Italy - 1917 Società Italiana Aviazione 7B

The Unfortunate Tale of the Underwhelming S.I.A. 7B

Aircraft design was more of an art than a science during the First World War. In many posts I have written about the problems experienced by Austrian designers while laboring down dead ends. The one saving grace for Austria was the inability of Italy to develop winning fighter and reconnaissance aircraft designs. Both Italy and Austria relied on designs created by their allies. For the most part Italy built planes from French designs. These include Macchi built versions of the Hanriot H.D.1, Nieuport 11-17, and the S.P.A.D. S.VII.

Società Italiana Aviazione 7B s/n 5637 - 1917

As with most examples the forward fuselage is bare metal. The height of the engine cover was very problematic for pilots since it blocked his forward field of vision.The roundels have a thin white border.

A Short History of the S.I.A. 7B

The Società Italiana Aviazione 7B was designed to replace the earlier pusher planes in service with the Italian air force. The SIA 7b was tested and approved for production in early 1917. The initial production aircraft were delivered to the reconnaissance squadrons in the summer of 1917. A later version had a different fairing of the fuselage decking. the SIA 7B proved extremely disappointing. Its workmanship was bad, and it suffered from wing failure, losing its wings in flight. Another fatal problem involved the Fiat engine mounted on this model which was notoriously troublesome. It was known to suffer from backfire at the carburetor and catching fire, much to the discomfort of the air crew. After a string of many fatal accidents this design was permanently withdrawn from service in June of 1918.

References

1. SIA 7. (2009, November 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:15, July 7, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SIA_7&oldid=327805437
2. Swanborough, F. Gordon & Bowers, Peter M. "United States Military Aircraft Since 1909" (Putnam New York, ISBN 085177816X) 1964, 596 pp.
3. Taylor, Michael John Haddrick "Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War I Random House Group Ltd. 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, 2001, 320 pp, ISBN 1-85170-347-0.
4. Fahey, James C. "U.S. Army Aircraft 1908-1946" (Ships and Aircraft, Fall Church VA) 1946, 64pp.

Belgium Italy - 1916 Hanriot HD-1

Belgian and Italian Hanriot HD-1

I made a new master file for the Hanriot HD-1 this week. While I had it opened I decided it was time to work up some new profiles. I had previously posted on the Hanriot HD-1 in Italy - 1916 Hanriot HD.1 and again in Painted Warbirds 1915-1918. Those examples were done using my old and now lost master file. I have reference for round 25 more Hanriot so more to come soon. Since the aircraft was mainly used by Belgium and Italy it gives me an opportunity to fill the ranks of their gallery pages.

This aircraft type was first designed in France. The French considered it to be inferior to the newly designed SPAD VII and exported the aircraft to countries including Belgium and Italy. Both of those nations loved the design and had great success flying them in combat. Due to occupation by German forces Belgium had to rely on French manufactures to provide their needs. Italy was so impressed they sought a license for Macchi to produce this fighter in large quantities. The design was much loved by Italian pilots who preferred the agile HD-1 over the fighters produced by SPAD.

Hanriot HD-1 1me Escadrille de Chasse Willy Coppens

This example was one of many aircraft types flown by the famed Belgian pilot Willy Coppens. The basic scheme is a French five color camouflage pattern.The white thistle flower is the insignia of the 1^st Escadrille de Chasse. The green and white decorative markings on the cowling, rudder and wheel covers make the aircraft a fun project to do.

Hanriot HD-1 11me Escadrille de Chasse

This aircraft is painted in the five color French camouflage pattern.The white stylized oragami bird on the fuselage is the insignia of the 11^th Escadrille de Chasse. The markings for aircraft and serial number are white on the black, yellow and red rudder.

Hanriot H-D 1 (Macchi) 178º Squadriglia Caccia VI Gruppo78 sn HD 6234

The Italian aircraft company Macchi was licensed to produce their own version of the Hanriot HD-1. This example has a bare metal forward section and the rear section is finished in yellow varnish. The scheme featured black stripes and a circular black insignia with a question mark in white. Italy was not consistent in how their roundels were painted. In this example it is painted (outer to inner circle) green, white red.

Hanriot H-D 1 (Macchi) 81º Squadriglia Caccia VI Gruppo 9

The paint scheme on this Macchi built HD-1 consists of a green and brown two color scheme painted over with white stripes. In this example the roundel is painted (outer to inner circle) red, white green. The identification markings on the rudder are absent.

France - 1917 SPAD S.XIII C1

Rebuilding an Archive.

First off I apologize for not posting or commenting on the blogs I read. I have not forgotten you all, I have been forced to deal with medical and financial issues which reared their heads. My time has been taken up with seeking donations to keep the lights on, hosting fees paid, food on the table, and have the ability to continue creating reference sources which help others learn about History. Fighting a series of personal fires which needed to be put. The struggle has not been completely successful. The frustration left me drained and in need of a strategic retreat.

As I have posted recently I had a serious hardware malfunction and lost over a year's work. Slowly I am doing a new library of master drawings which I can use to create finished profiles. One of my newest was a new master for the SPAD S.XIII C1. I was never satisfied with my old master so it gave me a compelling reason to bring it up to a new standard that I can live with. While trying to figure out what I have and have not posted on this blog I discovered I had neglected one of the more important aircraft of WWI. I figure I can show my old profiles and the new ones to correct this omission and show the process of revision and refinement which goes with the territory.

SPAD S-XIII C1 "Eddie" Rickenbacker 94th Aero Squadron 1918

I may be jumping the gun but I wanted to post this as a comparison between the old and new.This profile of the iconic SPAD XIII flown by Rickenbacker during the late war was done from my old master file. I went too heavy on the lines and it calls out for a new reworked version which I will do soon and post here.

SPAD S-XIII C1 Adj. Marcel Villar Escadrille SPA23 - 1917

This is one of the new series of profiles using my new master. I liked the colors and how the color scheme harkens back to the simple varnished surfaces used on many of the SPAD VII flown in 1916. Like many SPAD XIII the side access covers are removed to improve airflow. The source I used did not show the iconic large drum ammunition magazines which fed the machine guns.

SPAD S-XIII C1 "Lulu" su. Lt. Martin Trepp SPA12 sn-S2285

This is another example of the new master file. Working up Lulu was fun. Working with one variant of french camouflage and the side markings was pleasing to the eye. This example has the standard louvered side access panels. When drawing French aircraft you have to learn to love making louvers. They take time to do properly but the end result either makes or breaks a drawing. I find making a single master louver, shading it and adding shadows, then duplicating and aligning them into a single layer makes it a manageable task. Then it is a matter of using them as a luminance layer drops them into the drawing fairly seamlessly.

SPAD S.XIII C1: Overview

Equipped with twin machine guns and a larger engine, the SPAD S.XIII was based upon the smaller SPAD S.VII. Built in large numbers, it was fast and powerful but difficult to fly. The SPAD S.XIII was flown by many of the famous aces including Georges Guynemer, Rene Fonck, and also by Italian ace Francesco Baracca. Aces of the United States Army Air Service who flew the Spad XIII include and Eddie Rickenbacker, (America's leading ace with 26 confirmed victories) and Frank Luke (18 victories). Irish ace William Cochran-Patrick scored more victories with the SPAD S.VII and SPAD S.XIII than any other ace.

The SPAD S.XIII was a French biplane fighter aircraft of World War I, developed by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) from the earlier highly successful SPAD S.VII. It was one of the most capable fighters of the war, and one of the most-produced, with 8,472 built and orders for around 10,000 more cancelled at the Armistice.

The S.VII had entered service in September of 1916, but by early 1917 it had been surpassed by the latest German fighters, leading French flying ace, Georges Guynemer to lobby for an improved version. SPAD designer Louis Béchereau initially produced the cannon-armed S.XII, which had limited success, and finally the S.XIII.

The S.XIII differed from its predecessor by incorporating a number of aerodynamic and other refinements, including larger wings and rudder, a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 8B engine fitted with reduction gearing, driving a larger "right-hand" propeller, and a second 0.303 Vickers machine gun for added firepower. The sum of these improvements was a notable improvement in flight and combat performance. It was faster than its main contemporaries, the British Sopwith Camel and the German Fokker D.VII, and was renowned for its ruggedness and strength in a dive. The maneuverability of the type was however relatively poor, especially at low speeds. A steep gliding angle and a very sharp stall made it a difficult aircraft for novice pilots to land safely.

It first flew on April 4, 1917, and the following month was already being delivered to the French Air Service. Other Allied forces were quick to adopt the new fighter as well, and nearly half of the 893 purchased for the United States Army Air Service were still in service in 1920. It was also exported to Japan, Poland, and Czechoslovakia after the war.

References

1. From Wikipedia SPAD S-XIII, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPAD_S.XIII"
2. Sharpe, Michael (2000). "Biplanes, Triplanes, and Seaplanes". London: Friedman/Fairfax Books, p 272. ISBN 1-58663-300-7.
3. Bruce, J.M. (1982). "The Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps" (Military Wing). London: Putnam, pp. 561-564. ISBN 0 370 30084 x.
4. Winchester, Jim (2006). "Fighter - The World's Finest Combat Aircraft - 1913 to the Present Day". Barnes & Noble Publishing, Inc. and Parragon Publishing, p.18, p. 23. ISBN 0-7607-7957-0.

Italy - 1917 Ansaldo A.1 Balilla

I have been deep into Albatros frenzy, and working putting the last details on a high resolution drawing of an Airco DH-2. Needless to say I needed change of pace. so today's post is about Italian aviation.

Italian aviation development focused primarily on bomber and flying boat production. Fighter craft production relied on French licensed aircraft such as the Hanriot HD-1, Nieuports, and SPAD-VII - V-XIII. The one exception was the Gio. Ansaldo & C. which produced the Ansaldo A.1

Italy's Only Domestically Produced Fighter

Ansaldo A.1 Balilla - 1917

The Ansaldo A.1, nicknamed "Balilla" after the Genoan folk-hero was Italy's only domestically-produced fighter aircraft of World War I. Arriving too late to see any real action, it was however used by both Poland and the Soviet Union in the Polish-Soviet War.

The A.1 resulted from continued efforts by the Ansaldo company to create a true fighter. Their SVA.5 had proved unsuitable in this role, although it made an excellent reconnaissance aircraft and had been ordered into production as such. Ansaldo engineer Giuseppe Brezzi revised the SVA.5 design, increasing the size of the lower wing, and redesigning the interplane strut arrangement. While this produced more drag, it increased the stiffness of the wing structure and reduced stresses in the airframe. Engine power was increased to 200 hp (150 kW) and a safety system to jettison the fuel tank through a ventral hatch (in case of onboard fire) was installed.

The first prototype was completed in July 1917, but acceptance by the air force did not occur until December. Test pilots were not enthusiastic in their evaluation. While they found a marked increase in performance over the SVA.5, the A.1 was still not as maneuverable as the French types in use by Italy's squadrons. This resulted in a number of modifications, including a slight enlargement of the wings and rudder, and a further 10% increase in engine power. This initially proved satisfactory to the air force, and the modified A.1 (designated A.1bis) was ordered into service with 91 Squadriglia for further evaluation.

Reports from pilots were mixed. While the fighter's speed was impressive, it proved unmaneuverable and difficult to fly. Nevertheless, with a need to clear a backlog of obsolete fighter types then in service, the air force ordered the A.1 anyway.

The first of an original order of 100 machines entered service in July 1918. The A.1s were kept away from the front lines and mostly assigned to home defence duties. In the four months before the Armistice, A.1s scored only one aerial victory, over an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft. It was during this time that Ansaldo engaged in a number of promotional activities, including dubbing the aircraft as Balilla, flying displays in major Italian cities, and in August donating an example to Italian ace Antonio Locatelli as his personal property amidst a press spectacle. (This latter publicity stunt backfired somewhat when one week later a mechanical fault in the aircraft caused Locatelli to make a forced landing behind enemy lines and be taken prisoner). Despite all this, the air force ordered another 100 machines, all of which were delivered before the end of the war. At the armistice, 186 were operational, of which 47 aircraft were ordered to remain on hand with training squadrons, and the remainder were to be put into storage.

References

1. From Wikipedia Ansaldo A1 Balilla, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansaldo_A.1_Balilla"
2. Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). "Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation". London: Studio Editions. pp. 62.

Assorted Flying Boats

Wings Over the Water

Naval aviation required unique solutions to the problem of launching and landing. Carrier launched aircraft were in their infancy. Most of the ships used to deploy aircraft were tenders which winched float planes and flying boats into and out of the water. Flying boats allowed aircraft to operate away from the tender and move on the water as if it was a boat.

Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century, dwarfed in size only by bombers developed during World War II. Their advantage lay in using water for take-offs and landings instead of expensive land-based runways. Several examples of flying boats could be transported and launched by the usage of specially designed separate wheeled carriages.

American Flying Boat - 1918

Curtiss NC - 1918

The Curtiss NC (Navy Curtiss, nicknamed "Nancy boat" or "Nancy") was a flying boat built by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and used by the United States Navy from 1918 through the early 1920s. Ten of these aircraft were built, the most famous of which is the NC-4, the first airplane to make a transatlantic flight. The NC-4 is preserved in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, at NAS Pensacola, Florida.

Austrian Flying Boat - 1918

Hansa-Brandenburg CC - 1915

The first Brandenburg flying-boat was the 3-seat flying boat developed by Ernst Heinkel from a Lohner design and built in small numbers for the German and Austro-Hungarian Navies in 1915. In 1916 Heinkel produced an original design for a single-seat wooden-hulled fighter flying-boat, which he named CC after Camillo Castiglioni, financial controller of the Brandenburg company. The CC was characterized by 'starstrut' interplane bracing like that used for the D.II.

British Flying Boat - 1918

Felixstowe F.5 - 1918

The Felixstowe F.5 was a British First World War flying boat designed by Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Porte RN of the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe.

The Felixstowe F5 was intended to combine the good qualities of the F2 and F3, with the prototype first flying in May 1918. The prototype showed superior qualities to its predecessors but the production version was modified to make extensive use of components from the F.3, in order to ease production, giving lower performance than either the F.2a or F.3.

German Flying Boat - 1918

Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 - 1918

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a German submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat of the World War I era, Ernst Heinkel designed and Hansa-Brandenburg began construction sometime late 1917, early 1918.Only three W.20s were built.

Due to the need to be stored in a water tight container which could be mounted on the deck of a submarine the W.20 was a small single-seat biplane flying boat that was designed to be assembled and dismantled quickly. It had a slender hull on which was mounted a biplane wing and a conventional braced tailplane.

Italian Flying Boat - 1917

Macchi M.5 - 1917

The Macchi M.5 was an Italian single-seat fighter flying boat designed and built by Macchi-Nieuport at Varese. It was extremely manoeuvrable and agile and matched the land-based aircraft it had to fight.

The production aircraft was designated the M.5 and like the prototypes were powered by a single Isotta-Fraschini V.4B engine in pusher configuration. Deliveries soon commenced in the summer of 1917 to the Aviazone per la Regia Marina (Italian Navy Aviation). Late production aircraft had a more powerful Isotta-Fraschini V.6 engine and redesigned wingtip floats, they were designated M.5 mod. Macchi produced 200 aircraft and another 44 were built by Societa Aeronautica Italiana.

Russian Flying Boat - 1915

Grigorovich M-5 - 1915

Grigorovich M-5 (alternative designation Shch M-5, sometimes also Shchetinin M-5) was a successful Russian World War I-era two-bay unequal-span biplane flying boat with a single step hull, designed by Grigorovich. It was the first mass production flying boat built in Russia.

The aircraft designer Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich completed his first flying boat (the model M-1) in late 1913, and produced a series of prototypes, gradually improving the design, until the M-5 appeared in the spring of 1915, which was to be his first aircraft to enter series production, with at least 100 being produced, primarily to replace foreign built aircraft, including Curtiss Model K and FBA flying boats.

Italy 1914-1918 Caproni Bombers

Gianni Caproni's Heavy Hitters

The Italian designer Gianni Caproni produced arguably the most influential bombers of the war. They were the standard others were measured by. They were powerful, versatile, reliable and structurally tough.

Italian Heavy Bomber Development

Italian Bombers - 1918

Caproni Ca.3 - 1914

The Caproni three-engined Italian heavy bomber of World War and the post-war era. The Caproni Ca.3 was the definitive version of the series of aircraft that began with the Caproni Ca.1 in 1914. The production version, equipped with three 100 hp fixed in-line Fiat A 10 engines entered service in the summer of 1915, and it was the most effective bomber of any air force, except for the Russian Sikorsky.Ilya Mourometz.

Italian Bombers - 1918

Caproni Ca.4 - 1918

Caproni Ca.4 Series was patterned along the lines of the Caproni Ca.3 series of biplane bombers, the larger triplanes of the Ca.4 series were designed to be more effective in combat. Sometimes armed with up to eight machine guns, these cumbersome bombers were capable of accurately delivering large payloads of bombs to distant enemy targets. Although mainly used at night, they took part in daylight raids towards the end of the war. Of thirty-two Ca.42s manufactured in 1918, six of them were used by the Royal Naval Air Service.

Caproni Ca.5 - 1918

The Caproni Ca.5 was an Italian heavy bomber of the World War I and post-war era. It was the final version of the series of aircraft that began with the Caproni Ca.1 in 1914.

By late in World War I, developments in aircraft technology made older bomber designs unable to penetrate targets defended by modern fighters. Caproni's response to this problem was to significantly uprate the power on the existing Ca.3 design, with some versions of the Ca.5 eventually carrying engines with nearly five times the total power that the first Ca.1 had.

Italy - 1916 Hanriot HD.1

Four Ace

Hanriot H.D.1 - 1916

I love creating the personal heraldry used by pilots during World War One. The four aces insignia was a quick, simple but satisfying addition to what could have been a bland profile. The playing card motif was used by several Italian aces.

The Hanriot HD.1 was a French World War I single seat fighter. Rejected for service with French squadrons in favor of the SPAD S.7, the type was supplied to the Italians with whom it proved highly successful. 831 of a total production of about 1200 were in fact produced by Italian companies under license by the Nieuport-Macchi company of Varese, Italy between 1917 and 1919, more than the parent firm.

The type replaced not only Nieuports but even SPADs in their service. The type was considered (by the Italians) to be a better all-round fighter than even the SPAD S.XIII and it became the standard Italian fighter – equipping 16 of the 18 operational Italian fighter squadrons by November 1918.

References

1. From Wikipedia Hanriot HD.1, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanriot_HD.1"
2. Cheesman E.F. (ed.) "Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War" Letchworth, Harletford Publications, 1960 pp. 82-83
3. Holmes, Tony (2005). "Jane's Vintage Aircraft Recognition Guide". London: Harper Collins. p 31. ISBN 0 0071 9292 4.