Great War aircraft reconstructions

For an insight into the aircraft being flown by the RFC at the time the excellent Vintage Aviator website is well worth a look.

They haven't recreated a Sopwith Camel yet, but you really get a feel for the machines that took to the air back then.

Click here to visit the site: Vintage Aviator

Comments

Dan Little said…

Nice site.. thanks for sharing Mike.

12 June 2009 at 18:59

Letter 21 - I was a bit surprised you bet but I have had my first trip over hunland.

A note from the Editors: We are missing a letter which is a pain, as things have moved on a pace since Olivers last letter! He has now been posted back to 70 Squadron and straight back in the saddle, with a description of his first eventful flight over enemy lines - 'Hunland'. It has been just 3 weeks since his crash. Franked 8 SP 17 O.A.S. Mrs Chas. E. Pearson, Hillcrest, Lowdham, Notts. Letter No. 15 II 70 Squadron RFC BEF France 6.9.17 Letter no 15 Dear Mother & Dad. I have just received two letters from you dated 2 Sept so that they have only taken 4 days to come. I am again with my Squadron. I played my last card and won. I slung my weight about till I must have made everyone fed up with me & so they got a hustle on. I came back yesterday morning & flew in the afternoon for about an hour & a half. This morning at 5.30 I was wakened up to say I was for patrol at six. I was a bit surprised you bet but I have had my first trip over hunland. It was very cloudy ...

Lt Werner Voss claims his 44th victim

On the 10th of September 1917 two young pilots met over the Flanders battlefield. One was nineteen year old 2nd Lt Oliver Charles Pearson, the other was twenty year old Leutnant Werner Voss , flying a prototype of one of the brand new Fokker Triplanes ... Oliver had left the 70 Sqn airfield near Poperinge at 4.45pm in Sopwith Camel B3787, on an offensive patrol to nearby Houlhulst Wood. Lt Werner Voss was by then commander of 10 Jasta. One of Germanys top fighter aces, he was a natural pilot and aggressive fighter with 43 kills to his credit so far, second only to his friend and competitor Baron Manfred Von Richthofen. Werner had been chosen to test fly Anthony Fokkers prototype only a few days before at the end of August. With aero engines in short supply his was fitted with a 110 hp LeRhône engine engine from a captured RFC Nieuport 17 fighter. Voss with Anthony Fokker Voss and his Triplane with his distinctive Japanese kite face p...

Letter 11 - Still badly need socks and pyjamas!

A note from the Editors: An undated letter, but one we think was probably written on Sunday the 5th August. The domed huts Oliver describes are the famous Nissen Huts http://www.nissens.co.uk/default.htm (letter 2) No1AD Officers Pool Mess France (Tues) Dear Mother, Just a little note as it’s Sunday to say that I haven’t been posted yet & don’t know when I shall be. Here we do no flying only loaf around waiting to be posted. We work all morning & afternoon on various jobs such as the construction of a tennis lawn on the side of a hill needing a lot of levelling & pumping water up to the main reservoir tank from the well at the bottom of the hill. This is a very small camp just a few huts clustered together round a mess hut. They are very different huts to those in England only holding about 8 beds & are more like a barrel cut in halves no sides just a rounded dome of corrugated iron lined with wood. They have a door at the end & four windows also a...

An Airman's Lost Letters

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