Fokker Dr1 - M. v Richthofen 17-09-1917

[pirate_girl]

Up close and personal footage of Baron Manfred von Richthofen better known as the Red Baron.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIiuyijwKRs"]Fokker Dr1 - M. v Richthofen 17-09-1917 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[300 H and H]

Well he makes a pretty good frozen Pizza to!....

Seriously I notice something about the plane, the Fokker Dr, that I didn't know. The crankshaft of the engine faces rearward and it attached to the frame of the plane and remains stationary. The propeller is attached to the rear of the engine.

What this all means is the entire engine and all of it's mass is spinning at engine speed, right along with the propeller. It had and it needed lots of wing area to counter act the forces of this "gyroscope" and get the plane to react to the controls. Hence the third wing.. I suppose.

I read some were this just was how it was done in the airplane world for a time. I can imagine the surprise that would fallow when the engine mounted stationary, and wasn't resisting the control of the plane...

Interesting old film. Wish it had sound to go along with it. Thanks.

Regards, Kirk

 

[JimVT]

if you ever get to the museum of flight in seattle . they have a radial engine like that on a stand. you can spin the prop and see how it rotates.
I wish I would have spent more time looking at it. I often wondered how the carburetors were setup.
jim

 

[MrLiberty]

Interesting bit of history.....

http://www.learning-to-fly.com/world-war-1-airplanes.html

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070914-054.pdf