Identification needed

[Toxisch]

Hi Kees,

Doing some research on the Belgian Gotha G.IX bombers I discovered a document which could be of interest to your investigation. It is a list of the Belgian military aircraft deliveries by type (no numbers unfortunately) for the year 1917 and guess what is mentioned: the Van den Born F.5 "Avion Forteresse".

This is the first time I see this aircraft appearing on documents related to the Aviation Militaire Belge and could be an indication.

Best regards,



Daniel
Belgian Aviation History Association

[Varese2002]

Originally Posted by Toxisch

Hi Kees,

Doing some research on the Belgian Gotha G.IX bombers I discovered a document which could be of interest to your investigation. It is a list of the Belgian military aircraft deliveries by type (no numbers unfortunately) for the year 1917 and guess what is mentioned: the Van den Born F.5 "Avion Forteresse".

This is the first time I see this aircraft appearing on documents related to the Aviation Militaire Belge and could be an indication.

Best regards,



Daniel
Belgian Aviation History Association

Daniel, I almost fell out of my chair when reading about your find. This is at least proof that the Van den Born F.5 Avion Forteresse existed. Till now the only things hinting at the existence of this plane were references in secondary documents [thesaurus of the NASM and a short quote in Davilla - French aircraft of the First World War].

Unfortunately till now we have not unearthed information about the whereabouts of Charles van den Born during the time 1916 - 1918.

So we cannot pronounce the mystery 'trimoteur triplan' as the Van den Born F 5 with complete certainty, but at least it qualifies as a very good candidate about which next to nothing is known.

Would it be possible to scan part of the list where the van den Born is listed, just to have some contemporary evidence that it existed? I will further notify my French friends, who till now doubted the existence of an F category including the existence of this van den Born machine.

You have done a great find when searching for something else Many thanks for this information.

Have a great day

Kees

[Toxisch]

Hi Kees,

Indeed an interesting find.
Here is the part of the document where the Van den Born is mentioned.



Best regards,



Daniel
www.baha.be