World War One Whifs

[stevehed]

Hi All,
       My first of 2017. It's Whif season on ATF again and I had a couple of ideas designed to use up some of my spares box. This one fell foul of the Airfix 51% rule but I decided to press on with it as my occupier build while paint, glue or filler was drying. But first a little story about triplanes. The Sopwith Triplane arrived in Russia in May 1917. It caused quite a stir and saw service during the last days of Imperial Russian involvement in WW1. Numbers were few with most authorities stating that only one aircraft arrived in Russia and is now displayed at the Molino aircraft museum. However this site http://ram-home.com/ram-old/sopwith-triplane.html  identifies another, possibly a third, and I have definite memories as a schoolkid of reading somewhere that four Sopwith Triplanes were sent to Russia. Whatever, during 1919, at the height of the Russian Civil War, there are reports of Red Triplanes operating against the Whites and RAF formations. I haven't seen any confirmation of German tripes in Russia but I think there might be another answer to the numbers question. It is the Spad Triplane, a uniquely Russian solution to a critical shortage of fighter aircraft, which was brought to operational status by the Bolsheviks who were suffering their own fighter shortage.

The Spad Tripe evolved from the Spad A2 pulpit fighter during the summer of 1917. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPAD_S.A   

The IRAS had reorganised at the beginning of the year and the small fighter elements were concentrated into squadrons and larger groupings. The army co-op / recce units were to be allocated 2/3 fighters for escort duties but priorities meant that most of the aircraft went to the dedicated fighter units. The army formations tried to supplement these meagre pickings and one solution was to add 2 or 3 machine guns into the Spad A2 pulpit in place of the observer. In early 1917 there was an acute shortage of synchronizing gear and this made sense at the time. Also, by Eastern front standards, the Spad A type, particularly with the 110hp Le Rhone engine, had an acceptable performance. One A type, S46, received three mgs in such a conversion but how many others were converted is unknown at present. Another option was to remove the pulpit altogether and modify the tractor unit. The A2 had been developed in France to become the Spad VII so Russian engineers had a sound design to start from. Triplane fever had struck Russian designers and two damaged A2 at a maintenance depot were selected for improvement. Extant wings were selected for cannibalization and renovation and wings based on the Sopwith design were built. The upper wing was larger in span and chord and was intended to further improve the lift. The tail unit remained unaltered while the engine cowling was from Sopwith Strutter spares. By early September the aircraft were ready but only the original 80hp engines were available. Despite this both airframes were test flown and pronounced air worthy but not fit for front line service until tested with a more powerful engine.

The Spads were dismantled and crated and would have probably been scrapped had it not been for the Russian Revolution. This caused the war in the East to end in November 1917 but peace talks dragged on. The Central Powers decided to spur matters on by resuming military operations in March 1918 and advanced further into Russia. The Russians tried to save as much equipment as possible and the crated Spads were part of a trainload of aircraft supplies which ended up in Moscow ahead of the German advance. Once again stored within a large hangar the Spads were rediscovered in the autumn of 1918. Assembled and repaired they were used as trainers initially but the types potential had been noted by several senior Red pilots. By a happy coincidence some of the Moscow ground crews had served at the aeropark where the Spad had been conceived and passed on knowledge of previous performances.  Two Dux made 120hp Le Rhone rotaries were made available and the Spad surpassed all expectations being the equal of the Sopwith Tripehound. The winter saw the cessation of aerial operations but in the Spring of 1919 all available triplanes were among the aircraft formations sent south to confront the advancing White armies. There are enough references to triplanes to suggest the Spads were active during the desperate fighting which eventually stopped and then turned the White advance. Details remain scarce but there is no evidence that the Spads survived the war.

The kit is comprised of an Airfix Spad VII which had been cut off just in front of the cockpit. The engine had been used on a Belgian BE2c conversion.  To represent an A2 the longerons running alongside the rear fuselage have to be filed away to leave a flat side. I also flattened the underside a little too. The forward engine compartment was made with plastic card representing the sides and underside. The upper decking was cut down from the spare which comes with the Eastern Express Sopwith Strutter. The engine was a resin rotary, complete with propeller that I had spare while the cowling was another spare from the Strutter. The rear elevators were scratched from card as they are larger and squarer than the VII and the rudder was enlarged with a bit of card attached. I have a WS mini datafile from where I got the measurements. The undercarriage came from the VII kit as did the wheels. As far as the wings are concerned they are scrap from the spares box. The lower two are from the Revell Tripehound and are over 45 years old and they show it. They have warped and didn't want to reform without breaking so got used as is. The plastic seems to have become brittle and the top wing snapped when I tried to manipulate it back to shape. The upper wing was formed from two very old Airfix Hannover lower wings. Interplane struts are from the Tripe kit while the cabanes are plastic rod. Kept the rigging to a minimum and the markings are Blue Rider and from a generic Spad VII which seemed appropriate. I haven't posted any build photos, only one that shows most of the parts, this time because the technique employed is almost identical to that used to build the Albatros Dridekker posted earlier. 





Regards, Steve

[NARSES2]

Oh bravo sir 

[Dizzyfugu]

Very neat! 

[stevehed]

Thanks Gentlemen, appreciated.

Steve

[TomZ]

Looks very good!

TomZ

[nighthunter]

Fantastic!

[zenrat]

 

[Captain Canada]

Looks like a tiny mite caught in somebody's grey hair lol

But really, great job on this one ! Love the colours and markings.

[The Rat]

Just thinking of that would tax my meagre skills, but then you not only built it, but did the rigging! 

[stevehed]

Thanks again guys. Glad you liked her.

Steve

[DogfighterZen]

That looks great!

[Glenn Gilbertson]

A beautiful bit of work!

[stevehed]

Thanks again, always appreciated. This is the latest. It is a Bulgarian Bristol Fighter, circa July - September 1918, Macedonian Front. Thanks to a batch of dirty fuel the Germans came into possession of several Bristol Fighters serving in the Middle East. Instead of being sent to Germany two aircraft were re-engined with 200hp Benz engines from wrecked DFW machines and issued to the Bulgarian air force.






The build thread and back story is here.

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=591&t=50117

Regards, Steve

[NARSES2]

Now that is neat. You'd never guess it was a Brisfit, looks very German with that engine 

[63cpe]

It sure looks german to me, plausible story to go with it.....i'm amazed you even rigged the thing! Excellent!

David