...Hi!

I posted this over at the Red Baron forum but there doesn't seem to be any response. Since this forum is also full of WWI aircraft afficionados, I thought I'd post it here as well.

I had some questions about WWI aircraft performance, specifically, about the Ansaldo Balilla, the Fe8, the Sopwith Dolphin, the Halb. D. I and the Albatros D. II.

1) How did the Ansaldo match up against its contemporaries? I imagine the most common plane it went up against was the licensed built Albatros D. III. How did it match up against that? How did it compare to its contemporaries like the Hanriot HD/I, the Nieuport 17 and the SPAD VII's which also equipped Italian squadrons?

2) How did the Fe8 match up against its contemporaries? Did it have any advantages over them?

3) Besides its superb high-altitude performance and its exceptional forward/upward view, what other advantages did the Sopwith Dolphin have over its contemporaries?

4) I realize the Halb. D. I was more or less a stop-gap until Albatri could be supplied in numbers to the German air service but did it have any redeeming features or advantages over the Albatri?

5) I've heard that the shift to the V strut configuration in the later D. III and D. V resulted in their wings collapsing in tight turns and high speed dives...did the D. III/D. V's have ANY advantages over the D. II?

Thanks in advance!

Re 1), the A1's obviously exceptionally fast, but Italian pilots, while happy with its general handling qualities, are described as regarding its manoeuvrability as "...considerably below that of the foreign fighters already serving with the Italian Air Force" (sic) "Fighters 1914-1919", K Munson, Blandford Colour Series.

Re 2), the same source gives the FE-8's endurance as 4 hours compared to 2hrs 45min for the DH2, 2 hours for an N-17, top speed about the same in mid-nineties. So good for escorting the hated Long Reconnaissances, except it wasn't much of a fighter. Only served with 2 squadrons at the front (thankfully) so not much evidence available.

Re 3), the Dolphin had 4 machine guns, tho 2 were upward firing, badly placed in the event of a crash, and often removed.

Re 4), the Halberstadt D-series is often described as being exceptionally strongly-built despite the fragile-looking tail, and especially suited to balloon attack, In Osprey's "Spad 12/13 Aces of WW1", Georges Guynemer no less is quoted as writing in December 1916 to SPAD designer Louis Bechereau, that "the 150 hp SPAD is not a match for the Halberstadt. Although the Halberstadt is probably no faster, it climbs better, and consequently it has the overall advantage." In Peter Kilduff's "The Red Baron - beyond the legend", he records that MvR reverted to flying a Halberstad D2 for a time in January 1917, after he had a lower wing failure in a D3.

Re 5), the relavant performance figures in "German Aircraft of the 1st World War" by Gray & Thetford are:

D2- max speed 109.4mph, climb to 3,280 ft, 6 min
D3- max speed 108mph, climb to 3,280 ft, 4 min
D5- max speed 116mph, climb to 3,280 ft, 4 min
Height at given max speed not stated.

The Blandford "Fighters 1914-19" gives max speed for the D2 as 108.7mph at sea level, the D3 as the same speen at 3,280 ft, and the D5 as 116 mph at 3,280 ft.

Pilot view in the area of the lower wing would have been better on the V-strutters. It was probably a mistake, overall, to switch to the later layout.

Thanks for the information Ivor!

I had not realized how strongly built the Halb. was - I had always assumed it was rather frail due to its somewhat spindly appearance.

Do you have any information on the maneuvering capabilities of the Dolphin compared with contemporaries, i.e. the Camel, the SPAD XIII, the Fokker D. VII and so forth?

And any further information on the Fe8 would be appreciated. I get the sense that it wasn't as maneuverable as the DH.2 as the DH.2 could sometimes hold its own against the Albatros by virtue of its tighter turning circle whereas in most accounts I've read of the Fe8 vs. Albatros, it seemed to have usually gotten slaughtered.

Hi FlashG

Would expect from the stats that the FE8 and DH2 would be nearly identical in performance, the FE coming several months after the dH meant it was pitted agaist the German D types from the satrt. As for the Dolphin, I'd guess it's mobility would have been on a close par with the SPAD 13, with both being a fair bit less agile than the D7 and the Camel.

This is about the best place I've found for more deatiled info or questions on all such subjects, you might want to try here.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/forum_index.php?