RAF_Louvert

Oooo, excellent guess and info Duce. But sorry Sir, not entirely correct. Watch tomorrow though for the next photo set. Cheers! Lou

DING DING DING !!! WILD CARD PHOTO ! The first to correctly identify the aircraft shown, the bravez French aviateur peeking out from under the wing, and the significance of this photo will be awarded 2 bonus points. You must be spot on with all answers to win. Good Luck!

I had a couple more hours this afternoon to do some additional work on the Alb W.4. I have the cabane strut fittings on the fuselage resized and relocated so they line up, and I reworked the area around the engine and cockpit as well. I also brightened the colors of the hex pattern a bit more and spent some time trying to get the top camo strips on the fuselage to align, (which they do not the way I want them to, yet). Here is the project so far. Olham, if you would like my file for this I'd be happy to share it. It would save you a fair amount of work rebuilding the fuselage and other sundry parts, and allow you more time to devote to your camo layers and markings. Cheers! Lou

TKS Olham, I'm going to keep tweaking. And glad I could be of help on your project. BTW, I increased the size of the file to 1026 x 1026 pixels just like the majority of the planes use for their texture files. Much easier to work in the larger size. I also grabbed some higher quality parts from the default Alb DIII texture file as well. Good luck Olham. Cheers! Lou

Olham, I agree with you that the hues look a bit washed out on my project, so I went in and cranked up the hue intensity and the contrast a bit on the camo layers. I think it is going in the right direction. Cheers! Lou

You may well be right Sir. I was using this example as a guide: The swatch in the middle of the pattern is an original piece of the printed fabric used by the German Naval air service. Cheers! Lou

Olham, I don't think we will ever know exactly what those colors were, but I applaud your efforts Sir. I spent a bit of time this morning working with stumpjumper's Alb W.4 model and have the following put together so far. I used the hex pattern with the 5 degree tip as noted in the Aerodrome posts and tried to get as close as possible to the colors that seem to have the consesus. I still have some playing to do with this but it's not too bad at this point. Cheers! Lou

Well, the WW1 Immelman is certainly not restricted to simply a defensive maneuver, and in fact I don't recommend it for that if you have someone on your six as they have a good chance of killing you when you wing-over at the top of your turn. As to the N11 not climbing up to an EIII, it will given enough time. But what will usually happen is the Einies will dive down to engage you, and when they do jinx around a bit and let them slip past you then watch as they zoom back up. You can normally turn into their attack and/or side slip a bit and the AI tends to tail stand the EIII, and when they do be ready for them to fall away, at which point you have the chance to drop on to their six for a quick burst or two as they dive. But do NOT follow them down. Climb back up and come around and do it again because from that point on you can keep the alt advantage with your Bebe and just take you time and your shots when you get them. Cheers! Lou

Thanks stumpjumper, I have it sorted out. I will send you a screenshot of how they look to me in my game. Cheers! Lou

Rickitycrate, here is the original RFC claim report that I found, cleaned up and offered to folks who would like to use it. Cheers! Lou

Roger 55, it depends on what you are comparing the N11 to. It was quite agile and handy when up against the EIII, and not too shabby head-to-head with a DII. But it is still an early war bird and so it is under-powered and a bit fragile if stressed too much. As to your half-loop, I would refer you to the following that I posted in another thread: This is the WW1 Immelman Turn and was the preferred method of changing direction in the early war planes. Also, like Rickitycrate, I find the N11 to handle quite nicely given her age. Cheers! Lou

stumpjumper, I'd like to give a try at a skin for that Alb as well, if you wouldn't mind. Are the files available for download? Cheers! Lou

Waldemar Kurtz, Raleigh and Jones' "The War in the Air" is no doubt one of the definitive works on the subject. I know I've referred to my set often over the years. And, if you look on page 229 of Volume 1 you will find that in June of 1914 Lieutenants D.S. Lewis and B.T. James each flew in B.E. aircraft equipt with both sending and receiving wireless apparatus. They flew about ten miles apart, from Netheravon to Bournemouth, and were able to keep in close communication with each other the entire way. You will note that this was before the outbreak of the War. In fact, the first transmitting apparatus for use in aircraft was invented in 1912 by M. Lucien Rouzet. As to German war development in this area, I found this in Wikipedia: As Mike Dora noted in his post, they were far more sophisticated back then than we give them credit for. Cheers! Lou

Well done again, Olham. It is indeed a Fokker control handle and I would have accepted any of the early Fokker planes that one could find a photo of showing the style. Also, I believe this type was used all the way up to the early version of the DR.1, (later versions had the more familiar handle with the gun levers hinged on the port side of the control yoke). The final two points in this set are yours Olham. Here are the current standings after photo set 6: Dej, 13 points Olham, 13 points Red-Dog, 6 points Rickitycrate, 6 points Bullethead, 5 points Luftace, 4 points Duce Lewis, 3 points Burning Beard, 2 points rhythalion, 2 points JohnGresham, 1 point Shrikehawk, 1 point TonyO, 1 point We are now at the half-way mark of the contest folks, and while there is currently a tie for first place there are still a lot of points left to be had which means this race is far from over. Good luck to all our contestants, and be prepared. Cheers! Lou

Yes Sir, that shot of the HB D.1 is sans gun and housing, as are about a third of the photos you run across of the bird. That's probably because the assmeblies had been removed and were being beaten on by the mechanicians in efforts to unjamb the touchy buggers. Cheers! Lou

Actually Olham they did have radios Sir, first using morse code and later voice coms. And very early in the war they also would fly back and fourth over the lines and drop notes with the gun corrections written on them. BTW, gun ranging was one of the very first uses of the airplane in the Great War. That and recce work. Cheers! Lou

Absolutely amazing MK2. Wish I could spend a day just looking at that collection. Cheers! Lou

I remember reading an article a while back over at The Aerodrome forum on the subject. Here is the link: Kriegmarine Hex Patterns I am also trying to find a color palette I came across some time ago as well, but so far no luck. Cheers! Lou

Good Morning All, After a few hours of sound sleep, and my second cup of early AM coffee, I am ready to roll. Rickitycrate, sorry Sir, you missed the mark on #21. I made sure to leave a bit of the wheel showing in the photo so that this plane could be more readily identified as the D1 version of the Hansa-Brandenburg rather than the KDW model. But excellent info on the seaplane Sir. Dej, you are correct Sir with spot on info and the matching photo. The two points for #21 are yours. Burning Beard, welcome to the competition Sir. First-rate with all notes, including the ace in the photo being Raoul Lufbery. While the N28 had engine problems and the initial structual issue of the laminated edge of the top wing coming loose in a hard pull-out and peeling off the upper fabric, it was none-the-less a very capable plane. But the French air service passed on it and went directly to the Spad XIII, which is why the U.S. pursuit squadrons ended up with the N28's in large numbers as their first main aircraft, (they were available at the time and no one else wanted them). Two points to you BB. Red-Dog, exactly right, #22 is the Pfalz D.IIIa. Also, you can tell it is definitely not a D.III by the fact that guns are mounted "in the clear" rather than buried under the cowling and inaccessible, (a complaint by pilots of the earlier model). Two more points to you Sir. Cheers! Lou

Well I'm back from my business travels and am just about to go and catch up on some much-needed sleep. But before I do I will post the next set of photos for the contest. BTW, thanks to Dej and Red-Dog for the links on the two-place Sikorsky S-16, I have added the info to my library. Here you go folks. Remember the rules and have fun. Round 6 begins now. Let's play What's My Plane! Cheers! Lou

Dej, thanks for sharing HomeBoy's video. Very neat. Sorry Duce, it is not the USA's iconic Jenny. Red-Dog...you are correct Sir! It is the Sikorsky S-16, the first Russian fighter actually built in Russia, and the first in their fleet to feature a synchronized gun firing through the prop arc. I noticed you mentioned it was a two-place but I have no such reference anywhere, and if you have evidence that a 2-seater version of this was built please share it. But even if this is a small error on your part it will be overlooked as the rest of your info is quite correct. BTW, the plane shown in the photo is a reproduction built from the original plans by the Sikorsky firm about ten years ago, and currently is on display at the New England Air Museum. That was a tougher one. Two more points to you Red-Dog. Here are the current standings after photo set #5 and the last Wild Card: Dej, 11 points Olham, 11 points Rickitycrate, 6 points Bullethead, 5 points Luftace, 4 points Red-Dog, 4 points Duce Lewis, 3 points rhythalion, 2 points JohnGresham, 1 point Shrikehawk, 1 point TonyO, 1 point Well done folks, the info you are all providing, even with an incorrect guess, is to be highly commended. Keep brushing up on your Great War aircraft. I will be travelling for business until late Friday evening, and won't be posting the next photo set until I return that night. This will give you all a chance to catch your breath and get in some more stick time, but be watchful come about 4:00am GMT this coming Saturday. Cheers! Lou

stumpjumper, Olham, Red-Dog, Widowmaker, Bullethead, outstanding recent work on all your parts, (hope I didn't miss anybody). I like each and every one of 'em, but I think my personal favorite of the bunch is Bullethead's. Really looks great and captures the feeling of that B/R plane very well. Please keep those creative projects going, and post the files when you have them done so we might all share in your masterpieces. Cheers! Lou

Yuppers uncleal, I have checked that one out numerous times. Very helpful indeed. Cheers! Lou

Duce, I too thought that the first time I saw the drawing, but Olham is correct. Look at where you are to have the rudder bar and control stick at that point; the plane is rolling to port as you pull back on the stick in order to get it to stall and then slip to port, and as it falls back it initiates the dive. Go and try it in your favorite OFF plane. It works very well after a bit of practice. Cheers! Lou

For those interested, here is a link to the e-version of the above cited book: "Practical Flying", by W.G. McMinnies You can save this to your computer library directly from the link if you like, and if you choose the PDF format option you will have all of Ford's illustrations as well. BTW, many WW1-related books of the same era are now in the public domain and are therefore often found online in their entirety at places like Project Gutenberg. Cheers! Lou