A friend relayed a link to old silent film footage from 1917 as to the field crew getting the Baron Manfred Von Richthofen's plane ready to take off.

For those with good eyes, you will even see Hermann Goering who was one of the Barons students from that era.

Sorry but I don't know how to imbed video so perhaps someone else will come along to do so.

https://videos.komando.com/wat...s-fighter-pilot-ever

Link to original video: https://youtu.be/XIiuyijwKRs

Interesting footage. Looked like a British flyer, prisoner?, at the end with the downed plane.

German Engine is also interesting. Crankshaft is bolted to the firewall. Crankcase is bolted directly to the propeller, engine AND propeller spin as one. This required all parts of cylinders, valves, etc. to be weighed and carefully balanced to minimize vibration while running/spinning. Quite the challenge to build.

Participating in the early days of flight would of been amazing.

Guys, does my ass look fat in these pants?

Pretty damn cold with no cockpit heater, I'd guess.

That was very interesting; thank you.
I wonder who the British pilot was.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
Interesting footage. Looked like a British flyer, prisoner?, at the end with the downed plane.

German Engine is also interesting. Crankshaft is bolted to the firewall. Crankcase is bolted directly to the propeller, engine AND propeller spin as one. This required all parts of cylinders, valves, etc. to be weighed and carefully balanced to minimize vibration while running/spinning. Quite the challenge to build.

And a challenge to fly. Changes in engine torque were a constant battle of adjustment for the pilot with that large spinning mass in front of him. Aircraft with that engine rolled/ turned remarkably well in one direction and fought the other.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
Interesting footage. Looked like a British flyer, prisoner?, at the end with the downed plane.

German Engine is also interesting. Crankshaft is bolted to the firewall. Crankcase is bolted directly to the propeller, engine AND propeller spin as one. This required all parts of cylinders, valves, etc. to be weighed and carefully balanced to minimize vibration while running/spinning. Quite the challenge to build.

It wasn't just German engineering, the rotary engine was common in quite a few of the aircraft of that time period. The Sopwith Camel had a reputation for rolling 270 degrees to the left better than rolling 90 degrees to the right. They were engineering marvels, but they sure had some quirks.

If you are into those old planes, here is a link to a page someone put together about my uncle Jerry. http://www.johnheiney.com/un_s...rnhill/thornhill.htm He is a pretty amazing guy, and built and flew numerous WW1 aircraft. That site has links to a few videos of him flying his Sopwith Camel. You can see the massive torque that rotary puts on the rest of the aircraft when it idles. I got to play around on the Camel when I was a kid before he sold it, but I was too young to appreciate it for what it is at the time. I don't have any regrets from my childhood, but I'm sad I missed that opportunity.

It’s utterly amazing that aircraft technology advanced so rapidly in such a short amount of time. Taking off and landing was impressive enough, much less maneuvering against another plane and the idea of an interrupter gear that let the gun fire between the propeller blades was sheer genius. There’s some cool slow motion video of this out there, it’s interesting to see how it works.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
Interesting footage. Looked like a British flyer, prisoner?, at the end with the downed plane.

German Engine is also interesting. Crankshaft is bolted to the firewall. Crankcase is bolted directly to the propeller, engine AND propeller spin as one. This required all parts of cylinders, valves, etc. to be weighed and carefully balanced to minimize vibration while running/spinning. Quite the challenge to build.

And a challenge to fly. Changes in engine torque were a constant battle of adjustment for the pilot with that large spinning mass in front of him. Aircraft with that engine rolled/ turned remarkably well in one direction and fought the other.

Similar to old ski boats.

The take-off pictured happened quite quickly. What speed was necessary for take-off and what was the slowest possible flying speed? I tried to google it but the information was on top speed.

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
The take-off pictured happened quite quickly. What speed was necessary for take-off and what was the slowest possible flying speed? I tried to google it but the information was on top speed.

I found 3 different sites that gave 3 different stall speed numbers for the DR.1. 34 mph, 42 mph, and 45 mph. I don't know which is correct.

My FIL, who was a pilot, frequently commented on how amazing it was that the Wright brother's first flight and Apollo 11 both occurred during his lifetime.

Fascinating film. Airplanes were slow then, but those DR1s could remain in the air at very slow speeds. They weren't fast even by the standards of the day, but they could turn like nothing else.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
My FIL, who was a pilot, frequently commented on how amazing it was that the Wright brother's first flight and Apollo 11 both occurred during his lifetime.

Yes, and when I think of that fact, I’m always poignantly reminded of this quote:

“History will remember the inhabitants of this century as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the moon in 66 years, only to languish for the next 30 in low Earth orbit. At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve.”
— Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut (in about 1999)

(Sorry for the thread diversion, but I believe it’s important for us all to remember when we think about what might have been.)

About 20 years ago I picked up a Spandau LMG 08/15. This is the air cooled version of the WWI German MG 08/15 machine gun and you can see a pair of them mounted on von Richthofen's Dr.1. I did some digging around and discovered the serial number of my LMG was 200 off from one of von Richthofen's on the day he was shot down and died. The Brits documented the serial numbers from his downed Dr.1 and included them in their reports. It seems that Spandau Armory built LMG 08/15s in batches and then sent them to various aircraft manufacturers for customization and installation on their aircraft. My LMG, and at least one of von Richthofen's, was manufactured in November of 1917.

Here is my LMG 08/15 ready to fire resting in a homemade cradle on top of a US M2 type tripod. The tripod itself is a conglomeration of Canadian and US components. Some truly crazy stuff comes out of Fort Hood. Oh, the LMG is fully functional and legally registered.

Very cool and informative, MG34_Dan.

Very nice Dan.

That was neat to see. Von Richthofen’s biography was among the first books on military aviation I read as a kid.

I should have remembered - oh well I guess getting older...

Back in 2015 we made a family trip to Virginia Beach. There was a private military airplace museum nearby called the Military Aviation Museum.

My daughter had the experience of a lifetime in that she flew a bi-plane.

Here is link to pics of the Focke DR1 they had at the museum and just one of those pics from that link.

https://postimg.org/gallery/28svrw2ca/