Hauksbee

A while back, I found this picture. I now want to build a 3D computer model of it. Does anyone have any additional information about it? Specifically, images, tho' text and performance specifications would also be welcome. Jim Miller? .

Oooops!

B'demmed! Good on you, mate!

If anyone feels the itch to hand-craft an Albatros model, that's the photo essay to have. Nice find, Olham.

Truly, it's sad to see what has become of this site. I had hoped that the old guard would still hang around for the collegiate fellowship that seemed to prevail. For a while I resisted the Sirens call of SimHQ. I tried posting every snippet of WWI lore I ran across (to wit: WWI in 40 Maps) but, for the most part, things just fell flat. Not only have our history buffs wandered into the fog, but nobody seems to be flying WOFF either. Of the few that still check in, I see a lot of "I visit almost every day.", and, checking the 'Friends On-line" I see many times that old friends are looking in at the same time I am. But...if you don't engage in discussions, the Forum becomes an empty shell. So...as Erik asks, "Is there anyone in support of keeping these forums and files here?", I'd say that it would indeed be sad to see this site go away, but there is little use in keeping it on life support.

Found this with morning e-mail and coffee: "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" Ripley often played fast and loose with facts and accuracy, but this one sounds right. The Argentine Tango had a great surge of popularity around the time of WWI. The Tango, properly done, is erotic enough today. In 1914 it was scandalous. In Berlin there were dance halls called 'Tango Circuses ", where only tango music was played into the wee hours. I recall reading one account of the origin of "Flying Circus" being coined by Oswald Boelcke. It seems that once all the airplanes and attendant gear was loaded on the trains, it was 'party time' in the passenger cars for the pilots. Being pilots, they frequently brought along girlfriends with them. One one occasion, so the story goes, Boelcke wandered in to the pilots car, where the champagne was flowing and girls esconced on laps and said, in his typical good-natured way, "What the hell is this? A Tango Circus?" And the term stuck. At least, that's the version I heard and I'm sticking to it.

I tapped into the Yahoo Search this morning looking for bit of info on Verdun. Got the usual sterling collection of WWI photos, with one great surprise this time: screen shots in WOFF were included! (Hellshade and Creaghorn, specifically, were mentioned in the dispatches) I find it very cool that our screenies stand shoulder-to-shoulder with photos taken at the time to illustrate what it was really like. (Perhaps the Yahoo AI can't tell whether these were taken in 1916, or not.) All that historical research on the part of the Devs is paying off?

Tail gunner on Dirigible...

Now that WOFF 2.0 will be delivering Zeppelins and Gothas raiding England, I take up the case for the Pemberton-Billing P.B.31E 'Nighthawk'. We must have it, or England will be crushed! This was the stance taken by Noel Pemberton-Billing; a very conservative M.P. who was a 'thorn in the side of government' in 1916-1917, and founder of a company that would become Supermarine when he sold it in 1916. The P.B.31E Nighthawk, the first project of the Pemberton-Billing operation after it became Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd., was for anti-Zeppelin operations and was intended as a veritable 'giant battleplane'. It was built in 1916.was a prototype anti-Zeppelin fighter with a crew of three to five. With four wings generating lift, the designers vision was that of a slow aircraft, deployed in large numbers, that would languidly climb to altitude, remain on station for 9–18 hours and be ready to intercept Zeppelins crossing the coast. The Nighthawk had six-bay swept quadraplane wings and a biplane tailplane with twin fins and rudders. The fuselage filled the gap between the second and third wings; the cockpit, which carried up to the top wing "turret", was enclosed and heated. Along with the intended long endurance, it was suggested it would be able to patrol at low speeds to await the Zeppelins. For armament, it had a trainable nose-mounted searchlight, a 1½-pounder (37 mm) Davis gun mounted above the top wing with 20 shells, and two .303 Lewis guns. Power for the searchlight was provided by an independent petrol engine-driven generator set made by ABC Motors, possibly the first instance of a recognizable airborne auxiliary power unit. Although touted as being able to reach 75 mph (121 km/h), the P.B.31E prototype only managed 60 mph (97 km/h) at 6,500 ft (1,981 m) and took an hour to climb to 10,000 ft (3,048 m), which was totally inadequate for intercepting Zeppelins. Given the Anzani engine's reputation for unreliability and overheating, it is unlikely that the aircraft would have delivered the advertised endurance either. The design included nine separate petrol tanks with 'quick-change' gear, enabling any number of tanks to be used or isolated in case of puncture by gunfire. Another design feature mentioned in connection with this aeroplane was the carrying of all controls, pipes, etc. outside the fuselage in amour-plated casings and a 'special revolver' enabling 'incendiary flares' to be dropped in a stick of one every twenty feet, so that, in straddling a Zeppelin of 65-ft diameter, at least three would strike. The 'perpetual haze of escaped gas' just above the top surface of a Zeppelin was considered by Pemberton-Billing to make it very vulnerable to such attack. The eccentric Noel Pemberton-Billing envisioned a whole fleet of Nighthawks prowling the skies like a wolf pack to shoot down the dreaded Zeppelin. In reality the whole concept was fallacious and it ended in failure but not before one of the oddest aircraft ever designed was built. To top it off, a young Reginald Mitchell was part of the design team; a far cry from his Spitfire 19 years later!

Thanks, Maeran. Good article/post. I've got it squirreled away in my "Strange WWI Flying Things" folder where it can keep the "Pemberton-Billing" company.

I have heard 'Ypres' pronounced both ways. Which is correct? ( or should I just stick with the Doughboys and call it 'Wipers'?

In its day, the Roland C.II was known for being a difficult airplane to fly and damned near impossioble to land. In WOFF, I find it impossible to fly. As soon as the wheels leave the grass, the C.II wants to slew sideways, left and/or right and live on the edge of stall always. I managed to get one flying in ROF, but, as in real life, they are difficult-to-impossible to land because the pilot sits so high up. The designers put in a window as an aid, but the rutted cow pastures of France were a far cry from the smooth meadows outside Berlin were the Roland was tested. Pictures of C.II's tipped up on their noses were common. Landing on a flat 2D video screen with no real depth of field is worse. My landings were always of the 'totally trashed' variety. Anyone here have any real affection for the C.II?

When I was doing my 'light-and-cloud' experiment, I picked a C.II on one occasion and jumped in at 16,000'. It flew pretty well, didn't stall a lot and responded to the controls. Apparently, it's a matter of getting it off the ground...a small, tricky detail. I know that 'Beinbruch' means 'broken leg'...but what does the 'Hals' mean

Does not carry bombs? How could the Blessed Devs stumble so badly? It was designed as a bomber!

Found these misfiled in a Yahoo image search on Halberstadt fighters. ('was trying to identify the plane behind Udet in the previous von Richtofen/Eric Brown thread...which I now think is a Siemans-Schukert.)

Upon re-reading this, I began to wonder "Is there a 'perpetual' haze of escaped gas just above the top surface of a Zeppelin?" True, gas is vented to allow descent, but that wouldn't be happening over the target, and, in any case, it seems that the hydrogen would disperse very quickly, otherwise Zeppelins could be brought down with Very pistols.

I imagine that war, especially one like WWI, would bring out the black humor in anyone.

Found this on Netflix Instant: "The Wipers Times". Seems the boys of the BEF found a printing press in the rubble of a building and put it to good use needling the General Staff. Michel Palin plays General Mitford who has their backs and protects them from a vicious Colonel of the Black Adder/ Captain Darling stripe who wants them all court-martialed for insubordination and Anarchy. (That's him on the right)

Agreed. The two-spotlight trick was a stroke of low-tech genius. The coathanger-like release point indicator was pretty slick, too. I hope Peter Jackson will go forward with his remake of "The Dambusters".

Quite so. One can't banter slowly.

"Scaley Brat'? I love it. If I could have come by that name honestly, I'd use it as a screen name everywhere.

Saw an interesting aviation film on Netflix Instant last night: "Memories of a WWII Hero: Captain Brown's Story". Great stuff. Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown narrates his own "there I was.." stories. This guy was everywhere. As a teenager he met Udet in Germany who took him for a hair-raising flight. Brown was so cool about it that after they landed, Udet told him, : "Kid, you'd make a great fighter pilot someday. Learn to fly and speak German". Brown did both. He joined the Royal Navy, flew Hellcats off the carrier H.M.S. Audacity, got torpedoed, spent the night in the water tied to 24 others. As they died one by one from hypothermia they were cut loose. Brown was one of two pulled out the next morning. Got assigned to Farnborough as a test pilot. Flew over 480 different types during his career. Explains the art of sneaking up behind V-1's and flipping them over with a wingtip. Went to Germany right after the war and flew every German prototype 'Wonder Weapon" 'Loved the Me-262. don't miss it if you've got Netflix. For our purposes here, I made screenies from a WWI German newsreel. Here's a few pics of von Richtofen that are rare(ish) and one of Udet.

When he's smiling you can see how young they all were.

Especially if you were German on a hydrogen-filled Zepp.

Yeah, everything had to be tried once. My favorite Rube Goldberg, jury-rigged device was part of A.V.Roe's first triplane. Since he had a day job, he tinkered and flew in the evening. Near dusk it was very difficult to judge his altitude off the pasture he was using for a landing field. After crunching his landing gear a few times, he rigged two small-linked chains to two toggle switches and attached a lead fishing weight to the ends. When the longer chain dragged on the ground it pulled the red light switch which told him he was ten meters off the ground. When the second, shorter chain dragged, it turned on a green light. Now he knew he was only five meters up and could cut the power and glide in.