Johannisthal towers and circuit
 

This is a picture where the two towers at Johannisthal can be seen. The tower at the left looks somewhat different from the picture of the Manoli tower presented by Yavor.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...hannisthal.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...hannisthal.jpg

The picture is captioned:

"Anthony Fokker fliegt auf seinem schnellen und leichten Militär Eindecker über Johannisthal, 1914".
Anthony Fokker flies with his speedy and light Military Monoplane over Johannisthal in 1914.
The machine he is flying is almost certainly a Fokker M.5.

Looking at this picture I think the picture may have been doctored with. The distance between the towers looks too short. The whole field looks smallish. The Fokker seems oversize.

Herewith I have a plan of Johannisthal
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1..._aangepast.jpg
where I have marked the Rumpler factory, which is in the back of the picture. Although no scale is given from the Rumpler works to the other side of the field is at least 500 meter.
Am I too suspicious or is there something wrong with the perspective in this picture? And what were the dimensions of the flying field of Johannisthal in 1914?

Kees

Hey Kees,
You are of course correct, this photograph is a composite image which seems to have used a number of negatives collaged or overlayed upon each other- take note of the disparities of shadows of people in the foreground - some have shadows, some dont. The photographer is essentially presenting a scene for the viewer which could not have been captured in one negative (hence the drastic perspective, over detailed background etc.). At the time this image was composed people did seem to truly beleive in the "truth" of the photograph whereas we can note the artifice.

Hi Kees;
For dimensions of Johannisthal flying field in 1914, you will have to play with this map from the meet in Oct 1910. This map taken from the original official program of that meet. You will notice that the SPLIT field has a dotted line outlining the flying area of the section on the right. It gives the dimension of that TOP dotted line as 2.5 Km. All the factory buildings grew up around the field, I have MANY of the factory building layouts in individiual maps, like Albatros, Daimler etc etc. But the dimensions of the main field in center did not change. so you should be able to get a pretty close estimate if you scale it out..( I figure a little bit more than 6.5 KM across the top (widest) part of the filed..and less flying area, of course, due to the buildings and other restrictions..)Sorry about the small size, but had to keep the image small enough to load here..

From another source. Here is an end of WWI map of the Ago Factory at Johannisthal. With all buildings identified in the key..

Flugplatz Johannisthal circa 1912
 

Hi all tower-attracted people!
There is a scheme of Flugplatz Johannisthal with positions of two towers around 1912.
Rumpler tower is indicated as Windmessturm (anemometer tower) just across the Kaiserlicher Aero-Club.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w.../IMAGE0019.jpg

Regards,
Yavor

Hi Kees!

Actual scale is given on the plan you posted. Manoli tower is marked "L" on this plan. In my opinion position is in agreement with my sources and tower position on the photograph is correct. You are probably right about Fokker aeroplane size - too big. This photograph shows probably an earlier version of Manoli tower (Leuchtturm).

Regards,
Yavor

Thanks Joe and Yavor, I get now the idea how the picture was taken on the Johannisthal field. Actually it is a very small part of the airfield, between the Manoli-tower and the Windmessturm. If I take the scale on the plan I have posted (thanks Yavor) it will be something like 75 meter.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1.../A03903943.jpg

It all started when I was puzzled by the doctored picture of the Fokker M.5

Kees

Correction concerning Manoli tower
 

Manoli-Leuchtturm shown on photo posted by Varese2002 is not an early version as it was stated im my earlier post. It looks to be a wooden construction built around the upper half of the brick tower during 1913. I can assume a valuable viewing spot for VVIPs placed above ...

Regards,
Yavor

Sorry to speak up so late...
This photo confirms the scale and dimensions of your Fokker photo Kees. Perhaps taken the same day.

http://www.earlyaviator.com/images/1...isthal.jpl.jpg

This 1910 map shows a bar-scale I believe is 1800m long, with base increments of 30m. No RF scale is noted on this map and I have to assume the increments are in whole metric divisions.

Without a better scan to read the numbers on either this map or Kees' map, and using the rough dimension of the Flugbahn (2.5km), I calculated the maximum width of the field as 6233m.

To "shed" some light on the LTA aspect of Johannisthal...
The airfield was inaugurated in Sep 1909 and by 1910 a ballonhalle was constructed to house a Parseval or Gross airship. Later, around 1913, a much larger airship shed was constructed beside it to shelter the Zeppelins. According to Jempie in 1912 there stood however two smaller airship sheds and one was apparently enlarged to become the Zeppelin shed. Additionally in early 1912 a transportable tent shed was erected to shelter Schwaben when it visited. I'd be interested to know where this temporary shed was situated.

One question concerning the map:
The dotted line dividing the field is curious. Is this the partition between Johannisthal and Adlershof?

Cheers
Rod

Hi, Rod!

No way maximum width to be 6,233 m. The plan shown by joegertler shows the Flugplatz Johannisthal at end of 1909 or early 1910. The whole racing course was 2,500 meters. The largest dimension of the airfield was about 2,500 meters too.

Both photographs are probably taken at Frühjahrsflugwoche (spring flying week) May 25th to June 1st, 1913. Gustav Adolf Michaelis (flying Etrich-Taube from Sport-Flieger GmbH) was injured in an flying accident on May 27th and died from his injuries on June 1st. Winner of the competition was Felix Laitsch (LVG) followed by Bruno Hanuschke (flying Hanuschke Eindecker). 34 aviators took part in the flying week.

Regards,
Yavor