Albatros D.III (Oeffag) for FSX by Lukasz Kubacki and Tomasz Chudzik - members of 1.Pulk Lotniczy (http://1pl.boo.pl/). Pilot model made by yours truly


Soon to be released by A2A Simulations under Aicraft Factory label.










More screenshots here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.525785934103873.137973.100000174122590&type=1

Sweet.

Awesome!

Fantastic!
I've watched the progress of this project from Lukasz' posts at RoF Forums.

Wheels

It's out!





$12.99

http://www.a2asimulations.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=52

I was a little curious about the configuration of this airplane. Didn't know much about this model. The nose, especially, seemed odd. Unlike the Albatross models I've seen, and been shot down by in ROF.
So I googled. Interesting. Seems that the Austrian pilots had trouble with this airplane when it was initially released. It had the iconic Albatross nose at first. But, it seems that on these Austrian models, the spinner came whirling off in flight. As a RL pilot I can honestly say that it would be disconcerting, to say the least, to have large parts of your airplane go off on their own. And so they removed them.
The gun arrangement is also different. The Austrian made guns were buried in the nose for streamlining, but this too became a problem. They were a bit troublesome, and being hidden in the nose, there was no way that the pilot could get at them, in flight, to unjam them. On later models, they were exposed and available to the flyer.
So, thanks for the screenshots and for making go and learn something.

Hi Pooch,

the 53 and early 153 series had classic Albatros spinner. Later, some were removed and finally the engineers at Oeffag redesigned the nose. As for the machine guns - the first licensed built Albatroses had only one Schwarzlose 8mm gun but it was quickly changed. While most of the models from all the production batches had their m-g's buried in the fuselage, there were few 153's and 253's which had their guns exposed and easily accesible. But that was a minority.
Another interesting case is the gear interrupter. To avoid shooting the propeller, you had to watch your RPM's and keep them in, let's say, some 'typica value'- perhaps 1400rpms. If you were shooting and the rpms were lower or higher than this value, there was a high risk of hitting the propeller. I read that some Oeffags had a small bulb inside of the cockpit. Once the prop was hit, the electrical network was broken and the bulb was off. This way the pilot knew that the prop is damaged and could stop shooting to protect it.

Also, the Austro-Hungarian Albatroses had more powerful engines. From the beginning they were equipped with 185HP Austro-Daimler engines. Later, the 153 version received 200HP A-D and the final one - the series 253 depicted here got 225HP monster. She could reach 5000m with about 20 minutes according to some sources and 200kph in level flight at s/l.

Regards,
Lucas

It also worth mentioning that she had completly different cockpit arrangement. The pilot had to operate the yoke using left hand and the throttle was placed on the starboard. The American pilots who served in Kosciuszko Squadron during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920 complained about that and had to get used to that. Later, when they also received Italian Ansaldo Balilla's they had to be very versalite, as that one had a "classic" control arrangement

L.

Beautiful. Cracking job Lucas and team