FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0005.PDF
4, 1/liCHT THE NEW ALBATROS SCOUTING BIPLANE. IK our last issue we gave a few particulars of some of the more recent German aeroplanes', including the new Albatros scout, of which we are able, this week, to give an illustration. Until comparatively recently, the Germans have not paid any particular attention ' to the reduction of head resistance, the aim of tlaur aeroplane designers having been more particularly directed along lines of stability, as witness the early Tauben and " Arrow " biplanes. While fighting adversaries who were, long before the outbreak of war, specialists, so to speak, in high-speed machines, the gentle Hun has evidently at last realised the utility, as construction is concerned, the body is not a true motuKoqm, but has four main rails in the usual fashion, and that the streamlining is effected by a super- structure. The nature of the latter is not uuitr clear, but it appears to be a metal cover, probably alu- minium. A detail which was quite clear in the original photograph, but which has been obliterated in the reproduction, is the new fitting for the interplane struts. Instead of the old familiar steel cup in which rests a ring forming the anchorage for the bracing wires, a much smaller fitting is employed, consisting. A new Albatros Scout biplane captured from the Han* by the British. on occasion, of a good pace, always coupled, of course, with other qualities such as climb and manoeuvring power, and at any rate, in the machine illustrated, " Speed " appears to be the keynote of the design. The large powerful engine, the stream-line body, the small wings, and the reduction of struts to a minimum, all point towards it. In the case of the body, it will be noticed that the method of stream-lining has even been carried to the extent of a hemispherical nose- piece over the propeller boss—a refinement which is not normally met with in German machines. The lines near the tail plane give indication that as far apparently, of an eye-bolt, with forked ends passing through the spar, the eye-bolt in the end of the strut fitting into the forked end of that in the spar. The Mercedes engine is almost totally covered in, the radiator, mounted above the engine, only just clearing the fuselage covering. The tail planes, it will be observed, are neatly joined to the body, the appear- ance being, in fact, that the body covering is run up- wards to form the covering of the fin as well. The rudder is partly balanced, wholly on top of the body and some little distance ahead of the elevator, as mentioned in our brief description last week. On the Russian Front. IN a despatch written by Prof. Bernard Pares in thelate summer, from somewhere in Russia, and published in the Daily Telegraph on December 29th, he says :— In this part aeroplane raids by the enemy are veryfrequent. One or two aircraft come almost every day. Some- times they throw bombs with surprising accuracy, but 1 havenot heard of a case in which this side of their activity has caused any serious military inconvenience. But several ofthe many Red Cross detachments have suffered. Some of the stretcher-bearers have been wounded ; and one sister,whose head was very badly broken by a splinter, is making a difficult recovery. Another was killed.'" __ France and Germany's Bid for Supremacy. WRITING in the Echo de Parti with regard to the neworganisation of Germany's air service, M. Marcel Hutin nays : " In view of the unquestionable increase In the numberof their aeroplanes, to say nothing of their airships, we must make the greatest effort to double, or even treble, the numberof oar machines, so as to give our aviation department, whether as regard* directing artillery, fire scouting, or bomb-ing, the necessary strength to maintain our supremacy over the enemy."The Capture of El Arish. WRITING to the Daily Telegraph from El Arish onDecember 21st, and describing the capture of that place Mr. W. T. Massey says :—" The column was escorted by airmen, who were frequently 10,000 ft. up, and kept off the enemy machines, a precautionwhich the repeated, though ineffectual, bombing of the last few days made necessary. Our airmen from dawn to dasknot only patrolled to protect the column, but denied an opportunity to the enemy to reconnoitre."
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
