JFM

Egads, two of the fugliest pigs in the war! I am interested in neither but I will definitely buy the add-on. Wake me when they release a Farman, Voisin, or Albatros C-type. Oh, and the FE.8. Cool thing is I expect one day those planes and others will arrive! Always something good coming down the road from OBD.

The parasol in Blue Max was bogus, as far as it being a German plane. A quick search reveals it was a Morane 230 with the front cockpit faired over.

If Lou did all that stuff in Boistrancourt, he should ("should"--sooooo easy to spend someone's time for them!) be working on simpler airfields, like Roucourt and Toulis and LaBrayelle, where you won't be tortured with making extra stuff, Hauksbee. I have a lot of maps and photos of Roucourt, when he's ready to go. I know OBD asked you guys to step back a bit but, I say this nicely, screw that! Then we'll never have airfields because they have so much to do as it is. Cool chateau. I'm not in the BOC but I'd install that chateau! (And not just to bomb it.... heh heh heh) Can't wait to see that baby finished. And I'm all for your ideas for the airplanes! You have a lot of interesting ideas cooking over there.

Holy mackerel! I had to take a nap just after reading that first paragraph! No wonder you needed a break. Unfortunately, I'm just a "gimme Boistrancourt!" guy and can't offer a farthing of help in any regard. I think it's awesome you are still considering the project in light of what you've done and what you still have to do. Fantastic! Many thanks and best of luck. Wisconsin. I lived there for six years as a kid, 1970-1976, on the west side of Madison. I absolutely loved it. Back then, at least, it was clean, safe, Americana. Hopefully it still is. The winters were ass-kickers for my parents but I was a kid--I didn't have to drive, shovel, etc. I just got to sled, build snow forts, have snowball fights, etc. There is a deep place in my heart for Madison, and Wisconsin in general. I would have been content to live there forever but my dad's career took us away. My dad worked as a sportscaster at WISC-TV and my mom worked at the University. My dad had to travel to a lot of sporting events so we were always taking him to the airport. Back then, there were no jet-ways to board the planes. At Dane County airport (I think it has an "official" name now) you walked up the stairs to the plane like the President. They had observing areas where you could stand and watch this, right off the ramp, just surrounded by a chain link fence. So we'd stand out there and watch my dad go. The plane would only be a hundred feet away or something. So you fire up three Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines on a 727 one hundred feet away and it's like the power of the gods crushing you into the ground when they started taxiing, it was so loud! No worries about noise in 1970. Not as loud as an F-16 in full afterburner or a Harrier hovering, but still awesome! Then the plane would turn and taxi away and the smoky, warm exhaust would wash over you and blow little pebbles in your face. Awesome! People would be holding their ears with their clothes flapping in the smoky exhaust and I'd be holding the fence and breathing in all that P&W goodness through a giant smile! Being exposed to that over and over again as a young kid fueled a passion for airplanes that has never left.

The History Channel lost me when all they started showing stuff about "Hitler and the UFO Conspiracy." I didn't realize they had an international channel, though, so I'll look for it. If I can ever turn off MeTV, that is. That's all I ever turn on, it I turn a TV on. I tell you what I miss is Discovery Wings Channel. That was awesome. Then it morphed into the Military Channel, which was a major step down, and that morphed into American Heroes Channel, or something. I'm not sure, because it's not 24-hour airplanes either, so I don't give a crap about it anymore. I'm glad the SEALS took out Bin Laden but I can't watch shows on the SEALS 24/7. Plus, the words "hero" and "heroes" are so overused now that the true meaning of "hero" has been shamefully diluted. I think you'll love that book, Hauksbee! I'm not in lock-step with every word but overall it is packed with info and a great read. Loads of photos, too. No release date for my book, other than the super vague "next year." I'm in the process of editing stats, then I have to write some photo captions. That shouldn't take too long, then after that the beast will be close to being done. By far my biggest book. It's as big as all my other books combined, and then some. BTW, what ever became of Boistrancourt? Still working on ground objects?

Hello! Honestly, I haven't studied much about Brown, or even paid attention, because he didn't shoot down MvR. I focus more on what happened, not what didn't happen. But I know his story changed a few times and he was somewhat hesitant to discuss it at times. Plus, a post-war article In Liberty mag was full of fluff and has been taken to be "fact." But even Liberty admitted "Roy Brown was paid for the article and probably contributed all or most of the facts. We won't rule out the possibility that the piece was ghost-written but this is not unusual in any national magazine." Yes, he fired on MvR but he either missed or didn't get a killing shot on him or the plane, and he kept on going. Brown's attack came before they reached Vaux sur Somme. MvR's skimming the roofs and dodging steeples there after being fatally shot? First, the History Channel. That's aimed at them, nobody here. I used to love it but they've really gone downhill in our era of infotainment. "Ancient Aliens"? I love how they had the show with lasers aimed at the plane to see if MvR's plane could be hit. I think that 1. since his plane was hit from the ground it was a good indication it could be hit from the ground and 2. how many thousands/tens-of-thousands of plane have been downed by AA fire? They acted as if this was some unusual thing. I'm surprised they didn't use Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star as another historical example of how lucky the shot was. But, in all seriousness, that map above seems about right, as far as the lay of the land is concerned. The scale is very small. Vaux sur Somme is very tiny. I dare say a Par 5 hole on a golf course is longer. If not, it's not by much. And I agree the landing ground was across the street from the brickworks and on the sloping field. It's pretty close to Vaux sur Somme. You can drive there in a couple minutes. May and MvR flew over Vaux sur Somme at ridiculously low altitude but they kept on going. They had to avoid the church steeple there. I took this photo in 2004. Compare the scale to the cars. I'll include a photo of across the street, where I was standing to take the church photo. Look how low those guys were! They were skimming the roofs/trees/wires. I agree MvR didn't have long to go after he was shot. I agree Popkin looks good and in a favorable spot but, as we said, what about the soldiers around? You should grab this book, if you haven't already. It's all about this subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Barons-Last-Flight/dp/1898697752 Used, three bucks! There's no excuse not to buy it for that price. You'd spend more at McDonald's.

Hey guys! First, ever notice how “news” stories like this often involve auctions? Gee, I wonder if the seller and/or auction house are using the news for self-promotion/advertising? And often these advertisements—I mean news stories involve quotes from people who have little-to-no idea what they are talking about. I mean, look at this quote: “Trench warfare in World War One was terrible and dire and claimed thousands of lives.” Thank you, Walter Cronkite! Thousands? LMAO That’s like saying you can buy a few things at Amazon. I won’t get into the sundry other errors in that article. Roy Brown. Rarely in history has one man been given so much credit or attention for not doing something. Brown approached MvR from the southeast in a 45 degree dive. He attacked Richthofen high from his port rear quarter—a bullet would have gone left-right and downward. MvR’s wound was right-to-left and upward. Plus, MvR flew on unaffected and still chased and shot at May after Brown’s ineffective attack. MvR’s going to continue shooting—which required manual re-cocking after every burst, due to his weapon problems that day—after being fatally shot through the thorax? Horse hockey. And all ground accounts indicate Brown “boom and zoomed” MvR—he dived, shot, pulled up and vanished in the mist, never to be involved in the chase again. I dare say it’s conjecture at best that MvR even knew he had been attacked. As far as Popkin, as far as I’m prepared to go is “somebody” shot Richthofen. Who? How the hell do I or any of us know? Why couldn’t it have been one of the many soldiers reported to be firing with rifles? Popkin seems to be the best aligned machine gunner, but how does that rule out all the single soldiers? It doesn’t. But there were so many and no way to track down who was where and when, so they just get ignored and the focus goes on the machine gunners. I'm not saying Popkin didn't shoot him down. He could have. So could have so many others. However, I will say Brown wasn't one of them. Note that on Hauksbee’s little map that most/all of the action was ALREADY behind the lines. This is a very import detail that helps debunk a lot of myths about MvR’s supposed “PTSD” “causing” him to “violate personal combat principles” by “feverishly chasing May over the lines.” I have a very large chapter about this subject in my pending book. 20,000+ words in that chapter alone, which is about the size of an entire Osprey “Duel” book. It's a pretty comprehensive chapter.

You forgot fugly. That is one fugly airplane. That curved belly on that thing gives it the worst profile. Same with the F-22. Hideous. My eye prefers planes that look sleek, tough, and a tad sinister. Such as:

That's nice of you! I understand potential eye rolls over MvR books but this one will be very different. And using the format for, say, an RFC pilot (already have one in mind but that's cart WAY before the horse) will yield interesting results for a pilot/pilots not often covered. The only downside is between this book and all the guitar playing I'm doing, I haven't flown in eons! I need to get back into the Alb DI. Maybe tonight...

What hasn't been published? There's a lot! This isn't a typical Richthofen--or any other pilot--book. I've written it in a format that's never been published before about anyone. The format I've created can/will be used for any pilot, so other pilots will be featured in the future, and not just German. MvR was first, though, because he has the most victories, I've researched him extensively, everyone knows him, and yet so many believe so many wrong things. My first MvR book was more biographical, whereas this one is more reference, although I did include a brief biography as an introduction so as not to alienate readers new to the genre. Also, Hauksbee, I plan on BIG photos. None of those 1"x1" photos you see in Osprey books. Plus a few unpublished ones as well. As far as how it's coming, Olham, I'm compiling stats for #38. Almost halfway there! I should be done with all of them by next week. At that point the book will be 90% finished--which has been five years' work--with a bit to write in the souvenirs section and some nipping and tucking here and there. I had hoped to include a lot more colorized photos than I've done but my recent wrist problems have really stymied my Photoshop production. I'm in the midst of a break from drawing until 1 October, so I'll see how things go then.

And like in Hauksbee's photo up there, the reinforcement strip was tacked in place, as well as tied. Here's a view of Alb DVa 5390/17 in Australia, during restoration.

Olham I was under the impression that the 5mm represented the thickness of the strips, rather than the width. All indications are the wing failures began in front of the spar and then peeled backward to "de-glove" the wing. But the sim can only represent so much.

Here's a sketch from the NASM Alb DVa book. Note that the finishing tape is labeled as 20mm. In various places I've seen indications of its width ranging from 20 - 30 mm:

Hello! As Olham said, on Albs the ribs had a cap strip to which was tied 5mm wide "reinforcement strips." You can see them tied to the ribs in the photo up above. Being tied secured them to the ribs. The wing fabric was then stitched to these strips. This is what held the fabric to the wings. The stitching atop the fabric was then covered by strips of 25mm wide finishing tape. All this was then doped, which weather-proofed the fabric and made it taut. As it tightened the fabric pulled against the wire that served as the trailing edge of the wings. The fabric pulled the wire in-between the ribs and this created the classic "scalloped" look of the Albatros trailing edges. I'll go through my archives and find some close-up photos.

I give people credit for having brains enough to avoid being so confused. If they stumbled here they're just as likely to stumble on SimHQ, or the OBD site itself, or after a stumble here do some searching and find the other places on their own. And if someone posts a question here it is usually answered fairly quickly. You you are right: for WOFF this place is deader than Kelsey's nuts. But what if they shut it down and then any future "stumblers" who come here don't see anything and thus never hear of WOFF in the first place?

Hey, Hauksbee, I only have two semi-decent-but-grainyish photos of the Sablatnig SF-4 triplane. According to the info I have there was only one built, 901. Hopefully I can attach the images in here. I also have some incomplete performance specs (and from what I understand [mind you, I'm not an authority] there isn't much known) I'll attach (source u/k), and a pretty generic line drawing for the SF-4, but only the biplane version. I haven't found one of the tripe, but if I run across it I'll post. Argh! For some reason only one will post. It's a larger version of what you posted. Let me submit this post and then I'll try to get the others up after it. Seems I have exceeded my allotted disc space for attachments. I didn't even know I had an allotted disk space! I don't even know where to access this information to make adjustments. Maybe I can email the other picture to you. It's a nice rear-quarter view.

Here's one. MvR and Grieffenhagen, July 1917. Note their feet don't reach the stone.

I love the Walfisch. I'd fly it more but for some reason--unless they changed it in a recent patch and I've missed it--the WOFF version doesn't carry bombs. Enable it to carry bombs and I'd be starting a new campaign with it in two minutes.

Hauksbee, again, you'd be FAR more likely to be shot to death than falling out. So you'd willingly go forth with a real possibility of being shot to death but not willing to go to avoid something that never happened anyway. That's sort of akin to going to a Shania Twain concert and worrying you forgot to bring condoms because you might have sex with her afterwards and knock her up! A statistical possibility, and in some crazy circumstances perhaps even ultra-remotely possible, but not bloody likely! You'd be far more likely to be kicked out of the arena after trying to get on the stage. So, falling out could happen but the chances of that paled in comparison to wounding or death by gunshot wounds, avgas immolation, and trauma associated with an airplane crash. Jury rigging a harness might get you killed by the real threat, gunfire, because of the possibility they would restrict the required freedom/range of motion to defend your airplane. And no pilot would stand for that. Most of the maneuvers in those planes would induce positive Gs. I.e, you'd feel them head-to-toe, not laterally. A 60 degree banked turn while maintaining altitude would impart a 2G load that you'd feel pressing you down in the cockpit. I.e., you'd be even less likely to be fall out in that situation than straight and level. Slips and skids would be felt laterally, but not alarmingly so in the FE2 (he typed while sitting at a computer). Negative Gs could "launch" you out but it would also launch everything else out--and right into the prop. Doesn't take much to destroy a prop. There is a great anecdote by McCudden who recalled that when he flew FE2ds they were so stable he could unbuckle himself, stand on the seat, and look backward over the top wing. He said his observers did not like this--especially when he lost one of his gloves that went through the prop, destroyed it, and caused such a vibration he barely got back in his seat to kill the engine and glide down to a landing. His attitude: "The way our observers and pilots used to climb round the capacious nacelle was most amusing." In our hindsight and age (at least mine, I'm 49) it can seem nuts, as does all combat in general, but to the 18-22 year old kids at the time who volunteered, it's the way things were. Regardless, I'm not saying you are "wrong" for feeling the way you do, because I agree with you: I wouldn't want to be an FE2b gunner, either. Just that relentless wind would be awful for me.

I disagree with Wiki's "liable to be thrown out of his cockpit." Again, I can't find such an instance. If it ever happened, it was very, very, very uncommon. They were MUCH more likely to be shot than thrown out. Here's a lil ol' book that goes into the FE2 and combat with it: http://www.amazon.com/FE-Albatros-I-IV-Western-1916-17/dp/1780963254 The reviews run from "the best WW1 Osprey Duel title yet" to "the most poorly written professional publication." Realistically, it falls somewhere between those extremes. Yes, VB, that first photo's perspective is odd and makes it hard to see how the gun was arranged. I'll go through my files and see if I have any other good shots like the second one. I have another starboard view but it's practically the same as the second one I posted. I did find the large version of the first one, though, which I wanted to post originally. Here it is:

That photo is misleading due to its perspective. I'll post a photo below of the same plane from a different angle. You can see that although it could be possible to somehow get in front of the pilot's Lewis, they'd really have to work at it. EDIT: Holy smokes, that attached photo is massive but truncated. Click it to see the entire machine.

That's what Richthofen did 6 July, rather than try to make it back to Marckebeke. His type of wound only had a 10% mortality rate and he was never in danger of bleeding to death, but his consciousness was shaky. He initially tried to make it back but soon it became obvious he better land before he passed out and crashed.

Hello! No, that was right, No.20 Squadron flew FE2ds on 6 July. I have the No. 20 Sqn combat reports and squadron record books and they were ds. The obs had two flexible guns as you see in the photos you posted, but No. 20 Sqd had a fixed forward firing Lewis, too, that the pilot fired. LOVE to have that option in a sim! Not to mention the d's 250hp engine. I've read claims of pilots trying to fire one of the flexible guns but that was remote to unlikely. Certainly not standard. Probably couldn't even hit a cumulonimbus cloud if they could even reach a gun. Lanoe Hawker flew FE2bs and he took a carbine up with him to fire, instead of trying to fire one of the machine guns. Strapped in as pilots were, hard to reach them, anyway. But the obs was NOT strapped in, they stood. I've not read of any gunner ever being thrown out. As one said, it was his job to stay in the machine. They were in FAR more danger of being shot to death than they were of falling out. I am NOT well learned regarding the Vickers FB.5. AFAIK there was only a single machine gun and no provision for firing upwards over the top wing. Perhaps someone will chime in if that is wrong or vague. Here's a No. 20 Sqn FE2d. You can see the pilot's fixed, forward-firing Lewis at left:

Interesting that Cunnell is given the credit for downing Richthofen 6 July. Usually it is given to his gunner Woodbridge, although Cunnell was also firing. Neither of them shot Richthofen--he was shot by another airplane during that fight--but it is interesting that Cunnell was finally mentioned. Looks like a pretty cool map! But just to fix some Wikipedia-ness: On 6 March MvR was shot down flying an Albatros DIII, and Jasta 11 had exchanged all of their Halberstadts for Albs by the end of Feb. Thus there were no Halbs to fly in March, nor Alb DIIs. His use of a Halberstadt has been greatly exaggerated in a few books.

No. "Oo-debt." Every single German I know pronounces it that way. And it's pronounced that way in this period propaganda piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs5cDYbCXIA