de Havilland DH98 at NZ Airshow 18 Jan 2013

[tubeswell]

This is the only airworthy DH98 in the word at the moment (as I understand it) - recently renovated in NZ and bound for the USA - was a real buzz to see this flying.









Instant of takeoff (you can just see a gap between the tyres and the ground shadow)


I have some other detail pics of outside bits of it if anyones interested

[DummyLoad]

mosquito's are cool looking planes. sad to read that it's the only airworthy example. at least the world has the one.

excerpts from wikipedia:
A complete set of forms, jigs and molds will allow for new Mosquitos to be built
There are approximately 30 non-flying examples around the world with several under restoration

--DL

[John]

Nice pictures, and if you have  more I'd like to see them. Thanks for posting these.

[Ritchie200]

Man I love the old planes!  The beautiful lines and purposeful designs - just fantastic.  Even more so are the guys with the brass kahunas that flew them in battle...

Thanks for posting!
Jim

[PRR]

> the brass kahunas that flew them

My parents recently toured one of the few B-17s still flying. They did not opt for a ride, and I think they were quite amazed how awful these planes were. In WWII, Mom's father administered various military education programs, including where they trained teenagers to take B-17s over Europe (not always back).

But you want fun? The air museum down the road has a Curtis pusher, and it flies, and I have seen it. You are at least as exposed as a hang-glider, but with a lot more power behind you.
http://www.ohtm.org/curtis.html

But up-close, I noticed it was not Curtis' motorcycle-derived V-8. It said Continental on the rocker covers. And in fact it was built in 1961. Still a frightening flight.

Their Fokker Triplane has a Warner radial instead of the Oberursel rotary.

[Ritchie200]

Yeah and there were a LOT that never came back...  A good read is "Lemay, the life and wars of General Curtis Lemay" written by Warren Kozak.  He saved a bunch of those kids.  As a matter of fact, I was getting ready to donate the book.  If you are interested, pm me and I'll ship it out to you.  I just want it to have a good home!

Jim

[tubeswell]

The air museum down the road has a Curtis pusher, and it flies, and I have seen it. You are at least as exposed as a hang-glider, but with a lot more power behind you.
http://www.ohtm.org/curtis.html

But up-close, I noticed it was not Curtis' motorcycle-derived V-8. It said Continental on the rocker covers. And in fact it was built in 1961. Still a frightening flight.

Their Fokker Triplane has a Warner radial instead of the Oberursel rotary.

They also had a few fokkers at the air show and a Fe2b pusher.

DR1


DVII


DVIII


Fe 2b

[Ritchie200]

Wow!  That is quite a collection.  Neat stuff!
Jim

[tubeswell]

[Ritchie200]

That can in front of the Nieuport - is that oil or is it for a shot of fuel to get that radial started?

One of my all time fav planes is the Corsair.  Looks like one in the background with the wings folded.

Thanks again for the pics!
Jim

[tubeswell]

That can in front of the Nieuport - is that oil or is it for a shot of fuel to get that radial started?

One of my all time fav planes is the Corsair.  Looks like one in the background with the wings folded.

Thanks again for the pics!
Jim

Not sure about what's in the can.

[thermion]

Dumb question from a youngster...why did these planes have huge bulls-eyes painted on them?

[tubeswell]

Dumb question from a youngster...why did these planes have huge bulls-eyes painted on them?

British planes ;-)

[PRR]

> That can in front of the Nieuport - is that oil or is it for a shot of fuel to get that radial started?

There's also a guy laying under it. Casualty?

*That* Nieuport still has the *rotary* engine. Except general shape, rotaries are not much like radials. The whole engine turns, the pistons hardly move, the crank is bolted to the plane. This is smoother than a rotating crank and oscillating pistons. A real issue when your engine must weigh as much as the rest of the plane.

So how do you get fuel to a rotary engine? Preferably with some carb-control (though not essential, these things flew wide-open or hardly at all.) You feed fuel-air through the crank! OK, crankcase full of explosive mixture, how do you oil? I suppose you know that one. How do you reduce crankcase explosions? What the middle series did was flow a very rich mix (too rich to burn) at the crank, pop it into the cylinders through the pistons, then used an intake/exhaust valve in the head. It let the smoke out, stayed open, air diluted the very rich mix to the right mix.

However _that_ Fokker Dr 1 Triplane seems to have a radial retro-fit. Those look like exhaust pipes blowing under the wing. A rotary has no need for exhaust manifolds, because the tailpipes would spin with the engine, blow out all over, just like you had no pipe at all. The excessive cowling on the Fokker and Nieuport was originally to direct the all-ways smog down away from the pilot's nose and gut.

Yes, Fokker and Nieuport used the same engines. Gnome rotaries made more power/weight than anything else, they sold as many as they could make pre-war, and everybody took a license to make more themselves. The big German companies liked their own engines, but Fokker couldn't get those, used Gnomes of various origins.

Got to admire the Big German Sixes. More power than the Gnome in MUCH more weight. Un-fussy, reliable. Good truck engines. Perhaps more reliability than you want when people are trying to shoot you down. 1,000-hour engines lasted just a couple hours over the front. Yes, many were dug out of the mud and sent up in a new plane, but still.