More fighter a/c than I knew...

[Texian]

...existed!

  Everybody knows the major WWI fighter planes; Spad, Albatross, Nieuport, SE5a, Pfalz, and of course, Fokker's many well known contributions.  Of that fruitful designer's list, the EIII, Dr1, DVII and DVIII immediately come to mind.

 
But, I recently started building models again after a hiatus of about 40 years and have suddenly, it seems, become aware of aircraft I never imagined.  For the letter/numbers of Fokker I just assumed (Yeah, I should have known better) they represented designs that just never made or even just never were. 
So now I find out there were actual flying production aircraft, however few be it, such as EI, BII; DI, DII, DIII, & DIV; DV, DVI.  After all, there was a CI, basically a two seater DVII it never saw service in WWI but was still a product of it first flying before the armistice in 1918.

Then too, there's the Sieman Schukert DI, DII, DIII, & DIV

I started out with an intention to ultimately build each of Ernst Udet's known aircraft/color schemes and yet will.  But, it might be nice to have a collection of each of Fokker's planes then maybe the SSW series too.  It would probably take some altering and scratch building along the way.  (And as slow as I'm going, this will likely never really come to pass but at least I can consider it.)

Anybody know of any other little known fighter craft of the major powers keeping it to, say, France, England & Germany?

 

re the "DDoS and Brute Force Attacks"  I cannot even imagine why anyone would want to do such to a quiet, apolitical modelers site.  I hope it all comes out ok!

Edited September 23, 2016 by Texian

[Beardie]

Hmmm, there are really a pretty large number of aircraft types during WWI.

 

Bristol Scout, Vickers Gunbus, Voisin III, Spad A.2(very wacky!), Austrian Phonix, Hansa Brandenburg, Aviatik, Rumpler, Martinsyde Elephant....The list goes on. I haven't done a survey but it does strike me that there are possibly more variants and manufacturers in the WWI period than in the WWII period. Of course aviation was very much in it's infantcy and so everyone was trying to figure out what made a great aircraft.

[TonyTiger66]

Agreed, it's a vast area and absolutely fascinating. Junkers produced some very funky aircraft. Quite a few are available in kit form from quite old but nice vac form kits, through to nice kits by Roden and Eduard.

 

On the French (and many other) subject area, when Vousin is mentioned I also think of Farman, both 'short' and 'long'horn, and more. Now there's an excercise in rigging!

 

Armstrong Whitley Ack anyone  

 

If Russia can be considered a major power, Mr Sikorsky produced some interesting types.

 

AZ/KP are just about to release what looks like a very nice LVG C VI. The C V is pretty too  

 

Looking at Bombers, there's a good variety there too, with Gotha and Handley Page immediately springing to mind.

 

Then the floatplanes....

 

I think you may be right Beardie, there may well be more variants and types.

 

A certain Russian profile site is quite a good starting point in terms of looking at aircraft types by conflict Texian. I believe the name rhymes with 'Bings Malette', but I can't be too sure  

 

All the best

TonyT

[JosephLalor]

More German/Austro-Hungarian types: Pfalz, Phönix, Hansa-Brandenburg perhaps

[Black Knight]

 Avro, Airco, de Havilland, RAF, Hanriot, Ansaldo, Bristol, BAT, Beardmore, Bleriot, ......

[Beardie]

Breguet, Caudron, Morane, Lloyd, Etrich Taube, DFW, Hlaberstadt, AEG, Roland, Salmson, Savoia, Ansaldo. The variety of makes and models is actually quite astounding and that isn't even including all those prototypes that appeared and entered the selection process only to be rejected by their respective air services.

[Black Knight]

or the one/two-offs such as the Cody

[Brandy]

I have over 140 differant WWI types, all 1:72, in my stash. Your assumption is very common, and is exactly the reason I am trying to build as many WWI types as possible, and donate the collection to museum - so others can find out about WWI aviation!

 For the record, after quite a few structural failures on the E.III, D.I & D.II, all Fokkers were banned from front line service. Even the Dr.I suffered structural failures. It wasn't until the D.VII that Fokker came up with a reliable, and more importantly, well built aircraft. With the E.V he returned to structural problems and after strengthening the aircraft it was renamed the D.VIII.

 I'm not quite sure what you mean about Fokker numbers that never were. Every number from E.I to E.V and D.I to D.VIII was built and served either at the front or as a trainer.

 

For German aircraft the following applies:

E = Eindecker (monoplane)

D = Doppeldecker (biplane)

Dr = Dreidecker (triplane)

B = unarmed observation aircraft. Only very early aircraft carry this designation.

C = armed observation aircraft. (To start with they were just armed versions of the B types).

J = ground attack aircraft. Late war.....

G = Grosskampfflugzueg or large battle plane (bombers)

 

 

 I have a spreadsheet of 1:72 kits (not all currently available) which from memory runs to a couple of hundred types.....and that's not all of the aircraft that saw service....

 

I hope this helps!

 

Ian

Edited September 24, 2016 by limeypilot
Added details

[Beardie]

Limeypilot, Texian said that he had 'assumed' that they never were as, prior to now, he was unaware that aircraft did indeed exist bearing those classifications.

It is true that, when I was a kid and became interested in WWI aviation, I was unaware of anything that hadn't been kitted by Revell or Airfix or mentioned in a Biggles books and this here wonderful internet thingummyjig didn't exist to enlighten me.

[Brandy]

5 minutes ago, Beardie said:

Limeypilot, Texian said that he had 'assumed' that they never were as, prior to now, he was unaware that aircraft did indeed exist bearing those classifications.

It is true that, when I was a kid and became interested in WWI aviation, I was unaware of anything that hadn't been kitted by Revell or Airfix or mentioned in a Biggles books and this here wonderful internet thingummyjig didn't exist to enlighten me.

Very true, I've edited my post to better reflect what I meant! Sorry about that!

Ian

[Beardie]

It is a great shame that so little is really known about the men and the aircraft they flew. With the mortality rates they faced every day in aircraft that were very tricky to fly they really deserve more recognition. It seems that we know so little about the men and the machines. Many years ago my grandmother told me that I am related to Scotlands highest scoring WWI ace, John Inglis Gilmour who was born in Helensburgh, about thirty miles from the village where I live and very few people in Helensburgh even know the name let alone his exploits during WWI. The same goes for two other Scots Aces who were born in Stevenston/Ardeer in Ayrshire not far from where I lived for quite a number of years whose names have long since slipped from local memory.

[Black Knight]

We know more than you think Beardie.

Join the 'Cross and Cockade Society' and get their quarterly magazine. Its regularly filled with the bios of pilots/observers and even ground-crew of both sides.

[GordonM]

For those able to visit Stow Maries aerodrome in Essex there is a fascinating display of models. I'm no expert so I've got no idea how comprehensive it is, but I was impressed! Stow Maries itself is, I believe, the only unmolested WWI aerodrome in existence, as it was inspected for updating during the pre war expansion period, but rejected as its grass runway was felt to be unsuitable for modern aircraft. 

[Jure Miljevic]

Hi, Texian

Why neglect so-called lesser powers? There were plenty of pursuit aeroplanes, if I use terminology from a century ago, like various licence build Albatri (especially much modified D.III (Oeffag) series with stronger construction and more powerful Austro-Daimler engines), imported Hansa-Brandenburg, locally designed and built Oeffag Mickl and Lohner flying boat fighters from Austro-Hungary, Sikorsky S.XVI single-seat fighters from Russia, Italian Macchi M.5, local development of captured Austro-Hungarian Lohner type M ... and there is plenty more.

Models of all known planes of Ernst Udet would certainly make a colourful collection, but could indeed involve some scratchbuilding. In which scale do you intend to build them? There is no shortage of Fokker and Siemens-Shuckert kits in 1/72 and 1/48, but I am not so sure about obscure types like Pfalz E.IV. Also, there is a well-know controversy about which of Udet's D.VII wore Du doch nicht on elevator and while his mostly red SSW D.III did carry white LO! on the fuselage, Udet had never flown this plane in combat. Cheers

Jure