A captured Voisin Type IV Canon, with the 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon still in place. This sample looks remarkably intact, with little damage visible. Even the throphy hunters seems to have stripped nothing away.
The Voisin factory registration for this type was LBS
Tags: Biplane Canon Hotchkiss Pusher Type IV V.991 Voisin Woumen captured
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A special in-flight pricturebecause this Albatros B-type seems to be photographed from a camera mounted in the right wing. The observer in front looks attentively downwards. The pilot is in the back seat. The observer - always an officer - is carefully shielded from the elements and the 'flying' wind.
Tags: Albatros B-type Biplane Germany In flight
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Commemorative pictures showing the building crew together with the finished airplane are often seen. This is likely a part of the total crew who have finished a Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIVa Riesenflugzeug (Giant aircraft) just before or after the end of the war. Clearly the group of workers is not complete as a whole lot of women workers were employed to build the wings and the fabric covering. For one reason or other this picture shows men only.
The machine is one of the last Zeppelin-Staaken giants built, in this case the five-engined R.XIVa. These gigantic aircraft with a span of 42,20 meter did not fit in the dirigible hangar seen ion the back. There was a clever solution to cart these heavy aircraft in and out of the hangar sideways, which can be seen on a unique contemporary movie preserved which can be seen online at
www.filmportal.de/node/1220477/video/1220484
Although the picture is quite good it is not an original but a later copy. The quality of the original would be far higher.
Tags: 1918 1919 Germany Giant R.XIVa Riesenflugzeug Staaken Zeppelin-Staaken
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Thanks to German early aviation expert Andreas Jensch it was possible to identify this German floatplane precisely. It shows the Gotha WD.1 (where WD means Wasser Doppeldecker - Water Biplane) and as there are no markings visible this could be the first built (prototype). The Gotha WD.1 was the first of a long line of Gotha floatplanes, going all the way to the WD.27
The Gotha WD.1 was heavily inspired on the Avro Type 503 floatplane of which one sample was bought and evaluated by the German navy in 1913.
The photograph could have been made during acceptance flights of the machine (before purchase) by the German navy. The machine is here photographed at the beach resort Dahme at the Baltic. In the background is the original Seebrücke built in 1912, which was destroyed in the winter of 1921/1922 by the crawling ice. It was possible to walk over the bridge some 275 meter into the sea.
As ever a great many of the population of Dahme has come to see the floatplane on the beach.
Looking closely there are bouquets of flowers visible on the plane (?), reason unknown. The front seat has a large period reed suitcase.
Although the floatplane was designed to remain steady in the water with these two floats alone a sort of float was fixed to the tail section in a makeshift way.
Text revised on 28 January 2019.
Tags: 1914 Baltic Sea Beach Children Dahme Floatplane Germany Wasser Doppeldecker Seebrücke Gotha WD.1
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A L.V.G. {Luftverkehr Gesellschaft) C.V two-seater, one of the most succesfull German reconnaissance iplanes of the Great war period, built in large numbers.
Decisive identification features are:
- the balanced ailerons on the top wing
- the balanced elvators on the elevator
- the form of the elevator
- the rounded form of the rudder
- radiator before the top wing
The picture impressed me somewhat by its background, almost like a painting, with a building at the right side. There is some doiubt in my mind that this is a model set in a 'model' landscape. But sure it is very real done and may still be a fullscale sample of an L.V.G. C.V.
Tags: 1917 Biplane C.V Germany L.V.G.
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