"Albatros Man" strikes again - No wing failures with Albatros D.III OAW ?

[Olham 164]

Thanks for those details, Bullet - I would rather trust your book(s) here.

My source was German Wikipedia (the site wasn't even available in English yet),

and a post somewhere in "The Aerodrome".

 

What I find interesting is, that the Austrian Daimler has been so much stronger

than the German. Germany in general was obviously more of an industrial state

at that time already - but still the austro-Daimler was the better engine.

 

As for the German attitude towards Austria I can only say:

"Looking down one's nose is not the best perspective for catching the whole picture."

[Bullethead 12]

What I find interesting is, that the Austrian Daimler has been so much stronger than the German. Germany in general was obviously more of an industrial state

at that time already - but still the austro-Daimler was the better engine.

 

As for the German attitude towards Austria I can only say:

"Looking down one's nose is not the best perspective for catching the whole picture."

 

The Austrian Hiero engines were also very good. The problem was, however, that the Austrians couldn't make enough of either to satisfy demand. They had scads of airframes sitting around waiting for engines all through the war.

[JFM 18]

Hauksbee, in those great posts above, I didn't see a response to your comment about starting, so I'll chime in. All Albs had a starting magneto. From the pending Osprey Air Vanguard book Albatros D I -- D II : "Although the Albatros D I and D II required ground assistance for engine starts, they did not employ personnel to ‘swing’ the propeller as did aeroplanes with rotary engines. Instead, ground crew filled the cylinder petcocks with a mixture of oil and benzene, slowly pulled the propeller through several complete revolutions to draw the priming fuel into the cylinders, and then the pilot positioned the magneto switch key to M1 and rapidly hand-cranked the starting magneto. This created a continuous spark discharge in the cylinder at or past top dead center, igniting the fuel/air mixture and driving the piston downward. This action caused the engine driven magnetos to fire the spark plugs in the other cylinders, starting the engine and engaging the engine-driven air pump that continuously pressurized the fuel tank to send fuel to the carburetor, thereby completing the self-sustaining cycle."

 

This is how it was with Pfalz, Fokker, etc., also.

[Olham 164]

So an Albatros pilot could even have started his craft alone again from any meadow?

Could he do the compression-turning of the prop, then hop into his cockpit and "fire" the magneto?

[Olham 164]

Just checked RODEN MODELS for Austrian OeFFAG Albatros;

they have the D.II, and the various D.III types - only in 1:72 though.

What I would NOT have liked about the Austrian mid-war fighters is the 60s-wallpaper-type

of camouflage - arghhh!!!

 

http://www.roden.eu/...ery/026/026.htm

 

 

[JFM 18]

Yes, Olham.

This is a Fokker DVII, but remember you aren't starting a plane, you are starting an engine. The engine doesn't know what plane it's in.

[Bullethead 12]

What I would NOT have liked about the Austrian mid-war fighters is the 60s-wallpaper-type

of camouflage - arghhh!!!

 

Oh bah! The Austrian camo was the coolest of the war. It made the German lozenge stuff look dull and unimaginative .

[Olham 164]

Well, this one is a bit better - still looking like a kid's candy box.

But I guess it did very well, what it was made for - to shatter any form.

Especially in B/W photography.

 

You caught that camouflage very well there, Bullet! Here is Jerry Boucher's

painting of Linke-Crawford's Aviatik D.I.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2012 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

You caught that camouflage very well there, Bullet! Here is Jerry Boucher's

painting of Linke-Crawford's Aviatik D.I.

 

Thanks. I did model my scheme on that particular plane, although I used several references besides that painting.

 

The thing is, Austrian camo is one of the great unknowns facing modelers and skinners these days. The state of knowledge is so bad that Grosz, Haddow, and Schiemer removed the color plates from the latest edition of Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One, much to my disappointment when I received my copy of it. The authors at present are convinced that the colors they had in previous editions of the book are definitely wrong, but they don't yet know enough about the correct colors to offer anything at all right now. And this is in the definitive work on the subject....

 

So, when I did this skin, I scrounged around the web, followed discussions at the Aerodrome, and finally just took my best guess based on the available information. All I can definitely say is that number of colors in the various patterns are correct and the colors themselves are somewhere within the amorphous area of uncertainty that passes for a general consensus these days. The colors are almost certainly wrong, but they're also almost certainly in the ballpark.

 

Still, I find Austrian camo quite fascinating, at least in its full extent like this. Observe that the wings have alternating bands of 2 different patterns, a dark 5-color and a light 4-color. The fuselage has a medium 6-color at the wing roots and a light 3-color elsewhere. The horizontal tail has a medium 4-color and the vertical tail has the same medium 6-color pattern as the central fuselage. So, 5 different patterns on the same plane using 9 different colors in various combinations, all painted by hand. How can you not love that?

[Olham 164]

Did you know, that the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt was so inspired by the camouflage on the Austrian planes,

that his paintings showed this influence? (He even made a painting called "Fliegerpfeile" or similar, after those

nasty iron darts which could be dropped from aeroplanes on ground tropps).

 

 

[Bullethead 12]

Looks more like he was inspired by absinthe :)

[Olham 164]

...or both?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Oy! Olham, that painting makes me verKlimt. I may be ill.

 

On the other hand, BH, your Austrian camo job is outstanding. I'd like the file for that one so I could enjoy it over the Italian Front.

 

.

[Bullethead 12]

BH, your Austrian camo job is outstanding. I'd like the file for that one so I could enjoy it over the Italian Front.

 

I'm quite flattered! I uploaded it to the data base here when I made it some time ago. It's called "Hell's Jester". If you can't find it, let me know and I'll send it to you.

 

But anyway, there's an historical problem.... The Austrians never had any operational D.VIIs, although they have a few dozen in the final stages of assembly when the war ended. Are they even available on the Italian Front?

 

See, I just wanted to make an Austrian camo skin. An Albatros would have been more appropriate but I've never sat down and made a template for that plane and I wanted to get right into the paintjob. But I had a D.VII template already so I just used that. I figured the Austrians would have sent some pilots to Flanders to gain experience on D.VIIs while waiting for Austrian production, and one of them might have felt homesick and painted his plane in Austrian style.

[Bullethead 12]

Here's the link for the skin:

http://combatace.com/files/file/11116-fokker-dvii-hells-jester/

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Super! I will download it when I get home late tonight. You are correct about there being no Austrian D.VIIs operating at the Italian Front, at least from what I can recall. None-the-less, your camo pattern is first-rate and deserves the air time.

 

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[JFM 18]

BH, what version/year published is your copy of Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One?

[Bullethead 12]

BH, what version/year published is your copy of Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One?

 

Mine's 2002