Olham

No use - he is deceased since some time - crashed into a SPAD he just shot up. I only wouldn't erase his log yet.

Yes, the devs must definitely have a 'leakage' - I got this picture offered, said to be showing Winder developing an artificial brain for his AI, that was meant to be shipped in cans as an add-pack. But the European Community didn't allow the import, as our governements are afraid, these brains might work better than their own ones.

Thank you all - on the weekend, I want to upload some latest new skins, after doing some final adjustments.

My best one so far - still no 17 hours!

Jim, I knew you would make it in that Pup! My Jasta 21, based at Le Chatelet, just had a close escort of two D.F.W. over the front to a sector east of Reims. Flight 1 went near there too, but had a different path. My flight consisted of four wingmen and myself, flying the early DIII. Over French terrain, we got attacked by 6 Nieuport 17 from Esc.82, from high out the sun. Again, I sent my wings against the higher attackers with success. I came into the fight very well - within 4 minutes, three of the attackers fell, ace Francois Eugene Marie de Boignes among them. But more Nieuport 17 had joined in now, and there where still three of them, but only one of my men - wing 3 von Schniedewind. I had to help him, but first I had to defend the attack of French ace Edmond Jaques Marcel Pillou. He had got a good long range burst when he was approaching me, so he didn't last long. But now I had not much ammo left. Would I be able to save von Schniedewind? Suddenly there where 3 Albatros around that fight, then 4, 5 - flight one came down like the cavallery! They finished the last French, and off they went again. I climbed up to my D.F.W. - one of them had lots of holes in the wings, but they where okay. And I was proud of that - we had done our best!

I'm shooting without any gunsights - you should know/feel, where the tracers will go, otherwise, you could never do deflection shooting.

Maybe it was "H", Strg+H or Strg+Ctrl+H If you have a compass and a copy of another, you can make one of them into the horizon by pressing Strg+1,2,3 etc. or Strg.+Ctrl.+1,2,3 etc.

Press "F5" - if you don't see any instruments then, press Control+1,2,3,4,5 or Control+Shift+1,2,3,4,5 One of that should do.

The wings behind the ladies look like Albatros wings to me (but I'm an amateur). Also I found this brand new produced Albatros DIII.

Pfalz more like - the wingtip is so angular; I think you're right, OvS. And good that you returned to your avatar. I may do so too.

NIEUPORT 28 First fighter craft for the American pilots The Nieuport 28's principle claim to fame is that it was the first aircraft to see service with an American fighter squadron. Design and development By the middle of 1917 it was obvious that the Nieuport 17 was unable to cope with the latest German fighters, and that direct developments of the 17, such as the Nieuport 24bis. were unable to offer a substantially improved performance. In fact, the Nieuport was already being rapidly replaced in French service with the SPAD S.VII. The Nieuport 28 design was an attempt to adapt the concept of the lightly built, highly maneuvrable rotary engined fighter typified by the 17 to the more demanding conditions of the times. It was designed to carry an up-to-date armament of twin synchronized machine guns, had a more powerful engine, and a new wing structure – for the first time a Nieuport biplane was fitted with conventional two spar wings, top and bottom, in place of the sesquiplane "v-strut" layout of earlier Nieuport types. The tail unit's design closely followed that of the Nieuport 27, but the fuselage was much finer, in fact it was so narrow that the machine guns had to be offset (*) to the left. Operational history By early 1918, when the first production Nieuport 28s became available, the type was already "surplus" from the French point of view. The SPAD S.XIII was a superior aircraft in most respects, and was in any case firmly established as the standard French fighter. On the other hand, the United States Army Air Service was desperately short of fighters to equip its projected "pursuit" (fighter) squadrons. The SPAD was initially unavailable due to a shortage of Hispano Suiza engines – and the Nieuport was offered to, and perforce accepted by, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as an interim alternative. A total of 297 Nieuport 28s were purchased by the Americans, and they were used to equip the very first American fighter squadrons, starting in March 1918. All together, four AEF "pursuit" squadrons flew 28s operationally, the 27th, 94th, 95th and 103rd Aero Squadrons. On 14 April 1918, the second armed patrol of an AEF fighter unit resulted in two victories when Lieutenants Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell (the first American-trained ace) of the 94th Aero Squadron each downed an enemy aircraft. Several well known WWI American fighter pilots, including Quentin Roosevelt, the son of US president Theodore Roosevelt, as well as American aces like the 26-victory ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, began their operational careers on the Nieuport 28. [Picture: Rickenbacker with his Nieuport 28 – note * offset guns] On the whole the type was not a success, however. Although very maneuverable and easy to fly, its performance turned out to be mediocre and its engine unreliable. More seriously, the mixed plywood/fabric skinning of the wings proved problematic – the fabric which covered the rear portion of the wings tending to "balloon" and become detached from the plywood leading section. Although a solution to this problem was speedily found, the operational Nieuports in American service were replaced with SPADs as soon as sufficient of the latter became available. This process was complete by the end of July 1918. Got this text fro English Wikipedia (hope they got their facts right here); I shortened it a little. Photograph Rickenbacker borrowed from Wikipedia Photograph Nieuport in flight: Michael Fast - borrowed from www.flugzeuginfo.net Nieuport shemes borrowed from www.flugzeuginfo.net

Two more pics I found in the great archive.

Yeah, thanks, I know I've always been looking younger than I was (I was about 27 then); only now it seems to turn into the opposite (Lol!) Can anyone tell me more about those comic pilots? OvS seems to mean it seriously!

The colour pic of the Lozenge fabric was archived under "Ed Doyle" - maybe you Yankees know the name?

Hey, Wels - good to see you back! If that's right what you say, the Albatros' engine would NOT even stutter at sudden nose-downs, nor would it at loops? I had always though, they had solved that only on the WW2 fighters?

What about this one? Me in my favourite crate...

Hmm - I assume you talk about a TV series? Or a comic strip? Could you tell more - I don't know them. Don't know about my new avatar - the old one was a classic to me, and I'm rather conservative (in the meaning of 'keeping what's good'). So I may change back.

You are senior member now. I think it has to do with your amount of posting?

OvS, join us in Jasta 28w - we need every good pilot. Best join us in May, when we have the brandnew DIII for you - fun and Tripes guaranteed!

Jasta 28w, Wasquehal, 7. April 1917 Oberleutnant Werner Mahlo Stellv. Kommandeur An alle Offiziere Zu meinem tiefen Bedauern muß ich Ihnen mitteilen, daß unser neuer Kamerad, Leutnant Tunkmit, heute im Luftkampf gefallen ist. Er hatte bereits zwei englische Spowith Dreidecker abgeschossen, als er mit dem dritten englischen Flugzeug kollidierte. Der darauffolgende Absturz endete tödlich. Wir haben eine unerschrockenen Kämpfer verloren, der sicher noch so manchen Abschuss erzielt hätte - wir alle bedauern seinen Verlust zutiefst. Hochachtungsvoll Lt. W. Mahlo Hey, Capt.Sopwith Perhaps it was enough to make you fly with two Spandaus more often? The Albatros is not the best German fighter craft, though it was very good at the introduction of both DII and DIII. Please try the early DIII - a pleasure; and better view even. If you want an extremely deadly turn fighter, pick the Dr.1 next time. And the perfect overall killer craft is the DVII. BTW: I translated the name Sopwith directly; to sop = eintunken; so you became Lt. Tunkwith (Captain would have been 'Hauptmann', but you where new there). Enjoy your fights and stay aloft! Olham

Got it done another way - I made it into a GIF file. Before it was a JPEG in RGB - should hav worked too, or not?

No error messages.

No way - still the old pic. The new is a jpg - so all should be right. ???

Another good pic of the Challenger.

Launchbury - Manfred von Richthofen regarded looping and such manoeuvers as artistic nonsense. The secrets about successful fights in the Albatros are IMHO: - to follow Dicta Boelke or Mannock's rules - good cooperation with your wingmen - very good deflection and long range shooting skills - to know when you can't win The only fighter craft I know so far, where a loop really makes sense, is the SPAD. Only powerful, but not good at turning, you can dive away from an opponent, the zoom upwards and perform a loop, to see him. and maybe get even behind him.