Farman F.40

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Late last night I uploaded the Farman F.40, a two seat pusher style fighter/bomber/recon plane introduced in late 1915. It features two skins, some decals, and has a loadout for p10ppy's Le Prieur rockets (which are included in the download.) It also features ojcar's dummy machine gun, which makes the AI pilot a little more aggressive in a dogfight.

 

My thanks to ojcar for making the FM and for help with organizing the weapons for installing in FE2.

My thanks also to peter01, for his machine gun data, to p10ppy for the rockets, and to Crowford for help with the cockpit details.

 

 

[+Coupi 4,380]

Pretty bird! Thanks a lot!!!

[+whiteknight06604 934]

simply another work of art. Many thanks!

[+Geezer 3,569]

Ya done good!  Love the skull decal. 

[extremeone 13]

Great plane, very nicely done. Thanks again Stephen, especially for all these wonderful 2-seaters you have produced.

[+gterl 1,204]

Great stuff!!

 

I see the death's head painting from Jaumotte and Wouters (Belgian) ...nice!

[Silberpfeil 363]

Neat model and details - good job Stephen 1918!

[+Geezer 3,569]

Two more tasty possibilities.

 

 

[33LIMA 972]

Anyone else having troubles with this bird in FE2?

 

First issue I hit is that if there is more than one F.40 lined up for takeoff, our wings seem to clash instantly, with this result (I'm the one sitting static nearest the 'camera'):

 

 

IIRC there is a mod intended for big aircraft like Gothas, which spaces things out a bit, but I have had no such problems with planes like the Voisin or FE2b.

 

Second, if I take off with just one plane, I can't - take off, that is. As the plane approaches flying speed, she yaws wildly left (controls central). Attempts to correct just reverse the yaw.  Feeding in rudder during the takeoff roll doesn't seem to help. After some wild zig-zags I can sometimes get airborne, but by then I am well off the airfield and 'ghosting' through trees, so I don't count that as a successful takeoff. Joystick calibration seems fine.

 

Third, wing breaks are very clean. The screenie below was after getting airborne after one such run through the trees. But before running off the airfield I had clipped a parked plane. The latter fireballed but I didn't, - which was good. But I then managed to lift off, with the loss of a large section of my lower wing not making things any harder - plus there was that very clean break, complete with wires still running out to the now-missing (?) wingtip, which actually seems to have become squared off where before, it was swept back.

 

 

Is there a technique for getting these birds off the gound, within the airfield boundaries and without zig-zagging more than a thing that zig-zags a lot?

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Sorry about that. The wingtips touching is something I knew about, I suppose I should have warned everyone. The Farman has a wingspan of 17.6 meters, First Eagles lines up planes on the runway 15 meters apart. The only way to correct this is to change the airfield ini in the terrain folders. You can stagger them front and back (y axis) about 10 meters so they don't sit in a straight line. Quack made an airfield for large planes some time ago. The Galicia terrain had an airfield for oversize planes, but only for some airfields used in the campaigns. The Caudron G.4 will have the same problem (17.2 meter wingspan.) The Voisin just barely makes it at 14.7 meters.

 

The clean edges on a broken wing are just the way I make the planes. I would rather put the file size detail into things you can see all the time. I have never put detail into the damaged parts.

 

The wires hanging out after the wing is clipped is an embarrassment to me. I will look over the data file and upload a correction.

 

I don't know enough about FMs to comment on the take off issues. I have not encountered the problem, but all the airfields in the terrains I fly most often have been leveled to be absolutely flat. Could a slight incline be causing the problem? The Farman has 4 wheels, I wonder if the extra drag causes a problem in certain situations.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Stephen1918

[+ojcar 157]

When you start to move and win some speed, push your stick to raise your tail. Then you can take off as usual. I think it's because you have the engine (and the torque) behind you. The Voisin is easier to take off because its landing gear

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks guys!

 

I had tried lifting the tail once, but it didn't work. Tried it again just now and crashed again the first time - but with a bit more practice, I can now get airborne that way, with no fuss. I think if I wait too long to raise the tail, I get the pirouette, so pushing the stick forward as soon as she starts to roll seems to be a safe bet!

 

 

Thanks for another great WW1 plane, which fills one of the few remaining gaps in the FE 1915-18 planeset!

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I just uploaded a new version of the F.40 (still awaiting administrator approval.) This version corrects the problem with the wing wires and includes a Russian skin. I also added a note about the wide wingspan causing collisions on the runway.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Stephen1918

[+ojcar 157]

Did the Russians use the F40?. I know they used some MF and HF  an the F30, but I'm not sure about the F40 

Edited March 19, 2015 by ojcar

[Crawford 570]

Yes, in Russia was twenty F-40 (Morfa or Morfar) bought in 1916. Some were applied on Eastern front, but the part of them has remained not unpacked up to the discontinuance of battle actions in East.

[Crawford 570]

I congratulate, Steve, it is EPIC WIN! Your long work has crowned by success, which even has exceeded my expectations!

Very much it was pleasant, that the external levers connected to rudders of height, move. At one of my favourite planes, Airco DH2, they motionless, unfortunately. Not fatally, but nevertheless it is unpleasant ))

[+ojcar 157]

Thank you Crowford. Very useful info for campaigns!

[Crawford 570]

Thank you Crowford. Very useful info for campaigns!

Don't mention it...    As I have misinformed you. The amount 20 planes really occurring in some old books. But the new researches allow these data in essence to correct:

In the summer of 1917 on Russian front was available only 461 serviceable planes. On arms consist, first of all: 70 – "Nieuport -11-Bebe", 68 - "Nieuport-21", 43 - SPAD-7, 70 - "Farman-30", 39 - "Maurice Farman-40", 37 - "Caudron", 150 — "Voisin", 76 — "Anatra-D", 41 — "Lebed-12", 25 — SPAD with a cabin (A2).

The huge air stocks were kept in territory largest in Russia 1-st Central Flying stock - warehouse, in Moscow (in area Khodynka). In the autumn 1917 there was 70 fighters "Nieuport-23", 23 "Nieuport-17", 4 "SPAD", 12 scouts "Farman -40", 15 "Caudron " and 72 English planes of the various marks (mainly "Sopwitch"). Total 196 devices.

Thus, not 20 planes in units of battle, but it is much more – not including what have remained in a warehouse and that were broken earlier! However there is an opinion, that these data on the 39 F.40 are overestimated. True, as always, somewhere in the middle.

 

http://aviaww1.forum24.ru/?1-3-0-00000271-000-0-0

 

I can add, that the Russian pilots did not love this plane considered as its changeable in flight, and difficult on on rise and landing . They were applied basically as training planes. At school of the military pilots in Kacha near Sebastopol there were two machines, and one have broken, and second was in a non-flying condition (In the autumn 1916 of eight received planes "Maurice Farman-40" six were broke together with the pilots as a result of a corkscrew!)  Many machines, for example, in 2-nd Guards Air Squadron, participated in duels. "Farman-40" was on arms (alongside with other types of planes) in 5-th, 13-th. 24-th, 26-th, 34-th and 37-th Air Squadrons (KAO), 3-th and 8-th Army Air Squadrons , 1-st and 2-nd Guards Air Squadrons.

As to identification marks, information slightly. It is known is, that some of Russian F.40 had the French marks.There are many photos of the Russian F.40 with the French circles on wings and French tricolor on a tail. The F.40 planes in Kacha were with the French marks too. But there is also photo, dated February 1917, where plane standing on a skis and on wings is the Russian circles.

Thus, "Russian skin", created by Stephen1918, is rather conditional, but it is impossible to inform, that such could not be.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Crowford

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Thank you Crowford! I would like to pretend that I knew all that... but I didn't.

 

I've gone back to working on the Galicia terrain, and I was using the F.40 as a stand in until the F.30 gets built. When I uploaded the revision, I accidentally included the Russian skin with it. I knew the Russians had some, (but I didn't know how many,) so rather than repackage it, I just let it go.

[Crawford 570]

 I would like to pretend that I knew all that... but I didn't.

 

Even if you did not know it, you very correctly have guessed! You have gift of a prediction!

By the way, it is necessary to bring in one specification concerning identification marks of the Russian F.40. The historian of the Russian aviation S. Klimov has noticed, that in accessible photos, ALL planes had the French tricolor on a tail. But the circles on wings could be French or Russian.

Can Be, this information will be useful to you further…

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

First issue I hit is that if there is more than one F.40 lined up for takeoff, our wings seem to clash instantly, with this result (I'm the one sitting static nearest the 'camera'):

 

I've been playing with the Airfield ini since 33Lima's post. This version seems to work pretty good. The planes are spaced 25 meters apart instead of 15 and arranged in two rows, 10 meters apart. For smaller planes, like the Morane Saulniers, they look pretty far apart, but the larger planes, like the Farman F.40 and the Caudron G.4, can now take off without colliding.

 

I noticed that the Airfield.ini indicates a "[Runway001]" I tried for several days to make a "[Runway002]" but could not get FE to recognize the second runway.

 

Make a backup of your WW1_Airfield1.INI and drop this in your Terrain folder. It will change all the airfields to the new configuration. All the parked planes remain the same.

 

I will also put this in the Downloads section for Terrain and Environmental mods.

AirfieldForLargePlanes.zip

Edited March 26, 2015 by Stephen1918

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks Stephen - got it already!

 

Edit - works fine in FE2 if I drop it into my [username]/Saved Games/ThirdWire/FirstEagles2/Terrains/ww1Cambrai folder. I don't have that terrain's files extracted so the sim just reads the new file as it would with an extracted file. Didn't need to back up anything.

 

The Farman F40 is now fine from flight-line onwards...

 

 

...and smaller planes also look and take off just fine, spaced out...