What color was Voss' Dr1?

I have an old book that says it was Silver and Blue, was that true?

thanks,

CV

As far as I know Voss's DR1 Triplane was:
Green sides and top surfaces
Light pale blue underside and underwing
Yellow engine cowling, with the famous face painted on the front around the propeller.

There is a lot of specualtion on what color the plane was. I don't think you'll get much more than educated guesses.

I've tried to compile all of these opinions on my Voss page:

http://members.tripod.com/~toby_g/voss/voss.html

Another important matter is it is quite possible that at different times the paint scheme may have changed. It may have started out as silver blue with green streaks and an olive cowl and later had the cowl painted chrome yellow.

Or it is also quite possible that Voss never adopted the chrome yellow cowl so as to stand out more in his formation. (not the current popular opinion)

It is beleived that the first prototypes did not have the standard olive/brown streaked top as later DR1s but instead had an experimental light blue with olive streak top covering. There is mention that the dope was of poor quality which may have lead to the silvering or perhaps the light blue was a silvery blue to begin with.

I'm a traditionalist...I go with the silvery-blue top side streaked with olive, olive cowl with kaiser face, and aquamarine belly It may or may not be accurate, but it looks damn good.

[center] <table> <tr> <td> </td> <td> Tobias Gibson
tgibson@ruhsu.rush.edu
48 Kills
</td> </tr> </table>

The IWM has a rudder that is suppose to be from Voss's plane and it is yellow. If anyone would like a jpg. of it drop me a e-mail and I'll forward one .

BTW Tobias...Very nice site. I linked to it from mine some time ago. I was very impressed. Buchanan Art has combat reports for sale at http://www.buchanan-art.com/combatreport.htm and along with these is: AIRCRAFT SALVAGE REPORT on Werner Voss’ Fokker Triplane 103/17 by G. Barfoot-Saunt with various fabric pieces and pencil sketch of aircraft - Documented PRICE $4,000
This may be the definative evidence to finally put this age old question to rest.

The Windsock Special on Voss has excerpts from the report by Lt. Barfoot-Saunt, and a paragraph from an incident report supplied to the Lt. by the Area Intelligence Officer (not complete, but cost me considerably less than $4000 .

In one part, the general description is that it is "camouflaged green on the upper surfaces and sky blue on the lower."

The incident report goes into more detail, as follows; "The machine features a new attempt by the enemy at camouflage. The entire upper and side surfaces are doped in various shades of green, blue and grey which takes the form of streaks applied at various angles - vertical on the fuselage and slanted on the tail. The upper and second wing have not been salved but the streaks on the bottom wing are just off the vertical, slanting slightly to the left. Lower surfaces are greyish blue. Upper surface dope is of poor quality but the fabric is good."

Basically, as described by Tobias, and in the "DRI Special", the 2 FI prototypes of Voss and MvR were streaked olive-green over turquoise, where MOST production triplanes were streaked over clear dope, with turquoise undersides.

As for yellow nose or tail - there's always been a lot of controversy over that. Alex Imrie has championed the yellow nose, based on yellow being the Jasta color, and the fact that yellow photographs dark on ortho film. In all photos I've seen which show both, the cowling is dark and the rudder very light (almost certainly white) - they can't both be yellow! Since such coloring apparently isn't mentioned in these reports (although the cowling shape is described), I tend to doubt that either was actually yellow.

Rich

For what it's worth, I agree with Rich. Any report that goes to the extent of describing the angle of the streaks of the dope pigmentation is going to have mentioned any identifying colours. The fact that it doesn't suggests strongly to me that Voss's tripe bore no yellow. (As for the existing rudder, has it been compared with other examples of clear-doped white or buff linen of similar vintage? I suspect that over 80+ years the dope itself would have yellowed considerably.)

The pictures of the rudders I have has the clear or white doped rudder setting next to the yellow and the white has yellowed with age but the other IS YELLOW. The IWM received the yellow rudder from the Voss family. They have tried to find the works number under the yellow dope by X-ray and found nothing. This could be if the F1 Dr1's didn't get the standard markings like the later production planes did. I to do not beleive that this rudder was from Voss's. The cowling and the rudder could not both be yellow from the pictures I have seen. Also this plane didn't last long enough to get three or four repaints!
If one of the experts at this site will expain to a dummy how to post a picture, I'll send one of both rudders held by the IWM.

Mark

I once saw a painting of Voss'epi last flight against 56 squadron, and his plane was black. On the nose were eyes a moustache and a mouth. The face bit was right but the colour is uncertain.Perhaps his Albatros was blue and silver.