Olham

Yep, I have voted. Maybe the WOFF GOLD version could be sold for much less to those, who already bought all add-ons so far; while those upgrading from WOFF 1 would receive much more new stuff, and therefor should pay more. Just my 2 cents...

Thank you, Jim! Yeah, the Bf109 is often said to have become more and more obsolete. I am not so sure there. She was still a very powerfull airplane, if she wasn't overloaded with the wrong weapons or even bombs. Here's a video of American ace Anderson's fight vs a Bf109 - he won, but it was tough.

Believe it or not, it is a model, Jim! Here is the German modeller website I got it from - there are many more such "hotties". http://www.ta-152.de/category/modellbau/

Our pleasure, Jim - a true WW1 air war historian in our ranks! I'll have a virtual Warsteiner, please! By right-clicking on the badge, you can get the SAVE command. If you save it into an own gallery of yours, ou can get it into your signature from there.

Yes,Germany is on the same level a Newfoundland and Labrador.

That's what the new add-on package will bring: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4186061/"Motley_Crew&quot#Post4186061 Great to see a French two-seater, which was used for a long time, both by French and British units. And the Fokker should help filling the gap between Eindecker and Halberstadt. It's already bought from my end!

Thank you for the info, Jim!

According to WIKIPEDIA the Germans had war spoils of 1200 t of castor oil. Castor beans didn't seem to grow here - they need tropical or sub-tropical climates. And the British sea blockade prevented any transports into Germany.

Haha - yeah, IF they should be able to keep them in flying condition... Nowadays technology is so advanced and expensive to build - it could well be that it would not be possible to remake any difficult parts anymore.

Well, the tail wheel wasn't the problem. It may have helped a bit to lock it. But if you ever get the chance to stand behind a BF109 during an engine warm up run, you will realise what power the engine produced on the propeller. And the prop wind spiral, running around the fuselage, hit the rudder fin quite hard. They had to counter that with the right amount of right rudder.

PS: ...look at that taxiing bit early on in this video, where the pilot makes a great curve around a ground crew man!

Well, the Bf109 was dangerous at landings AND at starts. It was said to have a tendency to break out to the left, and if it did, even experienced pilots couldn't get to grips with her again. One (forgot his name) even ran his Bf109 all the way through a barack, when his starting run went bad. Yes, indeed. And a glider/sailplane must have been the inspiration for a high altitude fighter, which was meanly meant to be a bomber interceptor. Kurt Tank once flew a prototype himself - unarmed - when he ran into an American Mustang patrol. He pushed the throttle forward and flew away from them. Their faces must have been priceless! But the wide wingspan doesn't give it a true fighter appearance IMHO - so I'll stick with the D-9; or the D-12. Argh! Nasty! The kind of thing that might have happened to me all the time. (Well, not if it was lethal - Mmuahahahahaaa!!!) I guess as a real fighter pilot, you should have good awareness, and great concentration on the necessary.

A problem that the "Spit" had in common with it's German counterpart, the Bf109. Landing a Hurricane or a Focke-Wulf must have been a much safer feeling. Only landings that would have been worse than landing "Spits" or a "Messerschmidts" with their narrow landing gears, would be to land WITHOUT the gear down...

The "Frogs" and the "Limeys" - what a wonderful friendship that should be! The French know a lot about good cooking, good wine and good cheese, and the British about good beer, good pop music and good humour! In two world wars the "Tommies" helped the French - now, John Lennon would say: come together! Well, I have seen tests where the longbowmen fired their arrows high up in the air, like modern artillery fires. These bowmen were well trained and fast - they could shoot arrows every 3 - 5 seconds, so a terrible rain of arrows sank on the armored knights. Coming down from some height, the arrows with their metal heads were armor-piercing. And even if they hit the horse instead of the rider - it must have been devastating.

Yes, that's who I quoted from, Jim.

This rescue operation video speaks for itself - made my eyes moist.

Better than many German women - you often get the impression they don't understand what you say, even when you speak German to them - Mmuahahahahaaa!!!

Yes, I also read something like that. Widowmaker, the plane in The Blue Max was also silver, but it was a monoplane. Does anyone know, which aircraft that was?

Wot? I get nossink for it? Wot about a virtual Warsteiner at least? Typhoon, the models shows the triplane design by Pfalz. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfalz_Dr.I The craft could have been a good fighter, had there not been the unreliability of the Siemens & Halske engine. Only a handfull saw front service.

From the video intro: "In the summer of 1940 a battle for the free world raged over the skies of England. Over the years many PC flight simulators have tried to capture what it was like to be in the battle. In 2008, the developers of the acclaimed IL-2 Sturmovik series begin work on IL-2: Cliffs of Dover - a brand new combat flight simulator. Centered on the Battle of Britain it promises unparalleled realism and historical accuracy. In 2011, commercial pressures win over the wishes of the developers and IL-2: Cliffs of Dover is released in an unfinished state. The user community becomes splintered. In 2012 a small group of talented software and aviation enthusiasts set about "modding" the code to repair and address the issues. They call themselves "Team Fusion". Today, thanks to their efforts, IL-2: Cliffs of Dover has moved closer to becoming the simulation the original developers hoped it would be. Team Fusion continues it's work. In this production, with very few exceptions, every aircraft was flown by a member of the Air Combat Group. This is our film for the user community. Past, Present and Future." After flying over the 'Cliffs of Dover' myself today, my wingman pointed this brilliantly-made video out to me. After watching it, I recommend it you all - what a well made sim & history film!

Reading the book of Osterkamp - "Du oder ich" - I got the impression that he was a big of a "big mouth". A man who MIGHT get carried away a bit. Same for Udet, who was an excellent flyer and undoubted ace - but he was drinking too much later, and he liked telling stories - where they always true? After all, these guys could not imagine, that this could ever be cleared up later by so many historians. Arthur Gould Lee, later air vice-marshall of the RAF and certainly a great character, who has really seen and gone through a lot during WW1, has described an encounter with a single, all-red Fokker triplane, escorted by Albatros D.V. While this encounter may have truely happened - at that time, von Richthofen and Werner Voss tried out the first two prototypes of the Dr.I in combat - none of these two Dreideckers was red. Not even partly red. Von Richthofen began flying the only overall red Fokker Dr.1 short before his death - in April 1918. Was Lee a liar? Certainly not! But even his memory got fooled by informations he must have heard later. Were Udet and Osterkamp liars? Well, maybe they "spiced" their biographies with a well-invented story about a French ace's chivalry?

Not sure if Jim is barmy enough, Hauksbee? Jim, what do you think? Would you join a club that would have people like you as members?

No need to apologise, Widow - sorry if it sounded like a complaint. Double and triple postings of interesting stuff happen quite often, I guess. This one was only recently, and there was quite a debate about this action. I was among those who were touched, and I myself might have not been able to shoot that cripled bomber down. But from the view of the people on the ground, it might have looked like treason. Very conflicting sentiments there.

This video was posted several times here already, Widowmaker. The opinions about it were divisive. On one hand the German pilot showed human emotions rather than being a cold warrior. On the other hand, this same, saved bomber crew might come back with the next wave, and drop some dozens more bombs on German civilians. Humanity and logic are harshly conflicting here, I think.

Absolutely DITTO to that!