JFM

He's working on getting those Albatros logos round the right way!

Congratulations, Canada! And, yes, to Finland as well!

+1 I fully expected USA would win today but I did not expect that first period. Sunday is going to be fun.

Yep, at least you did better than the Swedes.

My understanding is that Sanke 606 was taken at Avesnes-le-Sec. I'll check with a Sanke expert. Edit: Yes, Sanke 606 was taken "near their [JG1] airfield at Avesnes-le-Sec" between 8-19 January 1918. From Lance Bronnenkant's excellent must-have book The Imperial German Eagles in World War 1, Their Postcards and Pictures, 2006, pp 32, 33.

Have it, love it, runs fine maxed out.

Ah, Bucky, you've nothing to fear. Practiced bombing in a Gotha tonight and I think the nearest I got to hitting something was 100 yards. No bombsight (at least that I know of) so I was just winging it. I sure do love flying those big beasts, though.

File Name: 1ère Escadrille de Chasse Sous-Lieutenant Jean Olieslager's Hanriot HD1, H-D No.8 File Submitter: JFM File Submitted: 24 Feb 2010 File Category: Other Entente Aircraft Skins This skin was created for EmlD's Hanriot HD1 (found here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=5730 and features overall silver/grey appearance with green uppersurfaces, engine-turned nose panels, integral (i.e., non-decal) Aviation Militaire Belge markings, and tri-colored stripes on the fuselage. Details include rib stitching, trailing edge drain holes, instrument panel that matches the VC instrument panel, and fluted Vickers barrel. As were many Belgian machines, this Hanriot was operated in a near-pristine condition until pranged 4 November 1917, an event which hospitalized Olieslagers for one month. Please see the PLEASE READ ME for further information. Click here to download this file

I'll be in a Gotha (I have some presents to deliver to Bucky [ ]) so I better keep my eyes peeled!

Just mentioning that I am still very intersted in all of this. Not rushing anybody or anything, mind you. Just an FYI.

IMO RoF has the best representation of flight, although I'm greatly disappointed with many other aspects of that sim. OFF Phase 3 is good but some of their models are a bit odd. I.e., that five second delay between throttle input and engine reaction in the Albatros D.II is mega annoying, and a B-52 could out maneuver their SPAD VII. Plus, if you get a single bullet through an aileron your roll rate decreases 50%. Still, though, there's much to like about OFF, too. Fortunately I have no allegiance and can enjoy them all when the mood strikes.

Welcome, vschoell!

Thank you. Time to install the sim.

It is impossible to determine in that photograph how much damage occurred from the terrain impact and/or post-crash examination. One thing is patently clear: LvR's triplane did not "become a biplane," as has been incorrectly stated. The main spar and left and right wings are well visible, still attached to the interplane struts. Compromise of structural integrity damaged ribs and fabric, certainly, but he had well enough wing left to reach earth safely until power lines necessitated low-altitude maneuvering that his damaged plane could not handle and he lost it at the end. Documents show that if the entire Dr.I upper wing, or even most of it, failed and/or departed the airplane, it crashed--a la Gontermann and Pastor; dead. That LvR was able to bring it down to earth in a controlled manner from 4,000 metres is testimony that he was still getting enough lift from the upper wing (that had not departed the airplane) to prevent a fatal dive. Another shot of this event. As compared to the previous photo, note the difference in the wing fabric position and further damage to the right upper wing; unmistakeable evidence of post-crash examination that further betrayed the true extent of damage prior to terrain impact. LvR's words [my emphasis]: "Then I heard a loud crash in my machine! It was hit. Only too late I noticed what was wrong. My Fokker triplane suddenly became a biplane. It is a horrible feeling to be minus one wing at four thousand meters. I quickly broke away from my Englishman. He was really quite stupid and did not follow me. Nothing would have been easier than to shoot me down in this condition. With both remaining wings I could still bring it into a normal glide, but only straight ahead, as the rudder no longer functioned." The bold indicates exaggeration. If his upper wing and ailerons were gone and his rudder didn't work, how did he "quickly break away"? An argument can be made that LvR was speaking figuratively but what the rudder had to do with anything regarding structural failure of the upper wing ribs is beyond me. There is debate whether this wing failed as a result of the poor construction that plagued other Dr.Is or if he was hit by return fire, but it is possible his rudder and/or cables could have been damaged by gunfire or debris.

Hi, Guys, Just want to add that LvR did not lose the upper wing of Dr.I 454/17 on 13 March--he exaggerated the damage. He lost a fair bit of fabric and had aileron troubles--the rudder has nothing to do with the wings--but several photos of the crash landing all show the upper wing was there. Behold:

Hi, Conrad. Yes, two! The first one is great but hardly covers everything, eh? Thus, round two with Greg's work, the cover of which features a painting of Udet's D.4476/17 battling a No.41 Squadron D.H.5. There is much more to cover (and even together these books barely scratch the Albatros surface) and GvW deliberately covered topics different than those of the first book and mostly avoided famous Alb aces (MvR, LvR, Wolff, Voss, etc), at least extensive coverage. If nothing else it's worth buying for the photos, which are better than those in Part 1, IMO, although of course I love all of those, too. Can't have too many Albatros books, I believe. Here, here's an example of GvW's book: http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Albatros-Aces-of-World-War-1-Part-2_9781846031793

I agree with ConradB and will add that they have two Albatros D books! One by Norman Franks, one by Greg VanWyngarden.

Rate of fire varied enormously with RPMs, as stated earlier, something no sim has replicated yet. Hopefully someday. It would be interesting to find the sweet spots of engine rpm that controlled the RoF. From Williams and Gustin's Flying Guns, World War I, page 36 (they interchange "rpm" between revolutions per minute and rounds per minute): “The effect of synchronisation of the rate of fire can best be explained by describing a simple system like that introduced Fokker, in which one firing signal was sent to the gun for each rotation of the propeller. If the gun was capable of firing at 500 rounds per minute, then for propeller speeds of up to 500 revolutions per minute the RoF would be the same as the propeller rpm. However, as soon as the propeller exceeded 500 rpm, the gun mechanism could no longer keep up and could then only fire on every other rotation, so the RoF would drop to 250 rpm. It would then accelerate again with increasing propeller speed, but at half the rate, so when the propeller was spinning at 1,000 rpm, the gun would be back to firing at 500 rpm again. Once more, propeller revs faster than this would cause the RoF to drop, but this time only to two-thirds of the full RoF, as it would fire on every third rotation, so it would be achieving 330 rpm. As the propeller continued to accelerate to 1,500 rpm, the gun would be back up to 500 rpm again, and so on. Any quoted figure for synchronized rates of fire could therefore only be an average. “…With their in-line six-cylinder engines running at 1,400—1,500 rpm, the Germans’ Maxim would have had to have been capable of about 800 rpm to take full advantage of a firing impulse every other rotation. It could not do this, so it made sense to adjust it to fire approximately every third rotation and thereby enjoy the benefits of great reliability of both gun and synchronizer gear and reduced gun heating problems; the Maxim was in fact normally set at around 450 rpm. The introduction in 1917 of the Hazleton gear to the British Vickers enhanced the RoF to 850-900 rpm, which in combination with the fast-acting and more reliable CC gear would fire twice for every three rotations of a rotary engine, or every other rotation with the faster-running V-8 and V-12 engines.”

It's good. Also get Greg VanWyngarden's Jagdstaffel 2 'Boelcke' von Richthofen's Mentor (Osprey Aviation Elite Units 26). Most, most excellent. [Edited for typos; pre-coffee.]

Bump. Waiting patiently.

Hello, My friend Southside Bucky has a great handle on things but I'll throw in a cent or two. (Your quotes are in bold.) All those things you mentioned are things I and I'm sure others have wondered about. In the above photos there is a red fuselage D.III with no markings but has the three color wings. Culd this one be used as MvR's early D.III? WarlordATF and myself have this one down as Festner's DIII. But I dont think there is a photo of Festners DIII anyway. I know of at least two partial photos of Festner’s D.III—assumed to be his D.III, anyway, as in one he’s sitting on the turtledeck with his legs dangling into the cockpit. This airplane appears not to have been overpainted in the red wash—or the wash was very, very thin, at least initially (and one photo shows what appears to be a definite vertical demarcation between a lighter portion of the fuselage and a darker portion, just aft of the cabane struts on the starboard side). This machine had an offset radiator. Date of these photos is between 13-25 April. Seems at some point his plane was painted red, however, as this was the time when Jasta 11 adopted the red color for all their planes, and one claim for Festner’s KiA (25 April) described his plane as “red.” If this DIII could be used as MvR's, then would it be safe to say it was used in this colorscheme till the middle or end of April 1917? Then after this date, when most of Jasta 11's DIII's fuselages were painted in overall red, would it be safe to say thats when MvR used the ALL red DIII? At best this is conjectural. Manfred began using a red D.III from at least January 1917. In the famous photo of Jasta 11 pilots near MvR's Le Petit Rouge at Roucourt, a camouflage pattern can be seen on the upper wing but not the lower, which is as dark as the fuselage. In a photo of LPR taken some time earlier, a camouflage pattern can be seen on the lower port wing, which is what led me to theorize that it was eventually overpainted (although colors and markings luminary Greg VanWyngarden disagrees with me on this). The upper wing was not painted red, however, at least as late as 20-25 April 1917, when that photo of it was taken at Roucourt. After April, MvR was gone from the front all of May and until mid-June, after which he scored one victory with D.III 789/17. MvR did not describe this plane’s appearance in is combat report and I’ve not found a description of it anywhere else. I drew it with a red fuselage and factory camo wings, but this profile is provisional. Before the arival of the DV that is. So the all red DIII (if there was one) was only used for 1 month? IMO there was no all-red D.III, although I concede D.789/17 might have been all-red, maybe, if. As far as I know, nobody knows, except maybe German researcher Manfred Thiemeyer, but he holds his cards extremely close to his vest. His first DV I didnt include with my Jasta11 DV's. Just the all red one. His first DV had a standard fuselage with red nose, red wings and struts, red wheel discs with red struts, and a complete red tail section I believe. This is the one he was shot in the melon in I'm sure. Is this wrong? No, that’s correct. However, before he flew that D.V (serial no. unknown) he scored with D.1177/17, which is presumed to have been all-red IF this is the plane seen in the photos taken at the Gontrode Zeppelin shed. Could be, as you can see the upper wing camo pattern through the red wash and it matches the camo pattern in another photo of D.1177/17 prior to red painting. Also, the lower wings were solid green and no camo demarcation can be seen through the red wash in the Gontrode photo—i.e, red wash over solid green. Richthofen merely described this plane as having a “red body” on 23 and 25 June. Doesn’t mean the wings weren't painted red later, OR the plane in the Gontrode photo is not 1177/17. As far as Lubbert's D.III, I have seen a few pics of this one. Such an odd paint job. The blue does seem to be a bit lighter you're right about that. I'll work on that and see how it looks. Ok, There were two Lubberts with Jasta 11 in early 1917. Brothers. Eddie Lubbert(?) I think flew the blue and yellow D.III early on but was killed early before June 1917(dont remember where I read the date). BUT there are a couple of photos of an Albatros D.V with what appears to be the same color scheme after E. Lubberts death. His brother maybe???? Does anyone know of this? There are also photos of a Jasta 11 D.III painted as Lübbert’s taken after his death. So, either there was more than one machine painted that way, he was shot down in a machine not normally his own, or the “half blue, half yellow” D.III ascribed to him was not quartered horizontally as everyone believes. Maybe the front half was blue and the back half was yellow? In my book I linked him with D.1996/16 but I’m stepping back from that a bit because I’ve found no nth degree connection between Lübbert and this machine. There is a photo of MvR's DV and this other blue(?) and yellow(?) with white stripe D.V infront of hangers visiting Koghol 3 in the summer of 1917. Again Eddie Lubbert was dead by this time. I would like to do a D.V in this color scheme if it did indeed exist and belong to Jasta 11. Anyone have anything to add please do. I am familiar with a couple photos taken in front of the Gontrode sheds but none of them show a plane such as what you’ve described. Could you direct me to a photo in a book so I can see what you mean before commenting? Now Kurt Wolff's D.III. WarlordATF did include a version with just the rear fuselage and tail section in purple. I can add this color scheme. But, as MvR's D.III wasnt all red till mid to late April 1917, can I say that Wolff's D.III was painted this way until the same time before becoming (all?) purple? And were the wings painted purple-brown-purple early on with the natural varnished fuselage and purple tail? His later D.III was said to have light blue wheel discs. I have to change that. Yesterday I wrote my dear friend Southside Bucky about Wolff’s machines, so I’ll just quote part of the message: “I am of the mindset that Wolff’s “plum purple” machine was from March, as described by Lübbert on 6 March. Serial number unknown (at least by me and those I’ve asked [and if you know it please tell me!]), and how much was painted purple is also unknown (I believe [and I could be wrong, but this is my hunch] that the half-purple fuselage description stems from the photo of D.2099/16 overturned on some RR tracks and misidentified as having been flown by Wolff when he was wounded by Tripes on 11 July [bodenschatz described Wolff returning to Marckebeke after that sortie and getting out of the cockpit very irritated or agitated {forget the exact word used} after he had been wounded]). Wolff’s 632/17 arrived (according to Ferko) 19 April and there is the photo of this machine in factory appearance taking off, ostensibly from Roucourt. Later on, according to Lothar, they (J11) begged Manfred to let them also adopt red for their planes, with each having an identifying color. He described that they “looked with pride on our red birds,” which to me reads that all of them were red to a large degree. When? Had to be in late April because he wrote Allmenröder’s plane was red with white (although he wrote white elevator, rudder and read part of the fuselage, and I’ve only seen the nose, spinner and elevator white in photos, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been further painted later, or he just got it wrong in his memory). Lübbert described Allmenröder’s plane as being “field gray” in March, and via the photos the Allmenröder machine with white is much darker than gray. This plane 629/17 (according to Ferko) arrived 21 April, and Allmenröder was on leave for most of April, anyway. So, at the same time as this, i.e. late April, Lothar described Wolff’s as red with green. I used to have that famous photo of Wolff next to this machine but lost it in my computer crash. Seems the horizontal stabs and elevator were green, but it’s damn hard to tell.” Lot of tangents in there (I torture that poor man with my emails), so I’ll boil it down: I believe Wolff’s D.III was purple in March and early April. Issued a new D.III 632/17 19 April, which became the red with green machine. Wheel covers were very light and most likely light blue, at least in the photograph of Wolff standing with 632/17. I cannot say what color the wheel covers were on the purple machine in March. 1. Did Karl Schafer's earlyD.III have a yellow nose and a yellow band just aft of the cockpit but just ahead of the black rear fuselage? And what was the color of the wheel discs? I agree with Southside Bucky and believe the “yellow” description of this plane is actually the shellacked and varnish wooden fuselage; i.e., unpainted from the factory. Schaefer had at least two machines painted in this fashion; one had a (presumably) red nose and spinner, and each had their serial numbers surrounded by black paint in different fashions. One of them, D.2062/17, did not have a red nose/spinner and had very light wheel covers, likely light blue. This is the plane that was photographed with the shot-up Axial propeller and had the entire serial number (including year) and Axial rudder logo unpainted. In the well-known photo of Schaefer standing with the D.III (cloths tied to his coat fluttering in the wind, ladder leaning cockpit), that plane had the red nose, only the serial number (which I can’t make out) and not the year/Alb logo unpainted, and the radiator looks offset where 2062/17's was central. To me, its prop looks to be a Garuda where 2062/17s was an Axial, at least up until it was shot up. Wheel covers are very dark, either red or black. He had a third machine that was entirely dark, and different researchers debate whether it was all red over a once-half-black fuselage or was half red/half black. This is the machine he took to Jasta 28. Here's a drawing of D.2062/17 the SSB coincidentally sent back to me today: 2. Did MvR's early D.III have standard finish on the rear horizontal stabilizers and elevators as well as on the wings? Debatable, although again I lean toward what Bucky said. The horizontal stabs/elevators look awfully dark in the famous April Roucourt lineup photo, don’t they? There is a suggestion of camo demarcation in another Roucourt photo (with the pilots of J11 standing nearby) but that could be anything from a photographic anomaly to chalk, dirt, etc. Painting this area (and the lower wings) red would have been much easier than painting the upper wings—this is hardly proof that they were, however. 3. Wolff's early D.III with the rear fuselage painted purple, what were the wings painted? standard or purple - brown - purple? Again, I know of no provenance that only the rear fuselage was painted purple. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t, but what is this based on? Regardles, the Albatros that has been described as being purple, in March, would have had its wings camouflaged in pale green/olive green/venetian red, but I cannot say the exact order or pattern (there were several variations). 4. A million more questions I know! Every day I ask myself a million new ones. I have to remember this is for a game, not a research book It’s amazing how many people learn history from flight sims, so IMO it’s very important to mirror history as much as it can be mirrored, even with flight sim skins. Regardless, inherently there is much conjecture with this subject so sometimes a best guess is all we have to go on, at least until more information is uncovered. Whatever you do, pretty please, with sugar on top, get the damn Albatros rudder logo correctly oriented on the port side! Be the first to do it correctly! It "flies toward" the spinner on both sides of the rudder. BTW, going to grab your skins. Thank you very much for them. (Edited for typos. Probably many others I missed.)

I like my friend Mike's stuff: http://www.backusstudio.com/aviation/

No, I don't even think I can do that. Albatros D.s in vertical power dives while in a formation tighter than the Blue Angels? Somehow I made it through Flyboys but no, no, I better stay away. Just all the ridiculous Roy Brown stuff will have me guffawing at the screen. Hmmm, maybe if I approached it as a comedy...

All five minutes of them, from what I understand. I received advice to "park my brain under my seat" when I saw Flyboys and by doing so I was able to enjoy the movie. Won't be able to do it with this one.