shredward

PM me with your email addy, I'll send you some stuff. Cheers, shred

When Idflieg announced the first fighter trials at Adlershof in Jan/Feb '18, they wanted two separate streams of entrants to take advantage of their stocks of engines - rotary and inline. Tony Fokker, who was both innovative, and who talked to front line pilots all the time to find out what they wanted, pretty much swept the competition, with the result that his designs were chosen to equip the Jastas in 1918. Because Fokker did not have the required capacity to build all the required machines, the other manufacturers were obliged to build them under license from Fokker. Cheers, shredward

Means you can have your own personal skin, and it won't automatically become the default squadron skin. The default and ace skins will remain the same. Cheers, shredward

Yep

yes

Allo M Comini, For the story of La Gorgue and Merville Aerodromes during the Great War, might I suggest "Airfields & Airmen Ypres", Mike O'Connor, Battleground Europe, Pen & Sword Books. It has photos, taken both then and now, maps and layout of the 'dromes, and a little potted history of the activity, people and squadrons that passed through. If you don't have access to it, I will scan and email it to you. Bien cordialement, shredward

OK guys, it's starting to get nasty. Back off or we'll shut it down. Cheers, shredward

I believe the man said he would look at it. shred

Yes

And that worked out so well

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html Merry Christmas! shred

Hello Buffin, Yes, we would very much like to. However, we first need to build a Hanriot, and we only have two modellers, but as soon as we get one built, we will add 'gallant little Belgium'. Cheers, shredward

I've attached Canada Post's stated Christmas deadlines. Add on to that the time Avangate needs to get the order out, and you'll have an approximate idea of when to expect it, based on when you ordered. Cheers, shredward PARCELS I'm ready early... Took me longer than I thought... I'm at last minute... Mailing to... Letter-post Air Parcel XpresspostTM PriorityTM Worldwide Africa November 23 November 23 December 1 December 16 Asia December 1 December 1 December 7 December 18 Australia December 1 - December 7 December 17 Caribbean December 1 December 1 December 7 December 18 Central/South America November 23 November 23 December 1 December 18 Europe December 1 December 1 December 7 December 19 Middle East December 1 December 1 December 7 December 18 New Zealand December 1 - December 7 December 17 USA December 14 December 4** December 14 December 21 http://www.canadapost.ca/dec/holiday/mailingdates-e.asp

Glad you made it in one piece - I had hoped you had left early enough on Friday to beat it, but I guess not. Have fun in the sunny south - stop in at Fantasy of Flight if you get a chance. Merry Christmas, Ted

Hi Ric, The genealogy of the Noop line was fairly tortured, and not at all linear. Rather than type it all out, I'll quote Bullet from a post he made a while back, which kind of sums things up: "As I understand things, Nieuport at this time was tryng to squeeze blood from a stone. They are the classic examle of trying to doing things quickly and cheaply. Nieuport had been riding their prewar designs, in slightly modified form but with great success, into late-1916. Up until then, they'd had no serious competition for scout contracts, the rest of the Aviation Militaire being mostly pushers of various sorts, or Parasols. Thus, the ante bellum N.10 had been shrunk into tine N.11. Shortly thereafter, slapping a bigger engine on the N.11 airframe produced the N.16. However, that engine was too heavy for N.11 wings to carry with the same agility as before, so they'd slightly stretched the N.11 airframe in all dimensions (while keeping the N.16 engine) to make the N.17. In this paragraph, you must forgive my VERY bad French, because I'm only half-way literate in the Cajun dialetct, which is a VERY BAD approximation of true French. Besides, I'm several fingers of whiskey over the line right now. Suffice to say, about this time, the acronym SPAD re-emerged in French aviation with a differetn meaning. Originally, it had meant Societe' pour l'Avions Deperdussin, but M. Deperdussin had just been jailed for fraud. His company pressed on regardless, however, and now called itself Societe' pour l'Aviation et ces Deriviete's. They produced the SPAD VII, which had much greater speed and no worse firepower than contemporary Nupes, and much more room for further improvements. For the 1st time facing legit competition at short notice, Nieuport tried to prolong the service life of its essentially pre-war design by what amounted to minor aerodynamic refinements and yet further power increases. They redesigned the N.17 with a slightly bigger moter and tried to streamline it. This redesign entailed rounding off all sharp corners on the N.17 airframe, at wings, tail, and fuselage. The total package was the N.24, but the refinements of each component were introduces 1 at a time. As things turned out, the fuselage came first, then the wings, and finally the tail. But the whole thing was designed at once, which resulted in some strange nomenclature. The N.24 fuselage was available 1st, so planes with this and the N.17 wings and tail were N.17bis. The French didn't think this worth the trouble but the RNAS got some and retained the upper wing Lewis. This was trading maneuverability for firepower. The next plane was supposed to have had all the other new parts and be the N.24. However, the new tail was still a problem. Thus, as a stopgap, they built the N.24bis, which had the N.24 fuselage and wings but the N.17 tail. A few months later, the N.24 tail was ready to go and so the complete N.24 finally entered production and squadron service, but the N.24bis came first. Confusing, eh?" I will just add that the later a machine was built from a batch, the more chance it had of being up-engined: eg 110>120>130 LeRhone. However, even that was not linear, nor were the results. For instance, the 17bis, with the 130hp Clerget, had the reputation, warranted or not, of being a dog. Cheers, shredward

I can't for a minute imagine 2nd Lt Fokker Fodder saying to himself: "self, I'd like my crate to be more manoeuvrable, so I'm just going up with 2tbsp of petrol, and I'll just leave my mates after fifteen minutes and return home for tea. The army just doesn't work that way. If we can find a way to allow both options, we will, but don't turn blue while holding your breath. Cheers, shredward

As far as I know, fuel wasn't touched. To be honest, I don't think you should go out with less than full fuel. Certainly not if you were flying for the RFC - you were sent out on patrol, either to try and carry the fight to the bally Hun far on his side, or to bomb his rear echelons, or to act as the eyes of the artillery. Patrols were normally an hour and a half or two hours, and they certainly did not go out without full fuel. Neither should you. I don't know for sure, but I suspect even the Jastas went up ready to stay and fight - certainly they were set up to intercept when the forward observers saw a raid coming, but they also flew standing patrols. Cheers, shredward

Let us know if you spot any other weirdness. Cheers, shredward

Hallo Hasse, Thanks - I've got that too. We'll look into it. Cheers, shredward

I've got Bose Companion 5's as well. Big seat shaker right in front of my foot pedals, and a pair of stem mounted trebles right behind my monitor. Great system - Theatre sound! shred

Keep the comments coming guys - there are far more of you than us, and all of you will spot things we missed. Cheers, shredward

Thanks Bullet! Good eye. shred

That is funny. I love it!!! shredward

Snap it up guys. We aren't releasing ours for a while. Cheers, shredward