WW1 The great War: the eBay finds

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So, I've decided to go through these German types because I don't personally know what they are and it helps with recognition of salient features, because these German two-seaters do tend to look alike, so armed with a coupl'a good reference books, we being with this LVG B II.
 
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nuuumannn said:
LVG B I. The thing that caught me off guard with this was its undercarriage in that its fitted with a skid and small nose wheel., but I saw a similar aircraft in an online pic. The shape of radiator helped identify it as well.
Click to expand...
That might be a aircraft used by one of the flying schools, fewer nose overs, and busted propellers.
When it came to their flying personnel , the Germans were more safety conscious that the Allies.
 
tyrodtom said:
That might be a aircraft used by one of the flying schools, fewer nose overs, and busted propellers.
When it came to their flying personnel , the Germans were more safety conscious that the Allies.
Click to expand...
Hi
Please define "more safety conscious" in the context of the period.

Mike
 
If you look at WW1 era pictures of flight crews, you'll notice that many German flight crew wore padded helmets, you'll look thru a lot of pictures before you see any padded helmets on allied flight crew.

Then there's parachutes, not allowed by allied commanders for fixed wing aircraft, just balloons.
They were evidently afraid crew might be tempted to jump when it wasn't necessary.
They Germans had a different opinion, they encouraged parachute use by their airmen.
They had a lot fewer airmen, and tried to protect what few they had.
Ernst Udet was one of many German airmen saved by his chute.

German flight training, from what I've read, was more systematic and thorough, than any of the Allies training systems.
That's especially true in the early WW1 timeline.
 
Hi
Padded helmets were used by the RFC/RNAS/RAF from pre-war onwards, for example the French Roold type and the slightly later British Warren (there were some other types as well). However, they were not popular for use on operations due to the extra 'drag' and could be very wearisome when keeping a look out for enemy aircraft, although they continued to be used for training. Fur lined leather helmets were more popular, as they became in the German air arm, especially in the Jasta's, I think the majority of photographs of German fighter pilots show them wearing helmets of the leather type. The padded type appears more in photos of two-seater crews, but not all, also in some ground attack units the observer wears a steel helmet.
It is only during 1918 that a suitable parachute appears in use by the German air arm, the British and French appear not to have reached a suitable design before the end of the war, however, the British had tried out at least three types of parachutes from the beginning of 1917 onwards (first live drop from a BE2c over Orfordness on 13 January 1917, Capt. Clive Collett, a New Zealander), there are quite a few photographs of fitments to various types of aircraft around.
The British training became increasing systematic and thorough as the pressures of the initial huge expansion of the RFC to match the equally huge expansion of the British Army eased (slightly) as the war progressed, as can be seen from the number of changes to the training system as war experience filtered back to the training.

Mike
 
Now this is something of a mystery and based on basic aircraft recognition it's an Albatros B II that's been modified with a gun in the wing pod. It's Austro-Hungarian; k.u.k in the description helps with that. More info would help...
 
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SaparotRob said:
The "winner" is a medal for Captain Collett.
Click to expand...

A bit of a personal hero of mine. Born not far from where I used to live, Collett was a very skilled pilot, becoming the first RFC airman to become an ace on the Sopwith Camel. He was injured in combat, which led to his being relocated to test flying at Orfordness. Sadly he died in 1917 doing aerobatics in a captured Albatros D V over the Firth of Forth, Scotland and he's buried in Edinburgh. At the time of his death he had an illegitimate child to a secret lover and sadly the mother and child never received any for of pension as he was not officially recognised as the child's father. She grew up not knowing who her dad was.

This is Collett, courtesy of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.

Great War Tour 139

This is the Albatros in question...

Great War Tour 138

...Which was forced down and landed intact at Poperinghe Aerodrome and during my travels in Europe in 2019 I went to the site of the airfield to the north of Poperinge (note the spelling differences) in Belgium.

Great War Tour 137

This is Collett's headstone at Comely Bank Cemetery in Edinburgh.

Great War Tour 140
 
Snautzer01 said:
Click to expand...


Two views of the same Albatros C I sporting a rather impressive exhaust manifold, with what appears to be a stuffed toy figure on the cooling tube above the cylinders that the pilot is poking!
 
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