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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0855.PDF
AUGUST 23, 1917. f/liGHT THE 1916 TYPE HALBERSTADT BIPLANE. IN our issue of April 5th, 1917, we gave a description and anumber of detail sketches of the construction of the German Halbsrstadt biplane. These, as well as the drawing showingthe machine in flight, were prepared from a very incomplete set of parts, most of which were in a hopeless condition,while the whole nose of the machine and large portions of the wings were missing altogether. Nevertheless, by comparingthese sketches with an actual complete machine since cap- tured, it was found that all the particulars then given wereabsolutely correct. That this is so may be easily verified by referring back to our April 5th issue and comparing thedrawing of the machine in the air with the photographs of a our Allies' modern fighters. The machine which has, morethan any other, superseded the Halberstadt is the Albatros single-seater with the Nieuport-type wing bracing, illustratedand describsd in " FLIGHT " of July 12th. It might beobjected that the machine of which we publish photographs this week is of a type that is nearly a year old. This wegrant, but to the best of our knowledge there is not in exist- ence—or at any rate not in use—a modern Halberstadt.Whether the reason for this is to beSsought in so vastly superior a performance by the other makes of Germanfighters as to cause the German' authorities to concentrate on the production of these, or whether it is due to the Halber- Three-quarter rear view of the Halberstadt biplane. captured machine which, thanks to the courtesy of themilitary authorities, our representative was able to inspect at a home aerodrome a few days ago. The machine has, itmay bs noticed, been painted with the British identification marks for purposes of testing it over English soil and thusfind out if there is anything particularly valuable in its performance which might be of any use to our constructors.Let it be said at once that there does not appear to be any • phase of performance or evolution in which this once-upon-a- stadt in its present form bsing difficult to alter and improveto such an extent as to bring its performance up to that of the others, is a matter for conjecture. We have heard itsaid that while the Halbsrstadts were in use on the Western Front a surprisingly large percentage of those brought downwere observed to come to earth in what appeared te> our pilots to be a spinning nose-dive.If this be so—and we have heard the same remark made by so many independent observers that there can scarcely Side view of the Halberstadt biplane. time much-talked-of machine can hold' its own compared be any doubt about the correctness of the statement—it ratherwith a good British or French machine 6f the same size and power.So far as it is possible to gather, the Halberstadt has looks as if the Halberstadt was inclined towards spiral in-stability. An examination of the photographs tends to con-firm this impression. In the first place, the total absence of almost, if not quite, disappeared from the Western Front, any fixed vertical surface in front of the rudder, coupled withwhich fact indicates that it is no longer a match for our or the fact that the body terminates in a horizontal knife-edge 855 .A.:/'..
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