More of Albatros D.V wreckage found

[charles]

If you are familiar with The Aero Conservancy, you know that I have a few pieces from the wreckage of an Albatros D.V, a seat rail, lower wing spar, undercarriage leg, so forth. Evidence suggests it was partially or all black and that it came down in Flanders. The rest of it has been sitting in Ghent for some time and I was fortunate to get the rest of it recently, including the rudder, another undercarriage leg, and the left center section ‘cabane’ strut and some upper wing spar pieces and cabane strut attachment fittings. You can see these in the attached photos

In the few days since they arrived, I have been comparing them to Bob Waugh’s drawings of the Canberra D.Va and photos from Bob Mikesh’s book on the Smithsonian D.Va restoration. What a surprise! There are two pieces of spar that are positively identified as the rear upper wing spar, but they are a lot narrower at 36mm wide than the 49mm width documented in Mikesh’s book for the later D.Va. Why would Albatros have made the rear spar thicker on the D.Va?

The rear spar is also 3mm shorter at 70mm and the top and bottom pieces which make up the spar are each 20mm high, not 18mm.

If any of you have drawings of the upper wing spars of either the NASM or the Canberra Albatros D.Va. or photos of their uncovered upper wings before or after restoration, or the same for the Cabane struts, this would be very helpful.

Charley Gosse
http://www.aeroconservancy.com

[Craig]

*Why would Albatros have made the rear spar thicker on the D.Va?

In a vain attempt to keep the wings on! The D.V was lighter than the D.III, and they found out that this weight-saving effort further weakened the wings and even the fuselage. So, on the D.Va, there were several areas in which they beefed-up parts. I'll bet the farm that we're going to find out exactly what they were, in short order! We might even have some guesses - some of them educated guesses, at that - as to what Jasta the machine was with and who was flying it!

Cool stuff!

[Gregvan]

Great stuff, Charles !!

Is the cabane strut painted black ??

Hmm...

Greg VanWyngarden

[DavidErrol]

If any of you have drawings of the upper wing spars of either the NASM or the Canberra Albatros D.Va. or photos of their uncovered upper wings before or after restoration, or the same for the Cabane struts, this would be very helpful. *

NASM upper wing photographed Sept. 1978

[PeterL]

Charles, is the rudder badly distorted? In particular is the balance area twisted out of shape and the bottom end of the trailing edge detatched from the vertical? It looks very un-Albatros like in the pic.

[charles]

Yes, it is quite distorted. *These photos should give you a better idea. *Like so much of the wreckage, it must have come down from a great height. *

[charles]

Great stuff, Charles !!

Is the cabane strut painted black ??

Hmm...

Greg VanWyngarden

Greg, there is no evidence of black paint on the cabane strut. The undercarriage legs, leg attachment fittings, and the small pieces of fuselage skin attached to the leg fittings have predominantly black paint with some evidence of green paint, as well. The green appears in almost all cases to be overpainted by the black paint.

Dan-San Abbott kindly suggested some time ago - this was before I got these other pieces - that the evidence of black paint would suggest that the aircraft was in one of several squadrons that had all or partially black fuselages and I am studying which of these lost Albatros D.Vs to Belgian pilots.
I have wittled the number down to just a handful of incidents.

I can explain the Belgian pilot limitation, if you are interested.

Charley

[Rick]

*
*
I have wittled the number down to just a handful of incidents. *

I can explain the Belgian pilot limitation, if you are interested.

Charley

Yes, by all means, please do. And also tell us the possible candidates! R.

[charles]

Yes, by all means, please do. *And also tell us the possible candidates! * * * R.

Apparently, the Belgians salvaged this Albatros D.V and at least the remains of one other German aircraft destroyed by a Belgian pilot, holding onto them as trophies, or at least that is the theory passed down to me.

I don’t have all of my research in front of me, but I compiled a list of all of the Albatros D.Vs downed over Belgium in Jasta known to have used all or partially black fuselages and coorelated it with those Albatros DV’s claimed by Belgian pilots and came up with just two possible victims so far which really stand-out – I’ll tell you more about them tonight when I have my research with me. One is in Jasta 16b, the other in Jasta 7. I wish I could get my hands on their war diaries so I could find out the serial numbers of their Albatros DVs.

Another crucial piece of information is a small piece of printed camouflage fabric attached to one of the upper wing's compression bar fitings. Dan told me here on the forum back on 26-10-2002 that the first 463 of 900 DVs likely did not have printed fabric and the remaining 437 (from 2225 onwards) did have 5 color printed fabric, which cuts the possibilities in half.

Of course, that doesn't do me any good unless I can find out which Albatros went to Jastas 7 and 16b !

[Craig]

Jastas 7 and 16b?
That would explain the black paint.