cspellman:
Recently I visited Chuck Wentworth at Paso Robles to view Javier Arango's new Fok.D.VI. While there I had a conversation with Chuck about the relative performance of the sopwith Tripe and the Fokker DR.I. He said he has flown both machines in Javier's collection and the Sopwith Tripe with it's 6 ailerons cannot turn as well or as fast as the Fokker Triplane with two ailerons. The difference is the the Sopwith Tripe has short span, wide ailerons, while the Fokker DR.I has long narrow aileron which are more effective. He further said the Fokker D.VII and the Fok.E.V also have long narrow ailerons and said they were equally effective. The long narrow ailerons produce an excellent role rate which is about twice as fast as the short and wide ailerons.
Chuck compared the Fokker D.VII with the S.E.5a and stated that with Fokker D.VII you could make aileron turns, but with the S.E.5a the ailerons would only produce a yaw until you applied the rudder.
He said, "If I was going to war, and I had to choose between the Sopwith Tripe and the Fokker Triplane, without a doubt, I would choose the Fokker Triplane! It is twice the airplane, than the Sopwith Tripe!"
While we were talking, I kept thinking of
Werner Voss taking 6 S.E.5a machines from 56 Squadron.
The ceiling of the Sopwith Tripe was 20500 feet, the ceiling of the Fokker DR.I was, 7000 m,(22960 ft.)
Blue skies,
Dan-San