Soviet Albatros C.XII

[Sreiko]

What I really enjoy to see is the airplane in the unusuall marking... here it is Albatros in post WW1 Soviet service. Red star could be seen on the rudder and it might to be that all airplane is painted in Soviet camouflage colors...

[greenknight]

Thank you for posting this great picture Sreiko!

I've really been enjoying the Russian photos you have been posting here. Please keep them coming.

[Biber]

That is either one enormous plane or they're very small people

B

[rammjaeger]

This airplane was put on ski - that makes it higher and could create this impression.

[Sreiko]

Glad you like the image. I have larger image but in this moment I try to locate precise in which archive collection is placed. This because to give proper credit when use one day.

About size- it look like the big airplane for the single engined. people on image are Russians and they are normal as we are all, from low to very high. Ski are normal conversion for the Russian winter condition.

[Olson]

It looks like an Albatross C V/16, see Datafile #81 (P. M. Grosz, 2000). I am sorta contemplating a scratch built R/C model of the 1917 variant,

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Olson

It looks like an Albatross C V/16, see Datafile #81 (P. M. Grosz, 2000). I am sorta contemplating a scratch built R/C model of the 1917 variant,

The engine configuration is wrong for a C.V. The Alb C.V used the Mecedes D.IV straight-eight engine. The offset reduction gear housing allowed the engine to be mounted lower in the fuselage, and in the C.V it was entirely covered with metal fairing, producing a very clean profile. This plane has six cylinders exposed -- I go with Sreiko's ID of an Alb C.XII.

The Albatros C.V was a really beautiful aeroplane, though, and according to the Datafile it was well-liked by the crews who flew them. It'd make a great R/C model -- if you decide to build one, please post pictures!

[Gregvan]

Hi,

It's definitely an Albatros C.XII with the rounded oval-section fuselage. There are several photos of this aircraft (and another - possibly the same a/c repainted) in the book "Red Stars 2" by C-F Geust and G Petrov (all about German aircraft in the Soviet Union, up to about 1946). The book was printed in Finland in 1998, ISBN 952-5026-06-X.

According to the captions in the book, Sreiko's ski-equipped C.XII was used for basic training at the Red Army Flying School in Nizhniy Novgorod circa 1919-1921.

The "other" C.XII in the book (also ski-equipped and marked with red stars) was repaired at the Nizhnegorodskiy aviapark before dispatchment to the Turkestan front in the winter in 1922.

The Soviets used anything they could get their hands on, including lots of Albatros two-seaters, Halberstadts, LVGs and DFW C.Vs.

Greg

[Taz]

Greg, Srecko- Greg is right, it an Albatros or OAW built Albatros C.XII probably left behind when the Germans left the Eastern Front in early 1918. Both the Poles and the Ukrainians were left with a large selection of obsolescent aircraft when the Germans pulled out. Several were left in Russia, too. This one is rare, though, because most of the C.XIIs left behind were built by Bayerische Flugzeug Werke (BFW) and the C.XII(Bay) makes up the majority of the photo record on the C.XII in Poland and Russia. I am finishing for Peter Grosz a 2 Volume set of Alb C.XII Datafiles for Ray Rimell containing ~160 C.XII images. If you find the high res version, I would love to use it in the Datafile. Volume I is on the Albatros-built prototypes and production C.XIIs and the Mercedes D.IVa engine and Volume 2 will be on the OAW and BFW built aircraft plus cats and dogs like this one and other Albatros-built C.XIIs found after Volume 1 went to the publisher. All my and Peter's Polish and Russian C.XII images are BFW aircraft.

Taz
Terry Phillips

[Sreiko]

Greg and Taz- thats the info I looking for. Great to hear that it is published in book and more to that I nkow where is main source of info and archive from where this authors supply material.

Taz- check your email