To help combat fuzzy/grainy/small internet photos, this is a photo-request thread. For those interested just request something and if I have a decent photo of it, I'll post it here.

So, for instance, you say Sopwith Triplane. I say:




You say Nieuport 28. I say:




You say Salmson-Moineau S.M.1. I say:




You say "What the heck? Is that a laterally-mounted radial engine?" I say:




You say Russian Morane Saulnier I. I say:




Got it? Good!

You say...

Great pictures from your collection, Jim!

Okay, let me see... - I say: Caudron G.IV...

And I will throw in the N17 (Lewis) if you are bored.
And thanks for the thread. Love period photos.

I say Lambourghini Countach!.....oops, wrong thread!

Great - you always have one I have never seen before! Thanks, Jim, good picture1

That's big but still sort of grainy. How 'bout a bonus N.16, too, to make up for it:

Man, Rickenbacker was such a bad a$$, he almost makes the N28 look cool!

I say Nungesser and his German staff car he "acquired"

Isn't Lambourghini Italian? Thus:

How about an Ansaldo S.V.A. 5.

Very few car photos. But:

I love that shot of Captain Eddie in the N28.
Clearly my large arse would probably get me a transfer to the infantry as that cockpit looks a little tight!

Any of the Se5 series?

Haha, should have known I couldn't stump you. Thanks, that's one of my favorites.

Wow! Great pics!

Very generous of you, Jim. (keep your eyes peeled for Sablatnigs)

I know this isn't the triplane, but:

I like this game. Lovely pics JFM, thank you.

I say... Armstrong Whitworth FK8?

My pleasure! Photo is a little fuzzy but large. I'll look through some more folders for some sharper images of AWFK8s.

Very interesting. I've noticed on many SE5 series scouts,the doped fabric is very wrinkled on the bottom. Is there a reason for that?

Rick you are a bit of a mind reader...and obviously the photo here got us both thinking. And this particular bird is not unique in that.
A certain factory? Older aircraft?

I am going to go with a imperfect field repair. Maybe that's why the pilot seems to have a scared look on his face!

May I ask for Baumer in Pfalz DVII, JFM? Or any interesting Pfalz DXII?

My understanding of this noted issue with many of the SE5s was due to the fact that the control cables ran inside the fuselage. As these cables needed regular adjustment via the turnbuckles, and as the only way to get to said turnbuckles to do this was to unlace the fuselage side panels, the repeated unlacing and re-lacing process left the sides wrinkled. If I am in error about this I am sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me.

And Jim, great photos Sir, many thanks again for sharing your collection with us.

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That makes a hell of a lot of sense.
Lou, is there anything you don't know about these birds?

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Gobs!

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outstanding......all of you

I don't think I have Baumer with the Pfalz DVII, unless it's buried deeper than I'm looking, but I have one with a Pfalz D.VIII. But, I'll just address them all.

First, Pfalz D.VII.



Next, Baumer:



His Pfalz D.VIII:



Pfalz D.XII:

Great stuff, thanks Jim!!!

Great stuff indeed!
Anyone know what the ribbon is for on Baumer's chest?
Got a pretty good handle on the British ones but the German mix and match of ribbons and medals always leaves me scratching my head a bit. Not that this photo is that tricky. Pilots badge and IC 1 I believe are the badges. IC 2 is always a button ribbon? I love period photos and the men and aircraft. Always learn something.
Lou? I think medals are your area too.

I guess they are the ribbons for the EK I and EK II ?
But not sure.

Great pics JFM, thanks a lot!!

SIEMENS-SCHUCKERT R types

That photo of Paul Bäumer appears to be from before he was awarded the Pour le Merite as he is not wearing it. The ribbons on his tunic are for the EK2, (not always worn as a buttonhole ribbon), and the Goldene Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz, or Gold Military Merit Cross, Prussia's highest award to an NCO.

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I say: Caudron R 11 (love the beast) ?

I must need glasses. I see only one ribbon.

You need glasses - there are two.

The Iron Cross and the Golden Military Merit Cross have the same black and white ribbons. Actually the same B&W ribbon was also used for wartime awards of the Hohenzollern Order and the Red Eagle Order.

I say - Hanriot HD.1. Either Italian or Belgian will do.

They are close next to each other, like medal ribbons are still today.
What looks like one, are two.

R.VI




R.VIII

Geeze - that thing has more wingspan than a B-17 !

My R.11 photos are a bit grainy, alas.



I have clearer shots of the R.14:

Two each:

Ah thank you.

I didn't realize they were that large

Wow, that Caudron R 14 had two HISPANO engines with 300 hp each!
Do you know it's top speed?

I'd like to try and stuff one of those engines in a SPAD XIII

The Hanriots were also used by the Swiss after the war. I have a picture somewhere of one in a Swiss museum in their colours. Or maybe the museum is in Munich.....

So...two identical black and white ribbons side by side in a black and white photograph.
Well I don't feel too stupid then.

How about the plane that is needed desperately in a WOFF add-on...the DH4.
I see the other dream add-on (The Big Ack) is already here. And, if I may be greedy, just about any darn thing you post is cool with me.
Do you have any group pictures of squadron personnel? Or even single man shots (like Baumers) are a educational tool.

How about some flying boats and or pontoon planes?

Whew! All the big guns. Now I got to study them up close.
Thanks JFM!

OOooHHhhh, AAaaww, I think this be what my cat feels when i pay attention to her. ......Purrrrr

Thanks! Great Pics


? Any total failures in design?
I recall some contraption that had dual triplane.

PS, I love the pics of the central engine running the dual engines on the wings via the shaft. Reminds much of a modern day front wheel drive car. CV joints go on them.....

Fantastic photos all. Thank you for sharing your impressive collection. Please keep them coming!

And someday, a Stormtrooper will need that rifle in Mos Eisley...

Gee, what a big show! Great to see the personnel photos in this high quality!

Do you have any Roland D. VI with personal emblems, Jim?

Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing. I especially like the Salmson-Moineau engine, beautiful in its weirdness.



If I remember well it will make (along with other modifications) a SPAD XVII, only a few reach the front at the very end of the war, but it seems that Fonck scored his last victories with it.

I have mostly factory shots but I have a few:

Great! Thanks, Jim - I only knew the first one.
Nice to have them in this quality!
Does anyone else think the same as me - that this is a good looking fighter craft?
I'd love to see this plane in WOFF one day!

That SE5 has a four-bladed prop. All the pictures and drawings I have seen show a two-bladed prop. Did this one have a special engine - maybe the RE8 engine in a prototype? (The RE8 had a four-bladed prop that I know).

The number of blades on a SE prop depended on the engine type.
As a general rule the later SE's with the better engines had the 4 blades prop.
That's from memory so I can't tell tou exactly what engine type started it.

And Olham...and SS DIII first!

Hmm, those guys sit pretty high in the cockpit in those...must have been even colder than usual!

Two-blade versions:

Hey Jim that last photo of A8904 SE5 is one of the early versions with a big windscreen that the pilots didn't like at all. The fabric at the pilot's area also looks a bit scruffy. It also has the fuel header tank above the wing which was not used in the SE5a. Nice photos most of which I have never seen before!

(I especially liked the one of the aircraft with a radial water-cooled engine mounted fore-and-aft with gearing to outboard props. Looks like a disaster waiting to happen).

Another Jim

Duke, only ca. 80 Siemens-Schuckert D.III were built, which is an almost irrelevant number.
They came to front service in January 1918, but after only short time they had to be withdrawn
because of heat problems, due to bad lubricant oil quality.
They were re-introduced in July 1918.
Their climb was said to have been better than that of any other aircraft of that period,
which made them perfect interceptors. But with 80 planes, they did not play any important role.

On the other hand, 353 Roland D.VI were made and served in many units - this type might much
rather be a plane to complete the German fighters in WOFF.

Here is by the way a test report of a D.VIb from 1920. In the pilot notes it says, that the
Roland D.VI showed a similar performance like the Fokker D.VII (!).

Roland D VIb Test Report from 1920

Interesting photo that one of A8904 - I think it was maybe on a concrete ring for a 'compass swing'? Otherwise what would the ring be for?

I had seen a cockpit picture of the last remaining Roland D.VI in Poland.
There it looked as if the seat might have had different arrest-positions - maybe higher for taxiing?
After all, the angle of the fuselage is much steeper than on the Albatros for example.

Agree 100%. Important planes first, marginal stuff later. And on that scale, even the Roland D.VI is not all that important!

I say - Breguet 14 and Salmson 2! (Really important planes!)

Geez Olham...don't muddy the waters with facts, historical truths, and other relevant data.
This is about aeronautical beauty.

I´d love to see some colourful Hannover CL.IIs and maybe a W29 with interesting markings....

Wow, the Hansa-Brandenburg seaplanes... - Hauksbee will be happy, when he sees these!

Amen to that! More H-B's! And one from me...

Thanks JFM, once again, you prove to be a gold mine.

I like that plane!

Float planes are something I would love to see added to WOFF.

JFM, any pics from the Jasta 5 triumvirate? Konnecke, Rumey or Mai? (I have been looking for a Jasta 5 book, but oddly , there isn´t much literature about such a famous unit...).

BTW, here's a book on German seaplanes, crammed with hundreds of photos, profiles, line drawings: http://www.amazon.com/German-Seaplane-Fi...erman+seaplanes

Jasta 5 books: http://www.windsockdatafilespecials.co.uk/jasta-5-volume-1-19-p.asp and http://www.windsockdatafilespecials.co.uk/jasta-5-volume-2-20-p.asp

I also know there are plans for a new book on Jasta 5 to be released by a different publisher.

Hmm, he kind of reminds me of Olham for some strange reason...

The plot thickens...


Anybody ever see these two in the same room at the same time???

Uniforms are made for that reason, Rick - to make the individuals all look the same.

Awesome.
Great pics.

That is a very handsome debonair dude in that photo!!

Awesome, high quality photos, some of them are new to me, and look great at such a big size. Thanks JFM.

What has called my attention is battle strain in Fritz Rumey´s face. Soon before dead he looked so wasted.

They all seem to get that look at the end. I'm continually amazed that these men could function under that stress for so long.

What a great thread! Those Caudrons are huger than I thought they were.

I'm fascinated by early stuff so I'd say a Taube if you have one.

Thanks Jim!
Not sure I've seen a 'float' Taube before. The DFW taube in photo 3636 looks wonderfully bird like, while the Rumpler Taube in 4175 looks positively modern in comparison.

How about some some of the Fokker Dr.1?
And any photos of J11 personnel would be a bonus when you get a moment.
Thank you.

Those last two are really different, looks like a different empennage and it they have small ailerons instead of wing warping.

Beard

Taubes have that bird like look to them

Damn, I could swear I posted an answer about the first image here yesterday - but it isn't there.
So again...

I had no idea that there has been an "Albatros" Taube - great image!
Seems the fuselage is already made of plywood, as their later planes?

One F.I, but who's counting?

Once Robert Thelen joined Albatros in 1912 they began moving away from the lattice-type construction and more toward the semi-monocoque designs for which they are known. From what I learned, Thelen teamed up with Helmut Hirth and Hugo Grohmann, and Grohmann is the one who brought the semi-monocoque ideas with him.

Thanks JFM!

Igo Etrich licensed his Taube design to Rumpler. It was, at the time, the only really flyable airplane of German design. Somewhere along the line, Rumpler and Etrich had a falling out and Rumpler refused to pay any more license fees. Rather than let Rumpler build his design for free, Etrich surrendered his patent claim which put the Taube in the public domain. At once, every German company interested in aviation, rushed to build a Taube. By 1914, there were fourteen companies building Taubes. Including Albatros who even built a biplane version.
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In the first photo of the Dr.1 does anyone know who the pilot and Jasta is? I don't recognize the paint job.
And of more interest anyone have an idea what the square wire frame looking thing is between the Spandau muzzles?
Some type of sighting apparatus? I don't recall seeing it before.

The pilot is Hans Muller, Jasta 15, February 1918. I don´t what about the square wire can be.

BTW, the second Dr.I is from Friedrich Paul Kempf, Jasta 2.

Jim, would it be possible to have inflight pics from any german or allied aircraft? 99% of the pics , obviously, are on the ground, so it would be great to take a look at some flying ones. I have one photo of a Niueport shot at by archie (depicted in "Open Cockpit" book cover by Arthur Gould Lee) and some Fokker E.III over what it looks like winter russian steppes, but not much more.

Ah, I see - thank you, Jim; and Hauksbee!

HEY! How'd that get in there?

WOW! I've never seen pics of flying WW1 planes so clear.... cool.

The more I focus on them, it looks as if they're sitting behind a flying desk or dinning table.... wierd.... not much safety from falling out or protection from the elements.

Do you have any close ups of dogfights....err....I didn't check the last 11 pages to see if you've already posted it?

NICE!!These kind of pics offer a completely different perspective of WW1 flying, more dynamic, less static.Thanks a lot, I specially like the DH2 cutting the grass.

P.S: the B-26 would have been a valuable asset for the IAF , huh?

How 'bout shots of one of the sexiest--that's right, I said "sexiest"!--planes ever? Even the Belgian Hisso versions are sexy.

Jim;

What is that first flying plane you posted with the dual fuselage look! First thing it reminded me of was a "Mosquito"!

Best Regards;

I agree. So often we see fuzzy or grainy shots that present a dingy and dirty appearance or overall "look" to the scenes depicted. To me it gives the appearance everything was dark and dirty and very "olden days." Much as does color vs black and white, I feel the clearer and more in-focus a photograph the more the years drop away. Same with seeing clouds. So often we don't see them in WW1 photos because the blue photographs so lightly and the sky and clouds mix together into a formless grey mung. But in a shot like that Albatros C.XII flying over the placid land amongst a backdrop of clouds, that looks like a beautiful day from last summer instead of being from one nearly 100 years ago. If it was in color it would really be magnificent and, to me, ageless. I know there is an old plane in it but old planes don't look old to me. Same with naval vessels. I was looking at a photo of USS Hornet CV-8 at a dock and a lot of cars were visible. THEY looked old to me but the carrier didn't. I'm just weird that way.



Now that you mention it, it would have been, literally, invincible! Except maybe to flak.

That is an AGO C.II, single-engine (220 hp Benz) twin-boom pusher. Early-war recon. Here's one at Hannover:



Love to see these in WOFF!


EDIT: Anybody recognize that photo's location?

Wow, tons of new photographies - excellent stuff again!
I understand that you find the RE.8 sexy. Sexy in a special way. The S.E.5a is also
not the "true amazing beauty" - but for me she is a sexy British bird, definitely.

Amazing Collection
Absolutely impressive, what you assembled, here :-)

Okay, I say Boelcke in an EIV LOL

Why not "early German aces with their Eindeckers?
Immelmann, Frankl, Althaus - do any pics exist of them so early?

I want to see Boelcke's Face after the first Test-Flight

Althaus



Boelcke


Boelcke and friend


Höhndorf


Immelmann


Parschau


Parschau


Wintgens


Wintgens

Wow, they are all great! Yeah, I forgot Parschau and Wintgens.
What impresses me most is the size of the Eindecker rotary - Boelcke in front
of it seems almost like a dwarf...

Picture of Boelcke with a nurse named Blanca. No info on when and where they met.

Great thread !

That pic of Althaus gives me a funny feeling - sometimes when I look at it I see four white leaves and when I look again I see the Maltese cross. One of those optical illusion things.

This is incredible!
I guess the List of Planes you don't have Pictures from is rather short LOL
Boelcke doesn't seem to be too unhappy about the Plane (although a broad Smile sure looks different)
Does the E4 on the 1st pic have only one MG?

Yep, me too, it is my favorite EI skin in WOFF