Today's little jewel is the Morane Saulnier N. "The Morane-Saulnier N, also known as the Morane-Saulnier Type N, was a French monoplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. Designed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier, the Type N entered service in April 1915 with the Aéronautique Militaire designated as the MS.5 C.1. It also equipped four squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps, in which it was nicknamed the Bullet, and was operated in limited numbers by the 19th Squadron of the Imperial Russian Air Force."

Today is also the day my wife and I will be visiting shut-ins from our church. We do this about once a month. What amazes me is how rewarding it is to visit folks who aren't able to get out and about much because of age or health issues. So many are really great people who have a lot to share.

And as it so happens, I have two of them (see attached). There's this game I like, a WW I (and in another version WW II) aerial combat game that uses 1/144th scale miniatures. Wings of Glory, currently published by Ares Games. When they produce a given miniature, they go to the trouble of painting the various models in the colors/paint schemes of individual pilots, when they can. (That is, when their research gives them the needed information). In my case, the two depicted are: on the left, slightly behind, the aircraft of Sergent Jean Chaput, Escadrille N. 31; on the right, the aircraft of Eugène Gilbert, Escadrille MS. 49 . Both Aéronautique Militaire.

Interesting thing about the M-S Type N; it was never equipped with a synchronization gear; instead, it relied on the less efficient, and somewhat more hazardous deflector wedges pioneered by Roland Garros.

And the squadron designations above: the French were the only ones to have homogenous squadrons at the beginning of the war: This was vastly easier on the ground crews, as it meant they did not have to try and stock spare parts for 4 or five different aircraft types, or learn as many different rigging schemes, etc. But it also meant that the French designated their squadrons with both a service series number and an abbreviation indicating the aircraft manufacturer of the type the squadron was equipped with. (Nieuport, or Morane-Saulnier in the above examples). Theoretically, the alphabetic designation would change when the squadron re-equipped, but this did not always happen.

Attached Images

M-S Ns.jpg (72.3 KB, 125 views)

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

It actually snowed here in middle TN. A real snow, somewhere between 4-6 inches I guesstimate. Thick, white, fluffy, and beautiful. Now if only I could convince my g/f to go play in it with me......

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"BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Will he offer me his mouth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his teeth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his jaws? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Again, will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes! GIRL: Yes. BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Yes. BOY: I bet you say that to all the boys!" -Meatloaf

^^ Have fun!^^

The snow began here late yesterday afternoon, and hasn’t stopped. We’ve already accumulated seven inches or so, and expect to double that before the snow stops late tonight.

I wonder what inside activities we can enjoy to while away the hours?

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Eudaimonia

No doubt you were thinking of Cribbage or Scrabble.

Then, again, maybe not.

Wow, DB's getting more & more obscure with the aircraft. The Ponnier M-1? Not really used by any one; first the French rejected it, then the Belgians did too. Although I think there was about what, maybe a squadron's worth of the aircraft that may have made it into French service for a little while.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Yep.

And from the obscure to the incredibly famous. The Fokker D-VII was widely touted as "the best German fighter aircraft of the war." Probably not, because there were later aircraft that the Germans barely go to the front before the war ended; but it was certainly the best widely-used aircraft the Germans had. It was the result of a competition held at Adlershof in January, 1928. During this competition, the Red Baron himself was persuaded to try out Fokker's prototype, the V (Versuchs, "research", or prototype) VI; Richthofen said the speed & climb were satisfactory, but the handling characteristics in terms of stability & spinning tendencies were bad. Fokker had his chief engineer, Reinhold Platz make a few changes to the fuselage & tail, and somehow persuaded Richthofen to give it another go. After this, Richthofen wholeheartedly endorsed the aircraft, Fokker won the competition, and the D-VII was adopted so enthusiastically that the rival companies Albatros & LFG Roland were directed to build the design under license, and pay Fokker a royalty on the design.

Richthofen himself never flew it in combat, though: the first examples were barely at the front in late April, 1918, when he was killed in his Fokker Dr-I. But there were other very famous German fighter aces who did: Ernst Udet, Hermann Göring, and Rudolf Berthold are examples. And the aircraft specifically picture in DB's userpic is that of Vizefeldwebel (a rank equivalent roughly to deputy Sergeant-Major) Max Holtzem, Jagdstaffel 16.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

My avatar for today is the US built Curtiss H.12.

I found the following and offer it as additional information dealing with this aircraft ...

"Up until the entry of the United States into the war the sole domestic aircraft designer and manufacturer who had a routine business with the Allied powers was the Curtiss Company. The H-12 design of late 1916 was a significantly scaled-up version of earlier H-boat designs. Initially intended to be powered by two 160 hp Curtiss V-X-X engines, these were deemed unsatisfactory by the British, who substituted 275 hp Rolls Royce Eagle engines in the aircraft which they purchased.

As U.S. participation in the war became imminent the U.S. Navy was finally able to purchase these twin-engined flying boats. The first of 20 H-12's were delivered in March 1917. Engines were the 200 Curtiss V-2-3 type which were later replaced by Liberty engines. The serial numbers of these aircraft were A152 and A765-A783.

While the H-12 served in the RNAS in England, the U.S. Navy opted not to assign the machine to foreign duty. Therefore, active service by the Navy was limited to anti-submarine patrol duty at domestic naval air stations."

^^^ Yep, and that decision was just another factor which kept any US-designed, US-built, US-crewed planes out of the First World War. Not that that's a bad thing, nor a good thing, just a thing.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

It was sure cold, damp and windy yesterday. Suppose to be on a warming trend into the weekend with temps near 50 by then. That'll be nice.

And today, DB features the Breguet Br 14. The US enthusiastically adopted the French aircraft, as it was fast, robust, and versatile. It had two main versions the A.2 reconnaissance variant & the B.2 bomber variant. And in fact, some of the latter were fairly easily adapted to use the US-built 'Liberty' engine. It was so successful, in fact that it continued in widespread service after the war, both in various Air Services, and in some modified and specialized civilian variants.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

And now we have the Gotha G-IV. As mentioned before, the Gotha series of G-type were quite famous for being the "type of choice" to carry out the strategic aerial bombardment of England during WW I. It was also the first of the Gotha types to feature the "tunnel"-a cut-out in the lower fuselage allowing the rear gunner/observer to fire through the fuselage at an aircraft attack from below and behind. Also like the Fokker D-VII mentioned previously, the Gotha G-IV was built by manufacturing firms other than the original designer. In this case, Siemens-Schuckert Werke (SSW), and Luft Verkehrs Gesellschaft (LVG).

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Did DB run out of WW I aircraft icons?

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.