Elmondo
Forum Veteran
Where do babies come from ?
War WW1: Planes KO'd (Comp) (1 Viewer)
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I always thought they came from Walmart...or the cabbage patch...lol
At times German front officers used to order to pile up the remains of the shot-down aircraft (at best with the corpse of the pilot visible) and let a postcard photographer from the area produce nice souvenirs meant to be sent to the loved ones at home in the Kaiserreich.
These pics (originals/reprints on paper) are collectibles now.
These pics (originals/reprints on paper) are collectibles now.
Guipago
Forum Veteran
Storks, couldn't be any other way.
Might be time to push a book 'The Red Battle Flyer' by Baron von Richthofen
Great read.
wiggins
Forum Veteran
As early as 1912, designers at the British firm Vickers were experimenting with machine gun carrying aircraft. The first concrete result was the Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 1. This type of aircraft had the engine and propeller behind the pilot, facing backward, rather than at the front of the aircraft. This provided an optimal machine gun position, from which the gun could be fired directly forward without an obstructing propeller, and reloaded and cleared in flight.
Early experiments with synchronised machine guns had been carried out in several countries before the war. Franz Schneider, then working for Nieuport in France but later working for L.V.G. in Germany, patented a synchronisation gear on 15 July 1913. Early Russian gear was designed by a Lieutenant Poplavko: the Edwards brothers in England designed the first British example, and the Morane-Saulnier company were also working on the problem in 1914.
In July 1915 the Fokker E.I, the first aircraft to enter service with a "synchronisation gear" which enabled a machine gun to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking its blades, became operational. By late 1915 the Germans had achieved air superiority, rendering Allied access to the vital intelligence derived from continual aerial reconnaissance more dangerous to acquire. In particular the defencelessness of Allied reconnaissance types was exposed. The first German "ace" pilots, notably Max Immelmann, had begun their careers.
Fortunately for the Allies, two new British fighters that were a match for the Fokker, the two-seat F.E.2b and the single-seat D.H.2, were already in production. These were both pushers, and could fire forwards without gun synchronisation. The F.E.2b reached the front in September 1915, and the D.H.2 in the following February.
On the French front, the tiny Nieuport 11, a tractor biplane with a forward firing gun mounted on the top wing outside the arc of the propeller, also proved more than a match for the German fighter when it entered service in January 1916. With these new types the Allies re-established air superiority in time for the Battle of the Somme, and the "Fokker Scourge" was over.
Set 3.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer - French Ace
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
Early experiments with synchronised machine guns had been carried out in several countries before the war. Franz Schneider, then working for Nieuport in France but later working for L.V.G. in Germany, patented a synchronisation gear on 15 July 1913. Early Russian gear was designed by a Lieutenant Poplavko: the Edwards brothers in England designed the first British example, and the Morane-Saulnier company were also working on the problem in 1914.
In July 1915 the Fokker E.I, the first aircraft to enter service with a "synchronisation gear" which enabled a machine gun to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking its blades, became operational. By late 1915 the Germans had achieved air superiority, rendering Allied access to the vital intelligence derived from continual aerial reconnaissance more dangerous to acquire. In particular the defencelessness of Allied reconnaissance types was exposed. The first German "ace" pilots, notably Max Immelmann, had begun their careers.
Fortunately for the Allies, two new British fighters that were a match for the Fokker, the two-seat F.E.2b and the single-seat D.H.2, were already in production. These were both pushers, and could fire forwards without gun synchronisation. The F.E.2b reached the front in September 1915, and the D.H.2 in the following February.
On the French front, the tiny Nieuport 11, a tractor biplane with a forward firing gun mounted on the top wing outside the arc of the propeller, also proved more than a match for the German fighter when it entered service in January 1916. With these new types the Allies re-established air superiority in time for the Battle of the Somme, and the "Fokker Scourge" was over.
Set 3.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer - French Ace
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
At the start of WW1, eager, young pilots, many of whom were in their late teens and early twenties, were only given an average of seventeen hours of instruction (expanded to fifty hours later in the war), with as little as five hours of flying time in planes they would not fly in combat. Approximately 8,000 pilots died during training between 1914 and 1918. If they survived, they were sent to France to fight Germans who had better planes and better training.
Once stationed in France, pilots engaged in dogfights in machines made of canvas, wire, and wood. They had few instruments and would have to flip the engine off and on to slow down for landing. They flew without parachutes. Averaged together, this gave a pilot in the early part of the war a life expectancy of eleven days.
Over confidence was usually fatal, while self-doubt could give a pilot the edge he needed to stay alive. Eventually, the more flight and combat experience a pilot gained, the better his chances of survival.
Set 4.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
Once stationed in France, pilots engaged in dogfights in machines made of canvas, wire, and wood. They had few instruments and would have to flip the engine off and on to slow down for landing. They flew without parachutes. Averaged together, this gave a pilot in the early part of the war a life expectancy of eleven days.
Over confidence was usually fatal, while self-doubt could give a pilot the edge he needed to stay alive. Eventually, the more flight and combat experience a pilot gained, the better his chances of survival.
Set 4.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
very nice thread, always find WW1 intriguing.
p.s. this guy died like a pimp, gotta love that warm suit he's wearing, i'd wear that today even...
p.s. this guy died like a pimp, gotta love that warm suit he's wearing, i'd wear that today even...
The 1/2 fur pants might get you some eyes...lol.
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The first of the famous aerial ‘dogfights’ were conducted by pilots shooting pistols at each other from their cockpits. That changed when in 1915 the Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker invented a machine gun which could fire directly through the spinning front propeller. During the ‘Fokker Scourge’, when only German planes were fitted with the guns, the life expectancy for an Allied pilot arriving at the front was measured in weeks.
* Again, to get a photos details just hover your mouse over it.
Set 5.
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42. Canadian Ace ~ Billy Bishop.
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51.One of Frank Hurley's 'photoshopped' photos. He used 3 different negatives to make up this scene.
Haha.. yes, that's the rotary engine. It had no throttle for the crude carburetor and had to run at full power all the time. Another drawback was that the whole mass of the cylinder block was turning led to a gyro effect. Means, changing the plane's direction in the air was not so easy on one side (opposite side of the direction of the motor rotation) the gyro effect had its 'own will'.
A question: The 'hover your mouse over the photo to get the details' is a feature I know from Flickr (where I search for old war postcards). Is it supposed to work on other sites as well? I'm asking because you mentioned it in your posts. I had no luck so far.
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They were beasts to fly...I'd rather break a horse (no, not a bull, fuck that shit, lol).
The hover thing will work on most sites, as far as I know, but many it doesn't. If who ever coded the page inserted the alt text tag then you'll see that by hovering, even if the image is hyperlinked. It might be browser dependent too...not sure. But a few sites I have open right now show nothing if I hover over an image on the page.
@DeathHand, great pics, thanks. I remember seeing a picture in a book a few years ago of an imprint in the ground caused by a Zeppelin crewman who'd made the choice of jumping to his death rather than burning. This thread prompted me to see if I could find it on the interweb.
He was actually the Commander of L31 and his name was Heinrich Mathy, his Zeppelin was hit by AA fire over London.
He was actually the Commander of L31 and his name was Heinrich Mathy, his Zeppelin was hit by AA fire over London.
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Wow 😯.
Thanks, and that's a cool pic. I wonder how many deaths happened when zep crew/s or fighter pilots decided to bail instead of burn. Some carried a revolver for just that reason.
Werwolf
Fresh Meat
Never seen one with a scope on it
SlickPenguin
Fresh Meat
Hard to come by new photos! Thanks!
