it's quite staggering!

[Olham 164]

You guys "haven't left a good hair" on that kite, as we say in Germany.

It would have looked truly great in "The magnificent Men and their flying Machines".