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Aircraft History I believe all images linked from this page are in the public domain. If you have copyrights to any image; please email me and I will promptly respond ccgilbert@nc.rr.com
Nieuport
17
Manufacturer:
Societe Anonyme des Etablissements Nieuport Type:
Fighter Year:
1916 Engine:
Le Rhone 9J 9 cylinder air cooled rotary, 110 hp Span:
26 ft 10 in Length:
18 ft 11 in Height:
8 ft Weight:
1,246 lb Max
Speed: 110 mph at 6,560 ft Ceiling:
17,390 ft Endurance:
2 hrs Crew:
1 Armament:
1 Vickers (or Lewis ?) .303 machine gun
This
aircraft was a marked
improvement over their predecessor, the Nie. 11 Bébé. The "Superbébé"
first appeared with the French on the front in May, 1916, about the same time
the British introduced the D.H. 2. The two aircraft put an end to German
domination of the skies in 1916. Following their fine showing during the Battle
of the Somme, many other units, British included, started to use the Nie. 17.
Many aces flew these aircraft, including: René Fonck, Georges Guynemer, Charles
Nungesser, Albert Ball and Billy Bishop. It had fine flying characteristics and
influenced the design of many other aircraft, the German Siemens-Schukert D3 was
a direct copy of it, except for the tailplane. Photograph of the Nieuport 17 sited to: http://www.militaryaviation.com/
Sopwith F.1 Camel
Manufacturer:
Sopwith Aviation Co. Ltd. cooled
rotary, 130 hp More
Pictures Armament:
(F.1) 2 Vickers .303 machine guns (2F.1)1 Vickers .303 and 1 Lewis .303 machine
guns or 2 Lewis .303 machine gun
First flown on May 17, 1917, the Sopwith Camel F.1 was the Allies premier fighter in WWI. Designed to replace unsuccessful Sopwith "Pup", it quickly went into production and a total of 5,490 were built. The "Camel" demonstrated good handling and its armament of two 7.62 mm Maxim or two Vickers 0.030 machine guns was formidable. The name "Camel" was derived from the hump-shaped cover over the machine guns. In order to combat Zeppelins, 2F.1 Camels were flown from barges towed behind destroyers, from platforms on the gun turrets of larger ships as well as from early aircraft carriers. A 2F.1 successfully flew after being dropped from an airship, an experiment testing an airship's ability to carry its own defensive aircraft. An armored trench-fighting version was flown, but did not go into production. Information on the Spad sited from: http://usfighter.tripod.com/
Spad
XIII
Manufacturer: S.P.A.D (Societe Anonyme Pour L'Aviation et ses Derives) Type: Fighter Year:
1917 Engine:
Hispano-Suiza 8 BEc 8 cylinder liquid cooled inline V, 235 hp Span:
26 ft 11 in Length:
20 ft 8 in Height:
7 ft 11 in Max
Takeoff Weight: 1,801 lb Max
Speed: 138 mph at 6,560 ft Ceiling:
21,820 ft Endurance:
2 hrs Crew: 1
The
fast and rugged Spad XIII was among the most successful fighters of the First
World War of 1914-1918, in a class with the legendary Fokker D.VII and Sopwith
Camel. It was flown by some of the most famous air heroes of the war, such as
Guynemer, Fonck, Nungesser, Lufbery, Luke, and Rickenbacker. The
Spad XIII was a larger, improved version of the earlier Spad VII with, among
other improvements, two fixed, forward-firing Vickers machine guns and a more
powerful 200-horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8Ba engine. (Later Spad XIIIs had 220- and
235-horsepower Hispano-Suiza V-8 engines.) The prototype Spad XIII made its
first flight on April 4, 1917, and by the end of the following month, production
aircraft were arriving at the front. The aircraft was particularly noted for its
robust construction and its ability to dive at high speed, features that made it
one of the best dog-fighting airplanes of the war. The
Spad XIII was produced and deployed in great numbers. By the end of 1918, the
parent company and eight other French manufactures had built 8,472 of the sturdy
fighters. Almost every French fighter squadron was equipped with them by the end
of the war, as well as the American units that were part of the American
Expeditionary Force. Spads were also used by the British, the Italians, the
Belgians, and the Russians. At the conclusion of hostilities, contracts for an
additional 10,000 Spads, 6,000 of which were to be produced for the United
States, were cancelled. Surprisingly,
given the large number built, only four Spad XIIIs remain. The one in the NASM
collection, nicknamed Smith IV, was assigned to Lt. A. Raymond Brooks, U.S. Army
Air Service, who named it after the college attended by his sweetheart and
future wife. It was the fourth of his airplanes so named, hence Smith IV. Photograph of the Sopwith camel sited to: http://www.nasm.edu/ Information on the Spad sited from: http://www.nasm.edu/
Fokker
DR1
Manufacturer:
Fokker Flugzeug-Werke GmbH Type:
Fighter Year:
1917 Engine:
Thulin-built Le Rhone 9J 9 cylinder air cooled rotary, 110 hp Span:
23 ft 7.5 in Length:
18 ft 11 in Height:
9 ft 8 in Max
Takeoff Weight: 1,289 lb Max
Speed: 103 mph at 13,123 ft Ceiling:
19,685 ft Endurance:
1 hr 30 min Crew:
1 Armament: 2 Spandau 7.92mm machine guns The
Fokker DR.I triplane was built after the Sopwith Triplane. While not as fast as
contemporary biplanes, the Dreidecker could easily out climb any
opponent. Small, lightweight and highly maneuverable, it offered good upward
visibility and lacked the traditional bracing wires that could be shot away
during combat. This combination of features made it an outstanding plane in a
dogfight. When the DR.I first entered service, antagonists scoffed until pilots
like Werner Voss showed what it could do in a fight. Flying a prototype, Voss
shot down 10 British aircraft in 6 days of aerial combat during September 1917.
Unfortunately, the DR.I was not without problems. By the end of October 1917, it
was temporarily withdrawn from service when several pilots, including Heinrich
Gontermann, were killed as a result of wing failures. Despite structural
improvements, the Fokker triplane's reputation among German airmen never
recovered. Photograph of the Sopwith camel sited to: http://www.theaerodrome.com/ Information on the Spad sited from: http://www.theaerodrome.com/
Albatros
Manufacturer:
Albatros Werke GmbH Type:
Fighter Year:
1917 Engine:
Mercedes D IIIa 6 cylinder liquid cooled inline, 180 hp (134 kW) Span:
29 ft 8.25 in (9.05 m) Length:
24 ft 1/2 in (7.33 m) Height:
8 ft 10.25 in (2.7 m) Max
Takeoff Weight: 2,061 lb (935 kg) Max
Speed: 116 mph at 3,281 ft (187 km/h at 1000 m) Ceiling:
18,700 ft (5700 m) Endurance:
2 hrs Crew:
1 Armament: 2 Spandau 7.92mm machine guns Length: 18 ft 11 in
The
Albatros D I was designed as a two-gun fighter. The Germans never did go for the
pusher plane in any quantity. The Albatros D I and II fighters were single-seater
biplanes, in a tractor design with elegantly curved fuselages, streamlined
fronts, square-tipped wings that were of equal size and relatively powerful
liquid-cooled engines. The biplane came about as designers and pilots found the
monoplanes of the day didn't have enough lift to enable them to climb quickly.
With more powerful engines and large biplane wings, the DI and DII won air
superiority back from the Allied D.H.2 and Nieuport 17 fighters. They had, in
turn, wrested control of the air over the trenches from the Fokker Eindecker in
1915. Some 50 of the DI model were built before production switched to the D II.
It was a development of the DI with improved forward vision. Note the
square-tipped wings and the insignia on the tail and fuselage. The well known
German crosses weren't adopted at that time. In 1915, they adopted the curved
Maltese cross style, in 1918 they switched to the very plain, straight,
black-on-white crosses. he Fokker DR.I triplane was built after the Sopwith
Triplane.
In
April, 1917 Germany again regained the upper hand in aerial warfare with the
introduction of the Albatros D III. Other factors aided, especially the
withdrawal of Russian forces from the war freeing many pilots for the Western
Front. Baron Manfred von Richthoven downed 21 Allied aircraft in a DIII in
April, 1917 alone. This version was slightly different from the DI and DII
versions, most notably in rounding of the wing-tips, and significantly improving
the visibility forward and downward. Much of this was accomplished by increasing
the size of the cutout in the upper wing, raising the upper wing and using a
smaller, narrower lower wing. It also had a new strut arrangement with V-struts
instead of the conventional paired struts of the D I and D II. This proved to be
premature in design as numerous were lost when the wing structure failed. The
beautifully streamlined shape was effected by the use of curved sheets of veneer
screwed to longirons, to make a very rigid body. Some 446 DIIIs were built.
The
upgrade Albatros DV was introduced by the end of 1917 to try to cope with the
new Allied Sopwith Camel and S.E. 5. It wasn't a significant improvement over
the DIII, and many of the front line Jastas had to make do with the DIII for
longer than was wise. The DIIIs and DVs were eventually replaced with the superb
Fokker DVII, but it was too late in the war for the DVII to make much difference
to the outcome. The
pilots of the German Jagdstaffeln or Jastas flying the
Albatros tended to paint their aircraft in all manner of gaudy colours,
excepting for the upper wing surfaces as they were painted in a tri-colour
lozenge camouflage design. The "Red Baron" Manfred von Richtoffen flew
an all-red DIII (actually most of his planes whether a DR.I or a DIII were
painted a dull, rusty red, not the bright and gaudy red now portrayed), his Jasta
II pilots developed similar red patterns so that his aircraft would not be
the only obviously red Albatros in the air.
Photograph of the Sopwith camel sited to: http:// Information on the Spad sited from: http://
Handly Page 0/100
Manufacturer: Handly Page Ltd. Type: Bomber Year: 1916 Engine: 2 Rolls-Royce Eagle II 12 cylinder liquid cooled inline V, 250 hp each Span: 100 ft Length: 62 ft 10.25 in Height: 22 ft Loaded Weight: 14,020 lb Max Speed: 85 mph at sea level Ceiling: 7,000 ft Endurance: 8 hours Crew: 4 Armament: 4-5 Lewis .303 machine guns, 1,792 lb of bombs
The Handley Page O/100 biplane was the first true heavy bomber manufactured by the British. Specifically designed for the purpose of bombing Germany, an order for forty aircraft was placed while the design was still on the drawing board. On 1 January 1917, four new O/100 bombers took off for delivery to France. Unfortunately, one of the new bombers was captured by the Germans when its pilot inadvertently landed at an enemy aerodrome.
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Nation:
France 
Nation:
Great Britain 
Nation:
France 
Nation:
Germany
Nation:
Germany 
Nation:
Great Britain 
