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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0811.PDF
AUGUST a 1917. /r .•:•'.,.'•*••• ,.- . .- '••;'•• .'*'•• IDENTIFICATION OF GERMAN AEROPLANES. VII. (COPYRIGHT.) ~r •;•'•"•• " (See pages 812 and 813.) IN our issue of May 24th we concluded our series of illustra-tions of six different German aeroplanes, namely, the Albatros Bxi, the Halberstadt, the. Albatros type CII1, the L.V.G.,the Aviatik, and the Rumpler. A short time ago we published particulars of the Gotha twin-engine biplane, which figuredso prominently in the raid on London. At the time we gave plan, front and side elevation of this machine, but as we havereceived a number of letters and calls from gunners and other members of the Services, thanking us for the publicationOf the six views of the above-mentioned machines, we have thought that a similar set of views of the Gothamight prove equally helpful for purposes of easy identifica- tion. In producing these six views we have endeavoured to retainthe uniform scale employed for the previous views in order to give a fair idea of the size of the Gotha, and althoughit is not possible to absolutely do all to the same scale, the difference will, we think, be found to be quite small andcomparatively unimportant. By referring back and com- paring the two full pages published this week with those pre-viously published, it will at once be seen that the Gotha is of very much greater dimensions than any of the six machinespreviously illustrated. This fact in itself forms quite a good guide to identification, since the large machine, clearly visibleas it was on the occasion at the last raid, appears at first to be an ordinary size machine much lower down. Thisimpression is only momentary, however, since the speed gives the appearance that the machine is travelling very slowlyindeed, so slowly in fact that no modern aeroplane flying at an altitude which would give it the same apparent size as theGotha would ever travel so slowly. The conclusion will therefore be formed at once that themachine is a large one flying at a considerably greater altitude than one would at first imagine. The next step will, there-fore, be to determine whether the machine is a Gotha or some other type. This will be fairly easy. In the first place, ifthe machine is at all clearly visible it will in all probability be possible to distinguish the two engines on the wings, whichfeature alone will indicate the possibility of the machine being a Gotha. One can then begin to look for other distinc-tive features. What impressed us during the last raid as being extremelyuseful for identification purposes were the balanced ailerons, projecting outward beyond the upper wing tips and having asmall balanced portion pointing forward about a third of the chord. This projection was distinctly visible during the raidin July and forms, in conjunction with the slightly backswept wings, one of the most easily recognised peculiarities of theGotha. It is true that our own Handley-Page biplanes possess a similar feature, but the two machines are quite perceptiblydifferent in their general lines, so that to the practised observer there should never be any doubt as to which is which. If asufficiently close view can be obtained, the tails of the two machines will form the best means of identification, that ofthe H.P. being a biplane tail, while the Gotha tail is of the more generally employed monoplane type with one fixed.tail plane and one divided elevator. In some of the underneath views of the Gotha published thisweek the gun tunnel may be just discerned, while in others it has been lost in the reproduction. In any case, interestingas this feature is in other respects, it is not of much help for identification, as it would hardly be visible at' tfny greatdistance. Suffice it to point out that it exists, and that the unwary attacker is likely to be reminded of its existence if heattempt to " get under her tail " as is the practice with some other machines. The difficulty of attacking the Gotha liesin the fact that it has, practically speaking, no blind point that would prevent it from returning fire. We should have liked to be able to publish a companionset of views of the Handley-Page for comparison, but this is not permissible, and our readers will have to be content withthe six views of the Gotha. These are, we think, self-ex- planatory, especially as the machine was described in detailas recently as our July 12th issue. The following are the main dimensions of the Gotha twin-engine biplane : Span of upper plane, 78 ft. ; span of lower plane, 72 ft. ; chord, 7 ft. 6 ins. ; gap. 7 ft. 2 ins. LengthO.A. 41 ft. Total horse power 520. AIR FIGHTING IN JULY. "ACCORDING to the official communiques as they have reachedus, 467 aeroplanes—British, French, and German—were brought down or lost on the Westerft-front during July,"says the Times in its excellent summary of air fighting for the month. This is the third highest total since the war began,and compares with 392 in June, 713 in May, and 717 in April of this year.German Main Headquarters has, however, introduced an uncertainty into the calculation. Twice during July theyreported so many " enemy airmen " as having been brought down, and it is impossible to say whether the figures given,21 and 35, represent the same number of aeroplanes or not. Taking the figures as they are, and assuming that the 56airmen represent as many aeroplanes, they show that 338 German machines were brought, shot, or driven down inJuly, and that 129 Allied aeroplanes were reported by German Main Headquarters as having shared one or otherof these fates. British airmen-—those of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service—and gunners haveto their credit all the enemy machines except 85, which were divided between the French and Belgian services. Of the253 accounted for by the British, 122 were brought down (that is, destroyed), 125 were driven down out of control,and six by gunfire. Five of the machines fell in our lines. The loss admitted by General Headquarters was 92—fourwere lost in the thunderstorm of Sunday—but, in view of Mr. Macpherson's statement in the House of Commons onJuly 19th, that the number of our machines lost by crashing or being shot down behind our lines is not published, it isright to say that the figure of 92 may not represent the whole of the British casualties. Of the remaining 85 German machines, the Frenchaccounted for 76 and the Belgians nine. This is the, largest number yet brought down by Belgian airmen, one of whom,Adjutant Thieffry, had the honour of achieving the first " Double event " on this particular portion of the Alliedfront by bringing down two German machines in the same number of minutes. French airmen destroyed 33 of the 76enemy aeroplanes, three were brought down by gunfire, 29 were driven down in a seriously damaged condition, and 11went spinning down out of conts JI. FATAL ACCIDENTS. AN inquest was held at Oxford on July 31st on Lieut.G. C. N. Cooke who was killed while flying with an R.F.C. officer. The machine suddenly nose-dived from a height of300 ft. The pilot was seriously injured. A verdict of " Accidental Death " was returned. While flying over Sewardstone, Essex, a wing of a machinepiloted by Lieut. R. M. Denholm, suddenly collapsed and the machine dropped 600 ft. to the ground. A verdict of" Accidental Death " was returned. Major A. J. Ross, D.S.O., R.E., the commander of an airstation in the Eastern Counties was killed on August 2nd when piloting a biplane. He was accompanied by a pupil,Lieut. L. Michenci, Can. Eng., attd. R.F.C., who was also killed. The machine appears to have got into a spinning nose divewhen about 300 ft. from the ground. A verdict of " Death by Misadventure " was returnedat an inquest on 2nd Lieut. R. L. James, Royal Welsh Fus., attd. R.F.C., who met his death whilst flying at Brooklandson August 3rd. It was stated that when at a height of 150 ft. deceased seemed to get into trouble. The machine swungto the right and then nose-dived to the earth. Other evidence was given that deceased died two hours after the accident(without having recovered consciousness), from fracture of the skull. Deceased was an expert pilot, and was learningartillery observation wrrk. A Double Fatality in the U.S. CHARLES FLEISCHMANN, son of Mr. Julius Fleischmann,the multi-millionaire yeast manufacturer, and his companion, Harry Witts, were drowned on Monday while flying a hydro-plane at Great South Bay (between Fire Island Beach and Long Island). Something went wrong with the engine, andthe machine dived from a height of 600 ft., the aviators' bodies being driven right down into the mud and completelyburied. A Fatal Accident in Japan." WHILE piloting an aeroplane at Shibaura, after a flyingvisit to Tokyo, Mr. Tamai was killed, through the machine falling to the ground. His passenger, a Tokyo journalist,was also killed. 811
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