Monoplane,biplane or triplane?

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Without any solid evidence supporting my case, I guess I would go with what most air forces stuck with during the war that being the biplane.
It is my understanding that monoplanes did not have the sufficient lift to be competitive against nimbler biplanes and triplanes and the later needed a somewhat highly qualified pilot in the lines of Von Richthofen or Voss to exploit their superior maneuverability.
 
Reading all the different arguments put forth above, I'd have to say it all boiled down to a person's personal preference for death-trap of choice. For me...the triplanes always just looked so frikkin cool!
 
I'm most familiar with those little Fokkers you see in all the movies. I'll have to Google the Sopwith triplane. Sorry, I'm not as up on WW1 as I should be.
 
The only problem with a triplane was it was too slow to break off combat if you were outnumbered or at some other disadvantage.
As Werner Voss found out when he ended up in a combat with with 5 SE5's. He had no choice but try to fight them all until one finally one got a fatal burst in on him.
 

The Dogfights episode "The First Dogfighters" states that his Fokker triplane possessed, apart from being more agile, a superior rate of climb than the faster SE5s which would had enabled Voss to disengage from the combat and seek friendly lines; something he supposedly refused, eager to score at least one British plane.
 
Dead men tell no tales, there's no way even the fine scholars at the history channel could know why Voss stuck around and fought against 5 other aircraft.

The Dr I had a slight rate of climb advantage, but it falls off faster with altitude, and with aircraft of that era you could have some big variances in performance from aircraft to aircraft, and day to day. A sparkplug could foul on a rotary engine in midflight.

Voss was a fighter pilot to be respected, but I don't think he survived as long as he did by not being able to size up his opponents. I doubt that he was arrogant enough to think he could outfight 5 of Englands best. He just couldn't get a break to get away, level, in a dive, or a climb.
 
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"Dead men men tell no tales"... Direct and truthful saying.
The documentary, not that I take everything on THC as irrefutable truth, states that on several occasions Voss disengaged from the fight to orbit on top of the British planes and then, "eager to get more one or two SE5s dove into the fray once again".
Regardless of the real motives for Voss to stay in the fight, capable to disengage or cornered by the SE5s and fighting for his very survival, it's true what THC says, truly one of the epic air battles of WWI.
that young German flyer which died so young has my respects and admiration.
 
"Dead men men tell no tales"... Direct and truthful saying.
The documentary, not that I take everything on THC as irrefutable truth, states that on several occasions Voss disengaged from the fight to orbit on top of the British planes and then, "eager to get more one or two SE5s dove into the fray once again".
Regardless of the real motives for Voss to stay in the fight, capable to disengage or cornered by the SE5s and fighting for his very survival, it's true what THC says, truly one of the epic air battles of WWI.
that young German flyer which died so young has my respects and admiration.
 
I'm wrong about the number of British aircraft involved, there were 7. All from the 56th Squadron.

I read several accounts of the dogfight from the different participants, I haven't run across that version yet. But I will say that when I read the different views, it's like they're describing different events. But that's not unusual in combat recollections .
 

I hear you, several accounts of a single aerial battle or any other event in which there are more than one witness tend to leave almost different conclusions.
I may be wrong but I believe Dogfights relied on pilot James McCudden's account (don't know if written correctly) for their analysis of the battle.
 
I still think dogfights show was a little bit of eye candy , but it's what sells in the biggest market, Was y29 the biggest dogfight of Boddemplatte I have a little doubt. Missing Barkers VC flight against at least 20 ? To put in some guy I've never heard about and I believe I've heard or read of most
 
Has there ever been anything in print from the German's side of Barkers's dogfight ? Or any other views at all, other than Barkers?
I can't remember a source, but Barker's details have been "questioned".
 
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From the ground ?

If I remember right, it was on the Italian front wasn't it ?

I see I'm wrong, it was when he was sent the western front after his Italian assignment.
 
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From the ground ?

Technically he lost, but he shot down 4 ( I think ) before he was downed.

I think I need to refresh my memory on that fight.
 

To quote a friend who has flown a couple of D5 reproductions "Looks like a rock star, Flies like Ozzie Osbourne" Apparently they are awful to fly, even when comapred to other WW1 machines.
The lower wing is also pretty weak, with most of these aircraft, you can move them around on the ground by pushing/pulling on the bottom of the struts, but not the D5, the lower wing can't handle the stress. This probably helped in their reputation as a fragile aircraft.

But personally, I think I'd go for a bi-plane over the other two, generally speaking. More proven that the contemporary mono-plane, but less drag than the triplanes.
 
I would go for a Bristol but not the speedylittle bullet. I would go for a Bristol Fighter with a gunner to keeping his eye on whatwas happening behind but with a performance as good as contemporary German fighters. If I chose a monoplane it would be the Fokker DVIII flying razor blade which entered service to late in the war to show how good itwas.
 
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