World War One Whifs

[NARSES2]

I like that 

[zenrat]

Very good.

[stevehed]

Thanks Gents.

[Captain Canada]

Oooh I like that as well! Looks big and powerful. Your rigging is superb as usual !

[DogfighterZen]

Very nice work.

[stevehed]

Hi,
    It's Whif Time on ATF again and this is the latest addition to the fleet. An early example of the two seat fighter the German Navy adopted from late 1917 to EOW. It originated from the Roland CII. The navy acquired one from the army and successfully overcame the designs inherent flaws. Only three were built and two ended their days flying against the Russians in the Black Sea area of operations. Build thread and backstory here. It's predominately the Airfix Roland with a little help from Roden and scratch built floats.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/2017-airfix-what-if-group-build-stevehed-s-build-t51745.html





Regards, Steve

[zenrat]

Cool.

[NARSES2]

That looks really good, I've always liked the Roland designs and she suits being on floats 

[loupgarou]

That looks really good, I've always liked the Roland designs and she suits being on floats 

I agree. Maybe the Roland should have been put on floats in real life. BTW, wasn't she nicknamed whale?

[zenrat]

Yep, Walfisch.

[stevehed]

Thanks Guys, appreciated. You're right about the name. The C.II was the Walfisch, the D.II fighter was the Haifisch, or Shark. As this is the all singing and dancing improved version of the Whale  I thought about calling it the Killer Whale and looked it up in German. Came back as Killerwal but the nicer sounding Orca is the same in both languages so that will do nicely. The Sunday best title is therefore the LFG(Roland) CW Orca. As an aside I think there is a potentially rich seam of whiffery in this theatre of operations. I'm thinking of prototypes and test runs that were pipped at the post being sent here to make up the numbers. Should be fun.

Regards, Steve

[Tophe]

Belated congratulations for your old twin-boomers!
(usually, I don't like very old aircraft, lacking aerodynamism, but I love twin-boomers, and your ones are very good, thanks! )

[stevehed]

Thanks Tophe, WW1 can be a happy hunting ground for twin boomers. This starstrutter build is my latest flight of fancy. In May 1917 two KDW's were sent to Turkey. The arrival of said machines is recorded but they very quickly disappear from the equipment lists. I'll hazard a guess that the unmodified aircraft were too much for pilots used to sedate patrol aircraft such as the Friedrichshafen FF33 and were quickly pranged and reduced to stores. The engines and mgs would have proved useful elsewhere and the airframes were left in storage. Now Hansa Brandenburg built an aircraft known as the W16 which was based on the KDW. It was powered by the 160hp twin row rotary engine and although it was not selected for production about half a dozen were built and accepted by the Navy. It's a nice looking aircraft and I wondered if a D1 could be kit bashed. That lies in the future but my plan was that some of the W16's were transferred to the Turkish area of operations. This in turn made me remember the earlier KDW's which are lying engineless on a German naval base. In whif land the collapse of the Russian forces had led to large quantities of war materials falling into the hands of the Central Powers. Aviation wise this included castor oil which was the preferred lubricant for rotary engines. Most was sent to Germany but the Bulgarians and local German forces managed to retain sufficient quantities to make rotary engine aircraft viable hence the prolonged use of captured Nieuports by Bulgaria. The German Navy released several W16's for service in this theatre on assurances of lubricant availability and the arrival prompted the local commanders to look at adding to their fighter strength by adapting one of the KDW's to use a captured Clerget 130hp rotary engine. Several Allied aircraft had force landed behind the Turkish lines and some of  the engines had been retrieved with Clergets predominating. In addition a pilot recently transferred to the Aegean had flown the KDW on the Flanders coast as well as the rotary powered Fokker E111 while assigned to a naval staffel on the Baltic coast in Latvia. In short, the perfect test pilot.

The conversion was based on the Sopwith Baby and the W16 using the Eastern Express issue of the Hansa Brandenburg D1 starstrutter. The OTF article had 1/48 plans for the W16 which I reduced to 1/72. The Baby was an Allied floatplane of similar single seat configuration that used the 130hp Clerget engine so I had an idea of the weight that the KDW mod had to be to achieve a reasonable performance. It turned out that I needed to lose in the region of 500lbs. The fuselage length was based on the W16 which meant I could limit the surgery to the nose area. The nose was cut off a mille forward of the forward undercarriage location holes. Then the upper decking was lowered by using the base of the engine cut out as the guide level and cutting back to the cockpit. The resultant opening was covered with thin card and the forward area was filed to give a droop reminiscent of the Matchbox Sisken. 

The rotary engine was a spare from a Nieuport 17 and is a one piece engine/cowling set up. The gaps between the cylinders were drilled out, a couple of vents in the cowling and a back plate installed. I had intended to add fillets to the sides like the Fokker Eindekker but the fuselage shape prevented this so the cowling was stuck on to the front in Pfalz/Morane style. The mg was re-located to the top of the decking.  Now this is a conversion of the KDW so I had to extend the wingspan. Short lengths of 40 thou card, 0.2ins/5mm, by the chord width, 0.8ins/20mm, were shaped and bent to conform and CA'd to the wing tips. The in line engine of the KDW required a radiator which was wing mounted. This was cut out and replaced with card as the rotary is air cooled.




The floats were scratched from 20 thou card and the support struts are 0.20 by 0.40 Evergreen strip. Once the lower wings were attached the star struts were next. As with the KDW the lower inner V strut needs the rear leg to be extended by 0.15ins with strip. Then the long X piece was set into the holes on the lower wing and rested on the inner V strut. Check for alignment and then use tacky cement to hold things in place. I supported the structure with a pair of tweezers and that was it. The top wing was attached with cement and when not quite set the upper V struts were added. When I was happy that everything was lined up the joints were secured with CA and then the cabane struts and additional interplane V struts were added. Floats and the completion of paintwork finished the job.  I like my whiffs to be plausible so I reckoned the KDW conversion needed to lose round about 500lbs of weight to get the best from the 130hp Clerget. The Rotary is 300lbs lighter than the original Mercedes which was a good start and the removal of the airfoil radiator and contents saved another 100lbs based on information gleaned from the web. The fuselage is now three feet shorter and the KDW does not need the rear fuselage float thereby reducing weight and drag. The star strut arrangement is supposed to be less drag producing than standard bracing wires so I reckon a claim of 100 +mph and a decent initial climb rate common for rotaries would be in order.




The top photo is a before and after between the KDW and the rotary conversion. I'm afraid I've been a bit remiss with construction photos but the build thread for the KDW may help to fill some of the gaps.
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234938981-hansa-brandenburg-kdw/

Regards, Steve

[NARSES2]

Nice 

[stevehed]

Thanks Narses2 and here's another bout of whiffery which emanated from the collection of accumulated Eindekker parts and the remains of a pair of Fokker Triplanes. In short, I had two complete sets of Triplane wings from which I made a pair with extended wingspan. The Eindekker fuselage was extended with card by 0.4ins to create the observers cockpit. A bit of filing got the Dridekker tail elevators to fit and the fin/rudder was a refugee from an Albatros kit. The undercarriage came from the Dr1 with the wheels and tail skid leftovers from the Roland floatplane. Gun ring and Parabellum were scratched with the front gun from the E111 kit and the gravity tank a remnant from an Airfix 504. All in all a simple conversion.

This is the Fokker M12, an observation type that was one of the first to use Fokker's new cantilever wings. These came about after Fokker's enforced collaboration with Hugo Junkers in late 1916, early 17. Fokker had initially flight tested the first designs by using a Fokker M10 run about. This was a 1915 vintage recce type and the hybrid proved a useful test bed. It was noticed by a contingent of visiting pilots en route to Macedonia. Their unit, Jasta 25, was equipping with Fokker D11 fighters hence the visit. While the M10 lacked the performance for front line ops it was good enough to suggest there was further potential within the design. After a conversation with the C.O., Anthony Fokker, ever alert to some decent PR from the front, agreed to upgrade the M10 and dispatch a couple to Jasta 25 as soon as they were completed. To achieve this Fokker had to modify a couple of Fokker E111 fuselages as the front seat in the M10 was well forward and prevented the installation of a synchronized mg. The E111 was lengthened and given a more modern tail unit which was based on Albatros designs. The new cantilever wing was increased in span to 10ms and an extra lifting surface, common to later types, was fitted between the wheels for the first time. A free firing Parabellum was fitted in the rear cockpit and one of the new 110hp Oberusal rotaries replaced the older 100hp version. Later these were replaced by captured Russian Le Rhones.  This turn of events occurred after the two M12's were diverted to the Rumanian Front instead. Jasta 25 began replacing the rotary engine Fokker D11's with the Roland D11 during April 1917. The pick of the D11's and the M12's went to the aeropark near Bucharest where they were issued to the Army squadrons. Specifications and performance were similar to the Nieuport 12 and the lack of rigging was a huge plus on the Eastern Front where they served for many months. Fokker received encouraging reports which no doubt helped convince the German Air Ministry, Idfleig, of the benefits of cantilever.
Regards, Steve