Albatros D II / D III news - Page 2

Koloman Mayrhofer · 23 April 2008, 01:12 AM

hallo,
well not strictly albatros but hopefully interesting too.
yesterday we took out the bleriot XI 2 we are currently working on for a foto shooting and to present it to the customer.

hallo willie good to hear that your project is progressing.

cheers
koloman mayrhofer

Jeff Brooks · 23 April 2008, 01:21 AM

Koloman,
Does that bleriot have a hinged elevator? Although I am no expert, I have seen one at rhinebeck & the Rucker Museum. Both those had sort of a half "flying" elevator on the outside and the inside half was rigid to stablize it?
Is this a later version of those?

greatwarpilot · 23 April 2008, 07:02 AM

Koloman,

Fantastic work. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to hearing a pilot report of what it is actually like to fly your machines with mercedes engines, once they're in the air.

All the best,

Brad · 24 April 2008, 02:47 PM

I never realized how big the Bleriot is until I saw your pic with it next to the Albatros.

Koloman Mayrhofer · 25 April 2008, 02:28 AM

hallo,
thanks for appreciating our work.
the bleriot is very big bird and it makes even the albatros which is also a big one compared to a spad or se5 make look small.
we build the last version bleriot the twoseater which was powered by rotarys up to 100 hp. this replica will get a 110 hp le rhone. it follows the details of the twoseater preserved at the oslo technical museum. it will go to the warbirds of norway association.
it has a ordinary hinged elevator. as far as i know only the earlier single seaters have this odd looking and rather scaring tailplane tip elevator.

we are now busy to prepare the plywood shells for covering the albatros fuselages and also have successfully preasuretestet the oil and fueltank yesterday.
cheers
koloman mayrhofer

StephenLawson · 25 April 2008, 11:14 AM

Greetings Koloman Mayrhofer:

More stunning works from your shops. My compliments sir! Years ago I wrote a small work on the differences between the German and the Austrian built Alb. D.III types. Could you provide us with your points of view on the subject?

Koloman Mayrhofer · 28 April 2008, 11:55 PM

hallo,
well there are a lot of differences of the kind you will never notice. very small details in construction of bulkheads and so on.
the most noticeable difference is the fuselage length due to the different engines used ,the way the plywood covering is attached and that the sizes of the cabane , v and uc struts are beefed up on austrian planes .
the more serious differences between german and austrian D III lays in the wing construction and most likely design . i am currently working over recently discovered original datas and was able to study the DVa wings in canberra last year when they was uncovered . it looks that the austrians not only changed the construction of the spars and ribs but also the aerodynamic layout a bit ,so retaining the same profiles . it could be that the austrians incorporated more washout than in the original german design. but this had to be checked again and will take some more time .i have very good datas on the austrian wings but on the german version there are several divergent figures so not an easy task to study.
as time allow i will carry on on this subject but please be a bit patient.
cheers
koloman mayrhofer

Koloman Mayrhofer · 30 April 2008, 12:16 AM

hallo,
to illustrate a bit the difference in the way the plywood covering was attached to the fuselage frame on german and austrian built examples i add a few pictures.
the german way was to form from strips of plywood which are precicly cut to a template and scarf jointed together over a wooden mold a shell which was nailed and screwed to the frames. this gave some noticeable steps in the covering where panels meet.
on austrian planes this shells was formed in making curved cuts into sheets reinforce this cuts on the backside with plywood strips and everything was glued and riveted together . e very smooth surface with no steps can be achieved with this.
needless to say this preformed shells had to be cut to very close tolerances as they are enormes stiff once glued on the mold and can not be forced onto the frame. they must simply fit.
lots of fun.

cheers
koloman mayrhofer

womenfly2 · 30 April 2008, 04:45 AM

... you have my admiration Sir. What wonderful machines you have brought back to life.

Would you share with us how some of the parts such as the bulkheads are make, please.

Thanks for sharing,
WF2

sheppo · 30 April 2008, 07:24 AM

Gday Koloman
I spent tonight marking nail locations and preparing the port fin structure to have the skin glued up tomorrow night after work.
I swear I need a tail as well as my hands to get everything happening at once.
as you said, "lots of fun"

Im finding painters tape a neccesity to keep the epoxy from wandering to where it shouldnt be. At this rate I'll be painting the fin instead of keeping the wood finish, its like kindergarden all over again.
sticky muck everywhere it seems!

chris