Hasse Wind

Bon voyage, Olham. There's a relatively short distance to three different countries from where I live in. That's indeed a great thing about Europe; if you're at the right geographical location, you can travel in just a few hours by plane or train, and then you're in a different country and culture. I've been thinking of going to North America for years now, but the distance is considerable and the price is high compared to travelling in Europe. But I'd love to see Canada and many historical places in the United States. American history of the 18th and 19th centuries has always interested me, and it would be great to visit at least some of the famous towns and cities of the colonial era and the 1800s.

Looking at pictures of all the burned down buildings, it really does look like something from the days of the Blitz. I don't have much sympathy for people involved in such wanton looting and destruction. If they want to change things in their society, burning down local shops and other buildings is not the way to do it. I don't know if there's anything political behind all the unrest, or if it's just stupid anarchy and nothing more. And OFF forum is not the place for such discussion, in any case. But it sure looks like you're going to need more policemen and soldiers to make sure nothing goes wrong with the Olympic Games next year.

Yeah, that kind of stuff happens all the time when playing OFF. You need more imagination in 1915 though, as things are pretty quiet compared to later years and only a few squadrons are modelled so early in the war. Enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts. I'm now approaching 1917 in my Fee career, began in early 1915, and peaceful missions are becoming very rare.

A few years ago I saw a documentary, either French or German, about combat photography in WW1. They showed a lot of the rare original films and pictures there, from both French and German sources. It was interesting how different the films were compared to the staged situations, which were filmed usually after the war. The position of the cameraman instantly reveals if the situation is staged. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the documentary.

Are there any pics about WW1 air combat situations that are confirmed to be real? I know there are a lot of fakes. I'm no expert, so I don't know about that photo. But I know that photos and films about real combat situations, ie. filmed during a battle, not afterwards, on the ground are also very rare, almost all of them have been staged later.

Well, at least their parachutes aren't visible.

Yes, there is going to be at least one Tintin film, possibly more. Jackson is producing them.

It's almost like the holy relic trade of the Middle Ages.

I wonder what would it take to get Mr. Jackson interested in making a great WW1 aviation movie? Maybe after he's done with Tolkien and Hergé?

Such documents should be donated to some archive or museum, in my humble opinion. I wonder how many such rare papers are currently in private collections, out of reach of historians and other students of WW1 aviation history. Of course there may be copies of the document available in archives, but an original is always an original.

I hope you enjoy your beer.

I did that once actually, about ten years ago in a flight show. We flew around for a while in a small Cessna. It was fun. There was no Euro back then, and I don't remember the exact price anymore. It must have been something like 100-150 markkas, maybe 20-30 euros today.

They aren't cheap today either. As far as I know, many of the early pilots gladly took paying passengers with them for a flight, because that helped them to fund their hobby.

And how much simpler flying was 100 years ago than today! The technology was primitive and often unreliable, but the aircraft were such that you could land almost anywhere and even take off safely. Everything is so much more complex today. I imagine it must have been a wonderful experience to take off from some remote field and just fly around, not having to worry about other traffic, radio communications and the complex rules of civil aviation. And you didn't have to spend hours going through extremely tight security checks and being suspected of terrorism when you came to a field and wanted to fly in a passenger plane of the early 20th century. Of course aircraft are safer and more comfortable these days, but some things are still worse than they used to be in the past.

Great stuff. How interesting it must have been to be alive back then and see the birth of aviation. The turn of the century was a fascinating period indeed. But then came 1914 and everything went to hell. If I had a time machine, I'd definitely visit all those places that were so crucial to aviation history.

Thanks, what a great site! I put it among my favourites. I'd love to have all those two-seaters in OFF some day, especially the early Albs and such.

Is this a hint to the devs?

Well, there's definitely no French bias.

Of course the introduction of all aircraft is dictated by the OFF manager, so we'll get the first SPADs when the manager says so. I can't remember the exact date for the SPAD VII in OFF, but it's definitely somewhere in late 1916. It would be a nightmare to try to get every single date correct, I imagine. Even history books disagree with the dates in many cases. Somebody would have to read through all the war diaries of French fighter escadrilles to find out the dates when certain aircraft came into service, and how many of them there were. I'm sure that would be interesting reading, but maybe a bit too time consuming for sim development purposes.

Is the date for the 150 hp version correct? Weren't they in service already in the final months of 1916, even as early as August or September 1916? EDIT: The Aerodrome gives 2 September 1916 as the date for the SPAD VII. http://www.theaerodrome.com/aircraft/france/spad_vii.php

Thanks for this mod. I've always loved the SPAD fighters, so I'll put the mod to use immediately.

Reading through official histories and such, it's so easy to forget there were real living people involved in the conflict. This site reminds us of that. A tragic story, one of millions.

Doesn't look much worse than the typical British gastrointestinal colour scheme.

Reading these threads always makes me feel nervous about my Fee pilot, who's lived a VERY long time already. I DON'T want to lose him, but staying alive becomes harder and harder the longer the war goes on. What is mostly peaceful flying in 1915-1916 turns into something deadly in 1917. And I'm almost there now...