Death of the Red Baron

[Bob Womack]

Another little fact was that the engines that looked like radials were actually rotary engines - the propeller was bolted to the engine block. The whole engine rotated around a fixed crankshaft mounted to the firewall. The whole affair, with all that engine mass in motion, contributed to generous centrifugal effect, causing the plane to resist directional change. It also caused unexpected torque behavior in the roll axis - a roll with the direction of the engine was aided by the motion of the engine and a roll against the motion of the engine was resisted. Adding or removing power at low speed or on the ground could be fraught with unexpected torque results as well in a hard-to-recover situation. On the Fokker Dr.1, wingtip skids were added to help protect on takeoff and landing. As a result of these odd characteristics and because the rotary engines weren't that successful a design from the start, most reproductions use radial engines in place of the rotaries. A plus was that these engines cooled rather well.

Probably the largest group of DR.1s in the world is living down the road from me at the Military Aviation Museum.



Bob

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[browningautorifle]

rotary engines - the propeller was bolted to the engine block

Yes, I knew that. I was talking about that just last night. The aircraft would roll one way perfectly, the other not so much...

[RCS]

My opinion is that the Red Baron was killed by a Lewis m/g fired from the ground troops


a few photos of some old scale models showing DR1's from Jasta 11 and Jasta 19Attachment 58277Attachment 58276

[browningautorifle]

the Red Baron was killed by a Lewis m/g fired from the ground troops

Rats...spilled the beans. I was an MG instructor for years and advance machine guns too. When the book talked about a MG Sgt that took over the gun from his squad and used so many leads to engage the aircraft, the jig was up. He was hit from that side, and it wasn't from behind like Brown thought. Even jinking couldn't make him get hit like that. That claim was submitted after the cutoff so it never even entered into discussion. It shows in the book as an afterthought. The aircraft was utterly pilfered like Harlan says and the guns disappeared. The reappeared for a picture and then disappeared again, never to resurface again...Unless RCS has them...

[Gil Boyd]

In between courses on Christmas day.....................found this photo on Flea Bay:
7x5 Gloss Photo ww2DC9 World War 1 WW1 Misc Richthofen Guns | eBay

If you zoom in, the two officers inspecting what purport to be the Baron's guns from his downed aircraft, look like Australian cap badges.
Anybody from down under confirm that?