Thread: Steve's Models
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Old 09-25-13, 09:55 PM   #232
Sailor Steve
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Well, they Fokker twins are done. Both are in early Austro-Hungarian markings, because they seem to have had the most of them, and because the German markings of the period are even more boring.

They both have very unusual rigging. Most biplanes have bracing wires from the fuselage to the inner struts, then to the outer struts if it's a two-bay. There are wires connecting the front and rear struts, making an 'X' between them. For whatever reasons they may have had, the Fokker B-Types had the front struts braced normally, but the rear struts had one wire from the fuselage to each strut, and nothing connecting the struts, either along the wing or fore-and-aft.

First up is the B.I, with its 7-cylinder 80-horsepower engine.






Then is B.II, with a 9-cylinder 100-hp engine and double-bay wings.




One of the characteristics of German B-Type unarmed two-seaters was that the observer was in the front cockpit and the pilot in the rear. When fighters became a danger and they started arming them, they left the arrangement alone, so they had to mount a machine gun in the front cockpit. This was done by putting a rail on each side of the cockpit. The observer could shoot aft or forward to one side or the other, with a steel bar keeping him from shooting either the propeller or the pilot. If he wanted to shoot to the other side he had to lift the gun off of the mounting bracket and fit it into the one on the opposite rail. Some crews tried carrying two guns, but this cause too much loss of performance.

B.II machine gun.




Both planes together, just for comparison.




Yes, the front view shows the unusual strut mountings of some German biplanes. The struts do not run straight up and down, but slope inward slightly.
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