Rotary or inline?

[Readie]

Ball was KIA in may 1917, the Camel never made it to the front till the next month.

Thanks Tom. Quite right.

 

[Gixxerman]

Seeing the Red Baron appear out of the clouds would have a similar effect

John

It's just delighful isn't it John, you get no chutes, the planes themselves (at least in the early years) are hardly sturdy designs the engines thans to the oils they use the fumes they generate encourage serious, um, 'trouser accidents'.
As Baldrick said, wars a horrid thing, ting-aling-aling.

Happy new year.

 

[tyrodtom]

We all know what castor oil will do if you swallow a little, i'm not really sure how much you'd breath in thru the exhaust, because the exhaust would have been directed away from the pilot, but the oil to the valves was a constant loss system. So a lot of oil is going to be flying around.

But in all the reading i've done about WW1 pilots, all they'll ever say is the oil spray made them sick, and they don't get very descriptic. Maybe that generation wasn't very comfortable writing about it in explicit terms.

 

[Gixxerman]

We all know what castor oil will do if you swallow a little, i'm not really sure how much you'd breath in thru the exhaust, because the exhaust would have been directed away from the pilot

It wasn't so much the exhaust I was thinking of tyrodtom, more the fumes of oils being liberally doused around a hot engine being blown back to the cockpit area.

But in all the reading i've done about WW1 pilots, all they'll ever say is the oil spray made them sick, and they don't get very descriptic. Maybe that generation wasn't very comfortable writing about it in explicit terms.

I think you have something there I agree.

 

[tyrodtom]

Speaking of parachutes in WW1. The Germans has no reservations about their pilots using them when they were finally reduced in size enough to be practical for aircraft.

Ernst Udet was saved by a parachute after a midair collision with a French aircraft.

 

[Readie]

We all know what castor oil will do if you swallow a little, i'm not really sure how much you'd breath in thru the exhaust, but the oil to the valves was a constant loss system. So a lot of oil is going to be flying around

Shades of my Triumphs BSA bikes....good for the soul

John

 

[Gixxerman]

John, I remember that smell vey well.....I recall the older classic bikes and racing bikes using it, glad I didn't get too close too often now that mention has been made of the possibilities of 'explosive dire-rear' coming from the fumes.
Eeek!