1. If rotary engines are so bad, why are most of the allied planes using this engine?
The rotary engine is not a bad engine per se, it is a reasonably effective way of powering an aircraft. The allies had a huge requirement for engines and so engine manufacturers built rotaries as they are somewhat simpler and lighter than their in-line bretheren.
2. If the germans didn't have any success with rotary engines, why did they continue to build planes with those engines?
The majority of German aircraft manufacturers abandoned the rotary, in the short term at least. Fokker believed that the rotary was a good concept, and bought the Oberursel company for the purpose of attempting to get a good rotary engine out of the poor ones they were producing. If he had been successful then German rotaries would almost certainly matched the later allied ones and it would have been stupid not to design aircraft capable of taking this new improved engine. Unfortunately although Oberursel promised the goods and the aircraft were constructed to take them, the greatly improved engines did not appear. Please see my thread on the Frugalsworld forum about German historian Weyl and Rheinhold Platz's view of German engines.
3. If rotary engines were so bad, why were the first radial engines made out of converted rotaries?
The earliest radial engines were stationary rotaries. The big mechanical problem with the rotary is the stresses caused by its rotation. By only having a rotating crankshaft a lot of the issues with the rotary were removed or significantly reduced. Yes, the early radials were converted rotaries, but the type diverged extremely rapidly from anything resembling the rotary in all but shape. With a radial you can fit much more efficient valve gear, use robust components which would be too heavy in a rotary and also fit a proper carburetter.
Not long after that, the german pilots are no longer stealing rotary engines from allied planes.
Please state your sources.
How? Because "Triplanes" start showing up in large numbers........Whole Squadrons of them!
Fokker bought 700 Thulin built Le Rhone rotary engines and fitted them to the Dr1.
How did the Dr1 with a weak 110 hp engine catch & overtake a SPAD with a 200 hp engine?
By bouncing them when they were just cruising along?
Now where did all these triplanes come from?
The Fokker factory. Fokker built the Fokker Dr.1 IIRC.
Why did artillery spotters say that they were "new aircraft"?
Presumably they had not seen the Dr1 before, or could tell they were new by the "new aeroplane smell."
4. If the Siemens-Schukert engine was as bad as some claim, why were aircraft built for it?
In just the same way that the allies built aircraft for a promised new super engine but were disappointed when the engine had problems or even failed to appear ( DH9s with the Siddley Puma engine is a good example, or the BAT Bantam with it's ABC Wasp radial.) This was not an issue confined to WW1 either as witness such aircraft as the Hawker Tornado and the Napier Sabre engine in WW2.
Why did some versions of the Fokker Razor, Fokker Dr1, and other aircraft built with THAT ENGINE in mind?
Why, if a better engine was available, were the Razor, Dr1 and the prototype Pfalz Dr2 NOT fitted with the ShIII?
You've heard it said that "rotary engines were phased out".........
This is total BS. Rotaries & radials continued to be used in post-war aircraft.
Radials are NOT rotaries. Do not lump them in with the rotary as it gives an entirely false impression.
A little like lumping jet engines in with rocket engines "as the exhaust comes out a tube." Post war the take up on radial engines was phenominal, with just a few rotary designs primarily using up stocks of surplus engines.
The last aircraft built for Germany is quite telling:
Fokker Razor
SSW D3
SSW D4
Pfalz D7
Pfalz D8
Pfalz Dr1
Note that ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE ROTARY AIRCRAFT....
I believe you have missed out the LVG Roland D.VIb, Fokker D.VII, Pfalz D.XII, Pfalz D.XIV, Pfalz D.XV (for some of the single seat aircraft alone), which supports the view that the in-line engined aircraft was also being constructed or developed. Some 800+ Fok.D.VII were delivered.
According to French battle reports, WHOLE SQUADRONS of these aircraft not only existed, but engaged their aircraft in battle.
SS D.III and SS D.IV yes, the others, PLEASE state your sources.
Now certainly, we can grab a WW1 "historian" who will emphatically state that the germans didn't have large numbers of rotary planes, or open a book that says something similar.
True, HORDES of historians and books, some written by Germans between the wars and in colloboration with the people who built the aircraft and engines in question.
But when you actually do some digging, you come away with a far different outlook.
Please, please, please, give us your sources - ANYTHING we can look up and verify.
1. "The germans only had the 110 hp Oberursel"
FALSE.
110 hp Oberursel
145 hp Oberursel
160 hp Siemens-Schukert
145 hp Goebel Go
200 hp Goebel Go
......There's probably more than that.
The 220hp Siemens-Halske ShIIIa, for one.
So this PURE CRAP that the Germans didn't have sufficient rotary engines is garbage.
True, they had sufficient. But the ones they had were prone to failure, obsolescent, or unsuccessful.
"Thou shalt not allow the Germans in KOE to have rotary aircraft"
The Fokker Dr.1 and SS D.III/IV should be in the game, even if the game does not portray engine failure or even the power loss at altitude, as these were significant aircraft. The others, possibly not.
Btw, from your "Elusive Pfalz" page you mention the Snipe being "experimental." Although all aircraft can be considered so at some point in their development, it is a strange appellation for an aircaft that had orders for 1700 machines placed in March 1918 and entered service in September.
Don't forget Ockham's Razor.
Sorry to hear about the mobo problem. I take it reflashing the bios hasn't helped?
