Must have been bitter cold up there

[Olham 164]

At last, I found this photo (right) of a German face mask.

The pilot and observer in the left pic are also Germans.

(So, who said, Germans always looked sleek in their military dresses?)

 

Damn, you can almost see the cold they have been preparing for!

 

 

[Dej 17]

Ah, that's the danger of non-representative photos, Olham. Those guys are just going out 'trick or treating' at Halloween. That's clearly Hannibal Lector on the right.

 

Seriously though, we sit here at our desks, in our stduies or under-stairs or back rooms or whatever, wearing whatever we please, flying and fighting in the virtual skies and sometimes imagine we're near a WW1 experience. Nope. Put on every ouside coat and pair of gloves you possess, and if the latter is only one wrap a towel around each hand and then try OFF.

 

By God, all those fellows were men worthy of the utmost respect, whatever side they were on.

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

Olham,

 

James McCudden in Flying Fury says that flying a Dh2 he cannot explain the intensity of the cold while flying a pusher airoplane, but it can be readily remembered by those that have experienced it.

 

I know while flying with 56 squadron he cut a hole in the firewall between the cockpit and the engine and put a moveable shutter over it so that he could at least benefit from fome of the heat that the engine threw out, while he was at altitude.

 

Not sure what other pilots did in the way of innovative modifications to their aircraft to combat the cold, perhaps one of the more knowledgeable forumites could help with the answer to this question.

 

Thanks

Rugbyfan1972

[Olham 164]

The photo on the right was really named "Hannibal" in Rosebud's website.

He must be a late war observer - I believe that bright thick line is for his electrical-warmed mask.

 

Those conditions - nowadays' young men would just refuse to go up, I bet.

[Javito1986 14]

Oh hell no. Not without my electric heater!

 

And a parachute!

[JFM 18]

This is very basic but the average temperature lapse rate is ca. 3.5 degrees F/2 degrees C for every thousand feet one ascends (more in dry air, less in moist). Thus, even if 70F/21C on the ground at takeoff, by the time the plane reaches, say, 10,000 feet AGL (above ground level) the temperature has dropped 35/20 degrees and the ambient air temp is now 35F/1C. Take her up to 13,000 feet and the temps drop to 24.5F/-4.2C. That's at 70F/21C at takeoff. Now let's say it's a late December 1916 morning and McCudden has left on patrol in his DH2 pusher, which had no benefit of engine heat that the tractor pilots had to at least warm them slightly. At takeoff the temperature is, say, 20F/-7C; at 10,000 feet it'd be -15F/-26C. Common to be in those temps for 90 minutes or more. The DH2 nacelle and windscreen would offer some protection from the 80-100mph wind, but at those temperatures the cold finds you damn fast.

 

During my multi-engine training in Oklahoma I flew a Beechcraft BE-76. It was winter (in Oklahoma it is ten billion degrees in the summer and minus ten billion degrees in the winter, with a 30 knot sustained wind blowing year round); the heater was inop; engines were on the wings. We trained anyway, bundled to the max but at least we were in an enclosed cockpit. We were relatively warm. Still, it didn't take long for our feet to start, well, burning is the only way I can describe the effect of the cold. And we were only out for an hour at a time (all our feet could stand; hell we weren't at war [and didn't have fug boots]!) and not much higher than 6,000 feet.

[Javito1986 14]

How in the world is it even healthy to be up there like that? I would think they'd be getting frostbite on their extremities. And the cold must do wonders to your state of mind.

[Lewie 7]

If you think the allied pusher pilots had it tough look at the rear gunner's 'cages' on the Caproni Ca33 They were completely out in the open.

 

 

 

 

 

Quite few of these aircraft did come with wind powered generators to provide electrical power for the Obs and gunner's resistive wire heated suits.

[Javito1986 14]

Uh

 

Is that guy strapped in?

[Lewie 7]

There may have been some sort of harness or simple restraint. I'm not sure what it looked like.

[Javito1986 14]

It's not enough you don't get a parachute, you can get dumped if the pilot does a left turn too hard? No wonder so many guys just said screw it and went off to land at a German aerodrome to get themselves captured

[Javito1986 14]

Oh yes, that's a very intimidating skull. Might be scarier if it wasn't mounted on that kite though.

[Olham 164]

Good info there; thank you, JFM!

 

How in the world is it even healthy to be up there like that? I would think they'd be getting frostbite on their extremities.

And the cold must do wonders to your state of mind.

It wasn't only the low temperature, that was nasty for your extremities, but also the huge difference in air pressure.

Arthur Gould Lee wrote in his book "No Parachute!", how you had painfully pinches in the extremities, when you

went down from 18.000 feet to zero. They made it as constant and equal a descent as possible, but it must have

felt very nasty, and only disappeared some time after touch down.

 

We don't think about that, cause we travel in pressurized cabin today. But I have heard, that in the early days of

jet planes, a tooth filling could explode out of the tooth, when it was made badly and had a little air encapsuled

below it. This would expand in the lower pressure at very high altitude.

Edited April 4, 2011 by Olham

[JFM 18]

Same with intestinal gasses, Olham. As an aside, a Luftwaffe pilot told me that as a student he and his friends intentionally ate food that caused gas so they could reek out their instructors.

[JFM 18]

A brief wander OT, perhaps, but if interested this goes with UncleAl's first photo, an Aviation Militaire Belge MF11bis, flown by Lt Louis de Burlet and Adjt José Orta, 3me Esc.

 

[Olham 164]

If you think the allied pusher pilots had it tough look at the rear gunner's 'cages' on the Caproni Ca33

They were completely out in the open.

Never seen this one before, Lewie. Looks like he had to crawl through over the tanks, under the main wing,

to get to the forward or rear position? But in the "crow's nest", he could at least put his feet on the engine.

And: Italy is never as cold as northern France.

 

Great profile, JFM - another one I have never seen before.

[Lewie 7]

One will also notice in the pair of images uncleal posted, that the Voison LA, ( lower image..) has a big 4 bladed propeller powered generator sitting on the lower left wing, and you can bet that they used it plenty, There's nothing crazy about keeping warm on a long and high altitude obs mission.