Albatros W5D floatplane whif.

[stevehed]

Hi,

Like many others I was a tad disappointed when the What If GB attempt failed. My disappointment was mollified by the Whif build on the ATF and this is one of my recently completed builds. I hope it is of interest, no doubt minority, but I thought I should post it here to help increase interest in the genre as trickyrich and rob vulcan have tried to do and because the back story created has room for further development. However, the plan I have in mind does not involve kits produced by Airfix and the rules of the ATF GBs require a minimum of 51% Airfix parts in the finished build. So if you will bear with me I will post the back story first, after a bit of editing to make it all one, and pictures to follow.

Here is the operational history of the Albatros W5D gleaned from some papers discovered in the Communist Party HQ in Tirana, Albania. Most were badly decayed from years of storage in damp storerooms and barely legible. How they ended up in Tirana is anybodies guess but a chronic shortage of toilet paper has been suggested. Anyway, here's the story. During WW1 neutral Sweden remained one of Germany's most important trading partners, particularly in raw materials such as iron ore. Early in the war British submarines had been sent into the Baltic and operated from Russian bases. The shipping operating between these countries were attacked with many successes. By 1917 a convoy system was in operation which helped to reduce losses to the British and Russian submarines. However, the German Admiralty were wary of a further threat from large bomber aircraft. Such attacks could sow confusion among a convoy which the submarines could exploit. Aircraft such as the Ilya Mourometz or the large flying boats that were appearing over the North Sea gave credence to such fears.

The aircraft industry were made aware of these concerns by a series of briefings and several paper projects were initiated. The only project to actually bear fruit belonged to the Albatros company. They developed an aircraft that possessed sufficient range to patrol the convoy routes, had ample armament to engage an enemy bomber and had a significant speed advantage to catch the expected attackers. To achieve this criteria Albatros designed a tri-motor biplane which utilised the lightened DV fuselage allied to earlier experience gained from twin engined aircraft used by the Imperial navy.

The first aircraft was completed in July 1917 and quickly assigned to convoy protection in order to ascertain the types reliability over the ranges envisaged. The second aircraft followed several weeks later and both were praised for their performance. As the threat from long range bombers had failed to materialise the Albatros W5D's were assigned to operate in support of German naval attacks in the waters off Riga. The long range of the Albatros' led to them patrolling in the St. Peterburg area. Over a period of a couple of months the crews using the W5D's claimed the destruction of four Russian flying boats and attacks on four submarines that were forced into emergency dives. Several patrol boats were also attacked. Ops against the Russians came to a halt during November as the Bolshevik government started talks to end the war. The IGN took the opportunity to evaluate the value of the W5D. It was decided that the successes of the Hansa Brandenburg W12 in the North Sea theatre had made the Albatros tri-motor redundant despite the high praise from the crews. Engines were in short supply and the equally successful single engined HB W12 meant the extra cost of the tri-motors could not be justified. It was decided to remove the Mercedes engines and return them to Albatros. That should have been the end of the W5D except it had been seen by two Austro-Hungarian naval liaison officers. Very much impressed they had foreseen a role for the aircraft not envisaged by the German Admiralty. Austro Hungarian bureaucracy worked slowly but Albatros were convinced to mothball the airframes in the expectation of future interest.

The AH Navy was a firm supporter of the flying boat but was now giving serious consideration to the float plane configuration favoured by the German navy. During 1918 the Germans transferred Albatros and Rumpler single seat floatplane fighters to the Adriatic as well as Friedrichshafen recce planes and other miscellaneous types. Among the latter were the two W5D's. The airframes had been re-covered suggesting a period of outside storage and arrived engineless. Austro Daimler engines had been stockpiled from written off aircraft and the Albatros' received a central engine of 185hp and a 160hp AD in the wing positions. Performance was impressive but was to be further improved.

The W5Ds operated by the IGN carried conventional rigging as was normal for Albatros aircraft. However this was to change. By March 1918 Albatros were tacitly admitting to the Austro-Hungarians that the demands being made of them by the Amerika Programme made it unlikely there would be any spare capacity to delegate to any potential W5D production. While they were prepared to refurbish the existing airframes Albatros candidly suggested the AH Navy approach Hansa Brandenburg. HB were well known in AH aviation circles as part of the conglomerate of companies, the others being UFAG and Phoenix, owned by Camillo Castiglioni, the Austrian financier. The HB W12 had been chosen over the W5D by the IGN and the company had a long pedigree of naval floatplanes. The approach was made and HB engineers were sent to inspect the airframes at Albatros Werke. HB had devised a wireless form of support struts for the W12 and were keen to see if the method could be developed to suit a multi-bay tri-motor aircraft. Previously the system had to be strengthened by conventional rigging wires on the recently introduced twin bay W19. The HB engineers concluded that the W5Ds rigging could be dramatically reduced by strengthening wing spars within the upper wing centre sections between the engines. The lower wing was almost identical to that of the W12 in chord width and a stronger wing composed of W12 sections could be substituted for the original. Finally, the wire rigged floats were replaced by the HB strut braced version. HB floats were not regarded very highly as they were prone to leaking. The AH Admiralty were keen to test the new aluminium floats now being manufactured so ordered replacements to the HB pairs. So, as they had improved the Albatros D111 from the original German specs, the W5D had been upgraded before entering AH service.

This train of thought leads to some interesting possibilities for future whifs. It's just a shame they can't be built from Airfix kits.

Test flights took up most of July and the first operational flight was at the beginning of August. The role handed to the W5D's was to attack the Italian anti submarine observation flights in the Adriatic and help the U Boats escape detection. Usual tactic was to take off in darkness and taking advantage of the types long range reach the Italian patrol areas as dawn was breaking. The Italians were using British SS airships and Macchi flying boats and aerial opposition was not expected in these areas. As usual detailed records are lacking for this period but of the eight airships used by the Italians six were lost and only two to known causes. Several flying boats were lost at the time the W5D's were believed to be active in this area. Understandably these missions were cloaked in secrecy. No photos have surfaced and at the end of the war the two aircraft were scuttled rather than hand them over leaving the field open to conjecture and whiffers.

Regards, Steve

Edited January 16, 2014 by stevehed

[stevehed]

Here's the end product. Started off with three Airfix DVs, two Airfix Hannover biplane tail units, a lower wing cut from 40thou plastic card and the floats are from the Revell Junkers F13.

Edited January 17, 2014 by stevehed

[trickyrich]

Great idea, will done Steve.

I do like the background story, I'll be starting mine once I get a bit further in the build and actually have a final idea of what it's going to end up looking like.

Glad to see you've posted, we just need to keep this section nice and active plus hitting the main WIP and RFI sections to help generate further intrest.

I think latter in the year I'll start the WhatIf GB thread again in future GB's if it hasn't been already.

Keep-em coming!