Questions regarding the Albatros D.V

[Kanzler]

Dear friends,

here 2 questions regarding the Albatros D.V:

1. The plywood on the fuselage: What kind of wood was it? And how thick was it?
2. Does anybody know what the "allowable G-load" was? Of course this can only be guesswork by the pilot, since there was no G-meter on board... I am thinking: What "broke" first: The pilot (suffering a G-LOC), or the Airplane, since the D.V still had problems with the lower wing?

Thank you, and

Greetings - Kanzler

[Kirk R. Lowry]

Bonjour Kanzler

This article describing the Albatros D.Va in the Australian War Memorial collection may be of interest to you - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C301098 .

Salut!
Kirk

[Volker_Nemsch]

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https://imgur.com/a/BHtKeE2

.

[John McKenzie]

Plywood skin is various thickness range ,. The material is normally Birch Ply but may be substitute by Alder .
The finish is by 1 coat Shellac and follow by 2 or 3 coat of oil varnish .
The 1918 BLV. load factor requirement for design is quite complicated required calculations of not only the wing .
However for a machine of E or D class it is basically as follows , however the requirement stipulates the aircraft and air loading , angles exactly given :-

Case A ... Pulling out of Dive ....... 5,0
Case B ... Gliding down .............. 3,5
Case C ... Dive ( vertical) ............ 2,5
Case D ... Inverted Flight ............ 3,0

JM

[Kanzler]

Awesome, thank you John for this!
So do I read this right: The max "allowable" G-load was 5.0 Gs, when pulling out of a dive?
Probably hard to judge for the pilot... with a Camel on your tail you would probably rather risk your plane to break than not pulling hard enough...
I wonder how "sustainable" the G-load was... with the limited power of the engine the speed soon is reduced and the G-load will automatically go down... unless you bring the crate in a stall... But a few seconds might be enough for the wings to crack...
Anyways... some potential for a G-LOC of the pilot (G-force induced loss of counciousness)... for which there is probably no statistic available...
Greetings - Kanzler

[piecost]

I recall that there are some traces of g load versus time recorded for British airvraft performing aerobatics. Also for mock combat between a Bristol Fighter and an Se5. They are contained in a couple of Reports & Memoranda of the Aeronautical Reseach Committee. They reached up to 2g to 3g maximum, if I recall correctly. So, the German loading requirments would seem to provide some margin.

I think that I posted an article on this forum, from an aerospace testing trade magazine, a few years ago of the Vintage Aviator performing ground vibration testing of their reproduction Albatros; to determine the flutter speed and to define a safe maximum dive speed. As you alluded; the wing aeroelastic behaviour was more critical than the static strength.