Albatros D II / D III news

Koloman Mayrhofer · 12 August 2009, 08:59 AM

hallo,
i am sure that that at least the austrian albatrosses can be seen here in 2011 . you are welcome.

the austrian handgrips are made of pressed sheet steel and covered with leather. the german handgrips are with wooden handles.

cheers
koloman mayrhofer

DenisFerrari · 21 August 2009, 01:09 AM

Hi all and congratulations for your marvellous replicas !

Do they fly also ?

One question : any information about Albatross DVa and DIII tail plane incidences (referred to fuselage 0° datum line) and wings incidences aswell ?

Thank you in advance,
kind regards,
Denis Ferrari - Italy

Koloman Mayrhofer · 21 August 2009, 05:52 AM

hallo,
on the german D III two different angles can be found in original sources. o,6 and 1 degrees.

the DVa has 1 degree and i have never found any other info.
the austrian D II and D III have 0 degrees.
cheers
koloman mayrhofer

DenisFerrari · 21 August 2009, 06:06 AM

Thank you...

you speak of tail plane 0,6 / 1 degree or wings 0,6 / 1 degree ?

Denis

Koloman Mayrhofer · 21 August 2009, 06:12 AM

hallo,
thats for the tailplane .have my files not at hand . will give you the wing details soon.
koloman mayrhofer

DenisFerrari · 21 August 2009, 06:23 AM

Excellent thank you!

I wait your wings details,

Kind regards,
Denis Ferrari

DenisFerrari · 22 August 2009, 11:17 AM

...... I'm very curious : do your marvellous replicas fly too?
Regards
Denis Ferrari

'14-'18aviationcollector · 22 August 2009, 06:06 PM

Hi Denis,

I am sure that Koloman will reply when he is able to, and he will correct me if I have made any mistakes, but I will provide some information for you in the meantime.

As far as I know, all of Koloman's replicas are built to airworthy standard. The Teachman drawings show the incidence for the wing of the D.II as 5 degrees. I have not been able to find any data so far which shows any washout, but there would have almost certainly been some washout. Bob Waugh's drawings, although they were not ever meant for publication and were not finished at that time show 5 degrees incidence for the top and bottom wings at the fuselage, 2 degrees for the lower wings at the tips and 0 degrees for the upper wings at the tips for the D.Va. Note that for the upper wing, the majority of the washout is provided by the distinctively shaped ailerons. The tailplane is shown to have 1 degree positive incidence.

I hope this helps in the meantime!

Cheers,

David.

DenisFerrari · 23 August 2009, 01:16 AM

Excellent thank you very much!

Kind regards,
Denis Ferrari

'14-'18aviationcollector · 23 August 2009, 10:36 AM

Hi Denis,

You are very welcome! The only drawings I have are a copy of Bob Waugh's older version of his Albatros D.Va drawings (from the NASM book about the Albatros D.Va restoration - D.7161 / '17) and an electronic copy of the Teachman drawings of the Albatros D.II . The D.II drawings are relatively large files, so they take a while to open, and once they are open they are difficult to navigate around. If and when I am able to get a more powerful computer, I will be able to open them much more easily. The only figure I was able to find for the D.II incidence was written on the wing rib profile of the upper wing. Presumably the lower wing would have also been set at 5 degrees, but there is no guarantee, since some biplanes have different incidence on their top and bottom wings. As I mentioned earlier, I would be very suprised if the D.II did not have some washout. On the drawings I was able to open, one side was shown as having some washout, at the very least in the aileron, and the other side was drawn as though it does not have any washout. I am not sure exactly what is going on here but having done some technical drawing myself, I know that it is very easy to draw two sides completely differently for example, and not pick the error up. Alternatively, and this is just speculation, there could have been different amounts of washout on each set of wings. This certainly was the case on some First World War designs. I doubt it was the case with the D.II, I think the differences on each side of the drawing I was looking at are more likely to be a mistake. As anyone who has worked on an original First World War aeroplane will know, aeroplanes were not always necessarily built as drawn and specified, and rigging can be altered in service quite significantly. I remember that the AWM's DH9 had a significant angle rigged into its' fuselage. This was not as shown on the drawings or on the rigging chart, but there may have been a reason for it. The numerous layers of paint on the turnbuckles suggested to me that it had been rigged that way for a long time - probably not when it was purchased from the RAF (it would have been rigged correctly, as per specifications at that time) but almost certainly when it was flown to Australia in the 1919 Air Race. There were also typically numerous revisions to drawings as the need for various modifications were identified in service, so there are often numerous differences between one example of a given aeroplane and another.

Cheers,

David.