Hauksbee

I'd have to agree. Six-to-one is not the most cheerful odds, but Voss still had a strong hand and eveything said, 'Get in close'. The Dr.I is not the plane for a hasty retreat. Besides, Voss was really young and I suspect just a bit full of himself, He was 20, a top-scoring ace, a Pour le Merit holder, he'd been given a prototype plane by Fokker, he had 10 kills in it, and before McCudden came on the scene, [if we can believe the History Channel] he had put two SE-5's out of the fight. There's no way to prove it, of course, but I don't think Voss saw it as a hopeless situation. We, on the other hand, know the outcome and wonder 'what was he thinking?'

The "Showbirds" are so bizarre, one would feel compelled to shoot them down at once.

Well, so much for "The Demise of Flight".

Required? Are you saying it must be played over the Internet? That would seriously suck.

I knew that the swastika was chosen because it was a simple, bold symbol, with ancient roots, and traditionally associated with good fortune. It's interesting to find that it runs strong in Finnish folk tradition.

Can't beat that for proof!

Thanks for the pics. Anybody know how the Finns settled on the swastika before the Germans? Most times it sits squarely like the pic. on the left, but this is the first I've seen it cocked, German style, like in the right pic.

Now that's redemption! Great pictures...if a bit blurry. But there's scads of fresh detail. Thanks much!

There is already talk of devising a tiered pricing structure for the internet where companies that require huge amounts of bandwidth, like YouTube and FaceBook, will have to pay more. If the worst case scenario comes to pass, it'll have to happen and YouTube will have to charge a subscription price. The world will not suffer brown-outs quietly so teenagers can gossip.

I've seen this before. Has something to do with balancing ailerons, or preventing flutter...it'll come to me in a bit. Maybe. Nice model. What plane is it?

I've had Hansa-Brandenburg W29's on my mind these last few days. Started collecting reference so I can build one of my own. Found the following picture. What is the thing sticking up from the wing? Doesn't appear to be a pitot tube. Looks more like a hose connection on the lawn, valve on top. Of all the pictures I've found, this is the only one that shows this on the wing.

The torque problem remained a killer well into WWII. I had a paperback devoted to aircraft carrier deck landing accidents. One of the pics. is an F6F trying to recover after missing the arresting cable. He's off the starboard corner of the flight deck, clawing for altitude, but also about 3/4 inverted, and you know that in the next second he'll be pointed straight down at the water. The text said it was all too common for inexperienced pilots trying to go 'round again, to ram the throttles full forward and the plane rolls over and goes in.

Amen to that. Fokker's WWI career was the triumph of 'eyeball engineering'. It's amazing that Fokker or Platz got as far as they did with no formal training.

Looks like the Krumpets are really holding a grudge!

OK, but if they come up to ours, then we get to shoot them.

The five-wing 'sesquiplane' [i know that's spelled wrong.] is a Fokker design. Can't remember its designation, right off hand. In the wake of the Dr.I, Fokker got on a tear about 'more wings are better' and forced his designer, Reinhold Platz, to design and build the five-wing monster. Platz objected as vehemently as possible, but Fokker would have his plane, no matter what. So Platz built it. Fokker, who could fly anything, pronounced it a complete disaster on the first flight. It was quietly rolled into a hangar and forgotten.

...it's probably on your 6 right now.

Well, that raises the bar! (LOL)

Great! A good, lucid explanation of rotary engines. I knew that excess power, and slow reflexes, could roll you over and cork-screw you into the ground. I never heard of the left/right, up/down reversal. The Camel was a lot scarier than I ever thought.

Great drawing. You are, without a doubt, a very fine draughtsman, but like so many who work in pencil, the tonal range seems to be from the middle 2/3 of the gray scale. There are virtually no deep blacks, no crisp, specular highlights. For example, the light on the underside of the wings, on the upper part of the landing gear wheel covers, is nearly the same as on the top of the fuselage. If volumn is defined by light and shadow, clipping off the far ends of the gray scale tends to flatten an object. Make a few xeroxes, get a 6B pencil, and experiment with laying in some heavy shadow.

Wow...and only 32!

Could you post a link to that thread? I got the TrackIR 4, downloaded the TIR 5 software...and for a host of reasons, consider it more an annoyance that a boon.

Came to this discussion late...but I was recently pointed to a clever little utility in Windows. Go Start>All Programs>Accessories>Snipping Tool. You just Clik-and-Drag to select an area, then it'll ask you where you want to Save To. Nice.

Too true. I fell in love at first glance at Harriet Quimby.

Here y' go. These two drawings are each 3.6Mb so I'll post them seperately. Full sized drawings can be ordered from Air Age/632 Danbury Road/Wilton/CT/06897. EDIT: I'll be damned! It let me post both at once!