Church of England Combat Aeroplane

[Maxim08]

Just when you believe that you have seen it all, old texts reveal amazing surprises.

I was searching through a 1916 printed edition of 'Technical Notes - Royal Flying Corps'. This volume comprises ~40 pages of text with the following headings: Photography, Wireless, Flight and Stability, Magneto, Engines and Diagrams and Notes on Machines. The last section 'Diagrams and Notes on Machines' is made of 38 fold out plates.

It was the last section that I was interested in wanting to check the free length of the aileron interconnect cable for the '2 Seater Sopwith' aka the 1-1/2 Strutter. It was while searching through theses plates that I came across the attached. There was no explanatory text in regards to development or frontline use, so the following is, admittedly, conjecture.

I believe that this diagram is clear evidence that the Church of England chose to take a firm stand and smite the un-Godly Hun with this aerial device piloted by members of the Clergy.

If any of you should have documentation that supports this theory, I am prepared to present the findings to the next general meeting of the League of WW1 Aviation Historians.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

Regards,
John

[Brad]

"Vicars" (Vickers) F.B.5

I'm pretty sure what you have uncovered is a type of clerical error in which the person labeling the document wrote "what they heard," and didn't confirm that it was the actual word.

There is plenty of documentation about the F.B.5 available. Probably quite a bit about the Vicars machine gun too.

Evidently this particular Vicar had a bit of a nasty streak.

[Barrett]

"Gott mit WHO?"

[Maxim08]

Brad, I do agree, a clerical (!) error. Since this aircraft is a single seater, the name should be the possessive 'Vicar's' ie it belongs to the Vicar not the plural inferring a crew of two or more.

All the above kidding aside there is a lesson here: just because you have an 'original' document, it doesn't mean that it is actually correct. Usually these errors appear when building something and the bits don't go together the way that they should. Multiple sources and, in the case of engineering information, trying to compare to well provenanced existing items, help to validate written and drawn information.

To be transparent, there are 3 plates referring to the FB5 in the Technical Notes. The first 2 plates use 'Vickers', only the third has the interesting spelling. You can appreciate how misleading this could be to those who know less than the average forum member.

Regards
John

[CjBobrow]

Originally Posted by Maxim08

Just when you believe that you have seen it all, old texts reveal amazing surprises.

I was searching through a 1916 printed edition of 'Technical Notes - Royal Flying Corps'. This volume comprises ~40 pages of text with the following headings: Photography, Wireless, Flight and Stability, Magneto, Engines and Diagrams and Notes on Machines. The last section 'Diagrams and Notes on Machines' is made of 38 fold out plates.

It was the last section that I was interested in wanting to check the free length of the aileron interconnect cable for the '2 Seater Sopwith' aka the 1-1/2 Strutter. It was while searching through theses plates that I came across the attached. There was no explanatory text in regards to development or frontline use, so the following is, admittedly, conjecture.

I believe that this diagram is clear evidence that the Church of England chose to take a firm stand and smite the un-Godly Hun with this aerial device piloted by members of the Clergy.

If any of you should have documentation that supports this theory, I am prepared to present the findings to the next general meeting of the League of WW1 Aviation Historians.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

Regards,
John

For those who are doubtful of John's PoV let me remind you that the MP's production some years back included the albeit brief depiction of the most astounding of relics the
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

...And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O LORD, bless this Thy hand grenade, that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the LORD did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to "skip a bit, brother"]... And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."[9]

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Maxim08

Brad, I do agree, a clerical (!) error. Since this aircraft is a single seater, the name should be the possessive 'Vicar's' ie it belongs to the Vicar not the plural inferring a crew of two or more.

All the above kidding aside there is a lesson here: just because you have an 'original' document, it doesn't mean that it is actually correct. Usually these errors appear when building something and the bits don't go together the way that they should. Multiple sources and, in the case of engineering information, trying to compare to well provenanced existing items, help to validate written and drawn information.

To be transparent, there are 3 plates referring to the FB5 in the Technical Notes. The first 2 plates use 'Vickers', only the third has the interesting spelling. You can appreciate how misleading this could be to those who know less than the average forum member.

Regards
John

Pssst... Hey... It is a two seater. 😂

[Volker_Nemsch]

.
... that some pusher aircraft were really used that way:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/38dc37c8...sqro1_1280.jpg

.

[Volker_Nemsch]

.
... must have had something comparable. One of the guys is wearing a suitable headgear:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-27Xg7Zl41...nquisition.jpg
https://img2.grunge.com/img/gallery/...1544042193.jpg

.

[Volker_Nemsch]

.
... the French tried to improve obsolete aircraft in a special way:

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/m...jpg?1478727989


And the Russians still don't have trust in their technology:

https://static.themoscowtimes.com/im...b43506c166.jpg
---+---
.

[Barry Hickson]

Originally Posted by CjBobrow

For those who are doubtful of John's PoV let me remind you that the MP's production some years back included the albeit brief depiction of the most astounding of relics the
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

...And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O LORD, bless this Thy hand grenade, that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the LORD did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to "skip a bit, brother"]... And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."[9]

Haa! Brings back memories of my Sisters of Battle games in Warhammer 40K all those years ago.