BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: mg
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 08:28 PM

I haven't had time to read the thread, but when I lived in Vancouver, WA, near the field near Vancouver Barracks..I often would have biplanes zooming above me when they gathered the old planes together...I want to say Wright field..maybe not. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Blackcatter
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 10:22 PM

Anyone going to Sun & Fun air show in Lakeland Florida in a couple weeks?

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 10:59 PM

Here's an interesting pre-WWII plane...the Curtiss Shrike. Very neat looking.

For one of the gangliest, clumsiest-looking designs of all time I nominate the Faery Barracuda! Utterly hideous. The Germans must've got fits when they saw a swarm of those descending on the Tirpitz.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: sledge
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 02:26 AM

For looks only, not sure how good it really was, the Roland IIc, Walfish, quite sleek, another of those early Airfix memories.

Sledge.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Phot
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 07:40 AM

Dornier Do-X. Now that is really ugly! And a year to fly round the world! So much for "Its faster by air".

But I would'nt say no to a Super Connie!

Wassail! Chris

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 12:19 PM

Yeah, the Roland was a very neat little plane, and a pretty good one. I still like the Albatros fighters the best.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: BaldEagle2
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 05:52 PM

This poem by Loius MacNiece started a sort of urbanish legend among those who did not know his life story.   The legend had it that this poem was written by an Allied Fighter pilot five weeks before he was killed in combat.   (Seems to make the poem somewhat more poignant, if that was ever necessary).   He did, in fact, live until 1963 and (as far as is recorded) never flew in a fighter aircraft in his life.

    The sunlight in the garden hardens and grows cold
    We cannot cage the moment in its nets of gold
    When all is told, we cannot beg for pardon

    Our freedom as free lances advances to its end
    The earth compels upon it, Bird and sonnet descend
    And soon my friend, there will be no time for dances

    The sky was good for flying defying the church bells
    And every iron siren and what it foretells
    The earth compels, We are dying, Egypt, dying

    And unable to beg for pardon, hardened in heart anew
    But grateful to have sat under thunder and lightning with you
    And grateful too, for sunlight in the garden.

(I quote from a long time ago with a memory that is perhaps flawed, the original words may not be 100% identical to those above, but they are pretty close).

Oh - and for what is worth - the talk in the RAF Messes in the early sixties was that the Sopwith Camel was the British pilot's favorite aircraft of world war 1, despite its tendency to kill novice pilots)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Raedwulf
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 07:06 PM

That's a lousy poem Eagle! (Sorry!) But you're right about the Camel. The reason it was a favourite was because it was highly maneouvrable... And the reason it was often lethal to novices was because it was unstable! Just look at the modern Eurofighter - it is is specifically designed to be unstable & therefore maneouvrable. The two go together, hence the virutes & faults of the Camel.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Les from Hull
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 09:28 AM

LH - more about the Fairy Barracuda. It was a replacement for the Fairy Albacore, which was a replacement for the Fairy Swordfish. The Swordfish was still serving at the end of the war (albeit in the anti-submarine role it wasn't really designed for). There were 5 other competing designs, though it seems that Fairy Aviation got the job because the other companies' designs were 'too advanced' or they with busy with other work. Then the engine is was originally going to have (the Rolls-Royce Boreas or Exe) was cancelled which led to a bit of redesign. Then development was put on hold because of the war, and production of fighter aircraft took precedence.

One of the 'ugly' parts of the design was the Youngman flaps, which doubled as dive-breaks. But these interferred with original tailplane, so the Barra ended up with an ugly high tailplane.

Because of the high-wing design the undercarriage needed to avoid having overlong legs up to the wings or a short track if the wheels went into the fuselage. The final design, using elements of both was ingenious, effective but ugly.

The Barra carried its weapons on the outside, which was ugly, and by the time a comprehensive radar fit had been added later in the war the ugliness was complete.

Pilots trained on the biplane Albacore and Swordfish found the Barra, overweight, underpowered and without an autopilot, difficult and tiring to fly. By the time it came into service in early 1943 there were no targets for torpedo attack, its primary role. But it did put paid to the Tirpitz, which never operated again after damage from Barracuda strikes. And it added minelaying and anti-submarine work to its topedo and dive-bomb roles.

Incidentally, many Barracudas were built locally to me in Hull, at Blackburn Aviation in Brough (about 15 miles away). And as this is a music site, I'll include a wartime song about the Barracuda.

I want a Barracuda I can call my own,
A plane the RAF can never steal;
And all those whiskered P/O Prunes
With their Mossies and Typhoons
Will have to fly in aircraft that are real.
As through the evening sky we slowly stagger;
A-waiting for the next poor chap to die;
I'd rather have a Barra I can call my own
Than have an aircraft that can really fly!

(Attributed to Number 9 Naval Torpedo-Bomber-Reconnaissance Wing; sung to the popular wartime ditty "Paper Doll")

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite World War 1 Fighter Plane
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 12:25 AM

LOL! Great stuff, Les. Thanks for that. There is a new kit of the Barracuda out by Special Hobby from Czechoslovakia. It's pricy, and probably quite good. I was looking at it today, and thought...naw...I'll never build the bastard, it's just too damned ugly! I wondered why they put the tailplanes up so high...

Really, if you sat down and TRIED to design a plane as ugly as possible you could hardly beat the Barracuda, although some of the French bombers of the 30's actually did look even worse. The Gallic ability to construct hideous-looking aircraft has never been bested, not even by the Brits!

Curiously enough, though, both nations have also built some truly beautiful looking aircraft.

- LH