Original Fokker D.VII material

[charles]

The ‘drome seems a little quiet these days and maybe this will be interesting to you and, in turn, perhaps you can help me out. I run something called The Aero Conservancy– it’s my collection but I make it available via the web at http://www.aeroconservancy.com . I recently acquired a collection of seven pieces said to be taken from the same aircraft, a Fokker D.VII. I am confident of the printed camouflage fabric, but would you please help identify from which batch and by which maker (Fokker, O.A.W. or Albatros).




The above piece measures 50”x25”x17” and is four-color upper surface printed camouflage “lozenge” fabric from the right side of a Fokker D.VII. The three openings are leather grommets. The rudder and elevator control wires from the cockpit run down the inside of the fuselage and then exit the aircraft through these leather openings on the way to the rudder (left grommet) and elevator (right grommets).

On the back of the fabric you can see vertical rust streaks separated by 23-3/8”. You can also see where the lower polygons are stretched out of alignment from the tension of being on the aircraft frame. You can also see large diagonal white streaks where the wires stretched but I don’t know what caused the white streaks or what they are composed of, I would have expected to find rust streaks.




The above piece measures 26”x12-3/8”. It is 4 color under surface lozenge from a flying surface. The rib tapes on the outside surface measure 1-1/8” on one side and narrower on the other side where it was cut. The rib tape on the inside surface measures ½” wide. The penned iron cross must have been added after the piece was scavenged from the aircraft.




The above piece measures 6” x 9”. It is 4 color undersurface lozenge printed camouflage fabric and possibly from an inspection panel. The stain on the back, possibly residual glue, measures about 8” x 5-1/4”





The above piece measures 44” and possibly is from the cowling. There are traces of rust on the inside where nails would have tacked it into place and some remnants of padding, possibly horse hair.



The above white leather piece measures 7-3/4” x 2-1/2” and is possibly a section of the seatbelt. It has the name “E.Severance” inked on it, most likely the name of the veteran who brought it back. If it isn’t identifiable to the aircraft, I need to know this.

The above wood piece (two pieces put together) measures 24-1/2” x 3-1/8” but I can not identify its place on the aircraft and may have nothing to do with it. It is also marked “E.Severance.” In addition, there is a very light stamp which I tried to extract some information from using Adobe Photoshop. I can’t read the letters on the left but the letter in the center seems to be an italicized “D” followed on the right by the word english word “ACCEPT.” This last image is beyond the number of images I can post in a single thread, so I will add this later, in another thread.

Your help always appreciated.

Charley

[Langdon]

Charley,

What wonderful additions these are to your already impressive collection!

Dave Watts recently pointed out to me that some D.VII aircraft had two sets of control horns on their rudders, it seems by the look of the lowest and most rearward leather grommet that your fabric comes from one of these examples. Possibly the D.VII buffs can identify the aircraft maker from this?

The white lines on your fabric were almost certainly made from the bracing wires being in contact with the fabric, why this change to white should occur I do not know.

The piece of leather is probably from the cockpit combing, is it imitation leather?

I am doubtful that the last item in these photos, the wooden piece, is from a D.VII but I have no doubt it could be an interesting piece from another German aircraft.

You certainly have an excellent collection of four colour fabric, thank you for sharing this with us.

Langdon

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Charles:
This is from a Fok.D.VII built by ther Fokker Flugzeugwerke and from the serial batch of D.7604/18 and subsequent. some had two control horns about 100mm mm apart. other had a single horn (yours) with doubled cables. The leather patch maintains the separation of the rudder cables.
The "pegamoid" piece is cockpit padding from the aluminum panels in front of the cockpit. They were sewn to the right and left panels through holes drilled along the edge of the aluminum panels.
The rib is not off a Fok.D.VII, maybe a SPAD VII or SPAD XIII.
Blue skies,
Dan-San