Restoration of an Albatros D.V wreckage

[charles]

I am beginning the restoration of the wreckage of an Albatros D.V. I thought I would post my work here as I do it. I don't have all of the aircraft. Far from it, I just have the undercarriage, part of a spar, one of the cabane struts, the rudder, and a few other pieces.

Here is the left undercarriage leg fitting as I disassembled it. You ar e looking at it upside down.



Bob Mikesh's book on the restoration of the Smithsonian's D.Va is a good source to see where these parts fit. You can also read more about them on my old website http://www.aeroconservancy.com . I know, I know, I haven't updated the site in a couple of years...but I will !







I was really excited about getting the nuts off the bolts finally and revealing the plywood skin as well as the surface of the fitting against the plywood. Here you can see the old paint from the factory. It looks shiny.



I would have put this thread in the replica section but I don't want to confuse anyone about whether this is a replica or, as it really is, a restoration.

I am still working on who the pilot was and the actual aircraft. I think it may well be Techow or possibly Triebswetter. If any of our Belgian members wishes to help - I really need one of you to go in and look up an item in the Brussels Army Museum archive. I have the box / file number. It should contain the combat report of the crew which bagged Techow.

By the way, for those of you who do not know me, I am Charley Gosse. Been here for a while, off and on.

[charles]

This is Bulkhead station #5 and it is based on exact, painstaking measurements of the Smithsonian's D.Va taken by Frank Garove back in the seventies when that aircraft was dis-assembled and restored. Frank and I have spent some good time together. Frank will come by and carefully measure every peice of the wreckage while I talk on about the Albatros.



Lucy Halstead of Canvas Falcon Engineering spent part of her recent pregnancy converting Frank's drawings onto computer for me and then printed-out templates full-size. I can't thank her enough, she has really contributed a lot to this project.




I glued-up a 3/4" birch ply with a 1/4" birch ply to approximate the 27mm thickness of bulkhead 5. The paper template is lightly glued to the plywood using a 3M spray adhesive. Once everything is cut, it comes away with a little care.


I nailed brads from the 1/4" ply into the 3/4" ply, similar to the original construction. The cut-out at the top of the bulkhead is to allow the guns to clear the bulkhead. I'll post a complete photo later of the lightening holes of the bulkhead cut-away.

[R Pope]

I guess airplanes are like old cars, if you have the original ID plate you can restore it! I admire your enthusiasm, though I question your sanity! Of course, being a plane nut, we're all crazy anyway. Keep posting pictures, guys like you give us all hope.

[charles]

This is bulkhead station no. 5 with the cut-outs complete and the center section spar built-up. This is the view looking at the bulkhead from the front of the aircraft. You know this because just below the cut-out at the top of the elipse is the back of the narrower part of the bulkhead



But here's any interesting thing. The photo below shows Albatros D.Vs under construction in the factory. This photo is from the cover of World War One Aeroplanes some years ago and belongs to Pete Grosz. These aircraft are early D.V.s and not D.Va.s because D.Va.s never had the headrest. Indeed, these are early production D.V.s. Notice bulkhead station no. 5. The cut-out is there, but a section extends above it. Odd, that.



Below is a close up of what I am talking about. That thin piece of wood extending above the cut-out would sandwich between the guns. I don't know what the planners were thinking of, but I am pretty sure it was later eliminated.



This is bulkhead station no. 6. The rear undercarriage legs attach to No. 6. This view is facing aft (facing the airplane), so the right rear undercarraige leg is on the left of the photo. This leg and fitting are original. I will add the left rear undercarriage leg later.



This is the original rudder.



And this is the cabane strut. For those of you with an eagle eye, you'll notice that the spars are switched. I did this simply to be able to mount this on the wall.



More later... I hope this isn't too boring. By the way, the restoration - original pieces attached to replica bulkheads - is not going to be of the entire aircraft, but just of the cockpit area, bulkhead stations 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Not boring at all , infact I think this is the most intereting thing I've seen on the site . The information and pictures are great .
Thanks .

[gipsymoth236k]

I agree! Please keep posting!

Great stuff!

Regards, Gary

[AchimEngels]

Hello Charles!

I can only second the previous postings. I follow this one for a while now and I really like what you do!

It is an important add on to the history of German aircraft design.

I really hope you are going to build a full size Albatros as well some time.

Keep it going!

Achim

[charles]

Another weekend arrives and I am back at restoration work!

This photo shows the undercarriage left rear fitting's spacer. It is sitting on top of replica bulkhead station 6.



You can see the craftman's original pencil marks on the inside edge. See the hole next to the old screw head? When the exterior fitting was screwed into the plywood skin, the screw entered the longeron, pierced it and went into the spacer, nearly into the head of the screw which had already been screwed into place attaching the spacer to the longeron.


Here is the spacer, in position.


And the fitting.


I hope to attach the longerons today.

[Richard_Schrader]

This is great, keep posting as work continues. Where did the Albatros come from?

Richard

[charles]

Originally posted by Richard_Schrader@Apr 24 2004, 02:38 PM
[b] Where did the Albatros come from?

I purchased much of it from a Sotheby's sale years ago and then acquired some additional parts more recently. Both of the previous owners apparently obtained their pieces from the same person, a collector in Belgium. This - and the pattern of worm marks and so forth - make me believe both groups are from the same wreckage.

This collector also had a Rumpler, far more complete than this Albatros, and it was very well documented and was downed by a Belgian crew.

The legs and undercarriage fitting are painted black and green and the black (but not the green) spills over onto the pieces of the plywood outer skin attached to them. From this I beleive the aircraft was black at least around the cockpit area.

The upper wing spars had small sections of printed camouflage lozenge attached to them.

The presence of lozenge and the black color helped me to narrow the aircraft to a few squadrons.

Because the Rumpler owned by the collector was downed by a Belgian air crew over Belgian, I presume the Albatros more likely than not came from the Belgian theatre of operations, rather than deeper into France next door, and even possibly was downed by a Belgian crew, as well, though that is very speculative.

An Albatros D.V (of which there were only 900) painted all or paretially black, with lozenge wings and downed in Belgian limits the possibilities to literally two possibilities that I have found, one belonging to Adolf Techow and the other to a fellow named Triebswetter.