'Was doing some Triplane searching and discovered a batch of Albatros pictures. (mostly models) Some, but not all, of the Albs. had these strange little boxes sitting on the middle wing. Any ideas as to what they were for?
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My hunch is radiators

Drag magnets.

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Hauksbee, as noted by MudWasp, they are radiators, and the plane in question is the Albatros Dr.II prototype.



But drag magnets are an interesting concept busdriver.

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On the model it looks like this prototype had a V-8 engine!
Now, should be a smashing power!

Back when F-4s roamed the earth, whenever something was added or attached that slowed it down, the item was dubbed "drag magnet."

Ah, yes - here it is...

Albatros Dr. II

I thought it was an early surround sound system.

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Olham, it's interesting that the Benz V-8 engine used in this plane was basically a copy of the 200hp Hispano-Suiza, an intact example of which the Germans were unintentionally presented when an SE5a was forced to land at Harlebeke Aerodrome in the fall of 1917. They were impressed by the power output of the engine given it size and built their own version of it.

Hasse -

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Sweet!
Did any other German V-8s or V engines serve in WWI ?

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MudWasp, I think the V-8 engines designed and built by the German firms were plagued by vibration problems and by the time they'd sorted out the issues the war was nearly over.

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Yeah, I thought something like this - that they got an intact engine from a SPAD or S.E.5a.
But then you need the finesse of engineering to be able to build it the same quality.
Seems it took them a bit too long.


Yeah, I bet they were ... !

yep, just checked wiki....all were in prototypes that had problems preventing production.
They tried this engine and and a few variants in different tyoe planes with no luck.
The design was based on captured Hispano Suiza powered craft

Radiators, are they? Curious. Seeing as they had in-wing radiators in other Albs, why incur the extra drag?

According to Peter Grosz, when testing a new engine it was common to mount radiators in a convenient location for maintenance accessibility. "Once the engine-radiator cooling data was determined, a nose or wing (airfoil) radiator would be properly installed."

I guess the V-8 needed more cooling?

And, here, when I can I always try to rescue people from the clutches of crappy internet photos:

I don't know. The Alb D.X used a Benz V8 and it had a single airfoil radiator.

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Jim, your photo collection continues to amaze me. Thank you Sir for sharing yet again.

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Yep, good pic