Wings and Wires

Hi, my name's Neil and I'm a new member here. Thought I'd post a couple of links to sites that may interest the group (assuming they've not been posted already):

Airdrome Airplanes

- manufactures ultralight and scale replicas of WW1 and pre-WW1 (eg. Bleriot) airplanes. My personal choice would be the Dream Classic as it's very reminiscent of Santos-Dumont Demoiselle.

Replicraft

- source for highly accurate plans for WW1 scale model aircraft and full-scale replicas. My pick? The SE-5a.

Cheers,

N.

On April 1st 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/

In November I visited the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. They have a great collection of original, reproduction and model planes from the early days of aviation to the jet age.

The one that won my heart, though, was the Ricci R6 Triplane. I could only find one pic of it online. For a long time it was the smallest aircraft in the world. Isn't it a sweetie? It's like the bubble car of the biplane era :)

I watched Flyboys on DVD and was less than impressed.
( Cut for possible spoilers. )
Gimme The Great Waldo Pepper any day.

This is a short story I wrote for Higher English, but I still like it just as much now. It's about a WWI fighter pilot, and was inspired by reading a lot of Biggles!

--------------------------------

( 'Happy Landings...' )

A friend forwarded me this article about Greg Inkmann and his aviation-themed motorcycles, knowing my love of both bikes and WWI aviation:

The idea of a Fokker tri plane with all that red and black and chrome was exciting. The Suzuki I got had fallen over in winter and the instrument panel had shattered. I rebuilt the panel completely of wood to go with the nature of the bike. I wanted to hide the gas cap so I created a compartment in the wing. It has a hinged lid accented with gold leaf. Just to look at this bike in the sun is a treat.

Full article at WebBikeWorld

I've just come home from watching Flyboys. What an experience. I feel heavy from the experience, but not in a bad way. It was intense.

I almost cried during the first scene at the Escradille, just from the sights, sounds, and thoughts of being there. It was very emotional for me. All my love of France, World War I aircraft, and aerial combat came flooding up. The movie pushed my buttons, but did so carefully, and lovingly. I was impressed.

The scenes of combat themselves were as good as it gets. I would have liked to see more discussion of strategy and tactics, as in Oswald Boelcke's shop, but no matter. This was a character-driven piece, as heavily-handed as the characters were created. They worked. There were the token rich kid, the token Christian, the token Negro, the token hard-bitten antihero, the token upstanding citizen who loses then regains his nerve at the right moment, the token suspicious pilot, the token green youths--and the hero. But the action was fantastic, from the aerial to the ground combat. Trench warfare and occupation of cities were dealt with, leading to a fuller overall impression of the war, though the air war was the focus. Bombers, two-seaters, and even dirigibles got their due. All in all, it was FAIR AND BALANCED. Best of all, the rules of war and honor, and the unorthodox methods of fighting and keeping one's equipment functioning were covered. It was an excellent introduction to the World War I "knights of the air" for those unfamiliar with them, and a gripping movie for those who were. There was even romance.

In short, it was not the best film ever, but it was much better than I expected. It made everything live and breathe. It made everything exciting. It filled me with fear. It brought home the reality that planes are cool, but warfare is a matter of life and death that can result in death rather swiftly. This is a serious matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Baron_%28film%29

I just learned of this.

I just saw the commercial for Flyboys. One word: wow.

“Fly With These Boys”

By Frederica Mathewes-Green

( Read more... )

It has been to long, since a film about the great war came out. Looks good from the trailer. I am a little skeptacle about the aircraft I see, but this is only a trailer.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/flyboys/trailer/

I have not been able to get the site to load.


Maus

When they said "Lighter than air," by golly they meant it!

The Fokker Dr 1 (Dr standing for Dreidecker or 3 wings) was one of the most famous planes of World War One. This is probably because it was associated with the Red Baron. The Fokker Dr 1 was 5.77m long, 2.95m high. It had a wingspan of 7.19m. The Fokker Dr 1's airframe was made out of steel tubing that was covered in aircraft doped canvas. When it was empty, it weighed 405kg. It had one 80kw engine and could fly a maximum speed of 185Km/H and fly a maximum time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. It could fly at a maximum altitude of 14,000ft. Like most planes in World War One, the Fokker Dr 1 had a rotary engine. The propeller was bolted directly onto the engine and the engine and the propeller would rotate together. The Fokker Dr 1 had one open cockpit, which could hold one pilot. The Fokker Dr 1 had two machine guns with an intercepting gear that was designed to fire bullets through the propeller arc without hitting the blades. The Fokker Dr 1 was a smaller plane compared to other planes of World War One; also it was not as fast as most planes. When the Fokker Dr 1 was first came into service, the enemy thought the Fokker Dr 1 was just a huge joke until pilots like Werner Voss, showed what it could do in combat. Flying a prototype, Voss shot down 10 British aircraft in six days of aerial combat in September 1917. Only 320 Fokker Dr 1's were made in World War One, so no Fokker Dr 1 is still around today, there are only replicas.

http://fokkerdr1.freehosting.net/

I just found this interesting. The site has much more on the plane.

( our artist’s conception of the new giant bomber )

October, 1935:

Very Early Radar

( Image )
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1994

Photograph by James L. Stanfield

In 1919 a Vickers Vimy biplane won the Great London-to-Australia Air Derby. Seventy-five years later pilots matched the feat in this Vimy replica.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Vimy Flies Again," May 1995, National Geographic magazine)

I've been helping a friend on the weekends lately.

We are building a 3/4 scale Fokker DR-1 tri-plane

David's recently assembled build site is here (he's still sorting out the bugs in the headers and the like)
http://websites.expercraft.com/dfwpilot/

and the most recent pictures where we were mating the lower wing frames to the fuselage is here

http://dfwpilots.org/board/index.php?showtopic=1374

we're just now starting to rig the wing frames. we now need to build some wooden framers to hold the wing frames in proper rig so we can build up the struts and supports...

It's a fun project, I'm glad he's letting me help. It's all pulled rivet aluminum tube/fabric construction. Seats one.

thought you guys might be interested in seeing a replica going together...

Someone has a birthday, I wonder who it could be!!!!



Hee hee hee! Happy birthday, ya little squarehead!

Yep, as yellow_baron said, I saw a rotte (2) of F-16s flying overhead, in tight formation. One of them peeled off in what I can only assume was the Missing Man maneuver (though you usually need four for such a thing).

I then heard a hawk cry.

And then I did. Dammit.

Full tribute page - http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdowling05/

Freiherr von Richthofen - you will not be forgotten.

Each week on Friday, I'll be featuring some little-known pilots of the Luftwaffe on claim_a_flieger, usually from sources gleaned from the internet.

This week's piloten o' the moment is also our birthday boy, Georg-Peter Eder, courtesy of http://www.luftwaffe.cz.

Read more at: http://community.livejournal.com/claim_a_flieger/4554.html

Link X_posted to fallen_aviators claim_a_nazi and elsewhere. heh.