I am working on my second allied WW1 model in recent days. On both they have wicker seats, which have fairly high sides. Both kits have PE belts (lap belts only, which I believe is correct for allies). But they show the belts mounted outside seat and coming over the back of the seat. Seems to me this would choke the pilot if he ever pulled negative Gs. Shouldn’t the belts come up over the sides at least, or even through a slot at junction of side and bottom?
Don, this regards a German Albatros, but may be helpful, from the Vintage Aviator web site:
http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/projects/aircraft/albatros-dva/notes-flying-d-va
“Slow flight and glides are stable and predictable, landings aren’t too different from other tailskid aircraft with the exception of the cockpit/control stick layout which makes for a rather cramped position while flaring. The seat is an odd high back leather covered wrap around device that has seat belts designed to keep you from falling out only, not to protect you in the event of a mishap. The lap belt is designed to go over the seat and not even contact your thighs or lap. The high sides of the seat leave little room for your elbows when pulling the stick back , an awkward position but one you have to get used to. After landing, rollout is a bit touch and go if there is any wind, without a steerable skid or keel, the spoon shaped skid can drift off the straight and narrow if you let it get away.”
Iron men, with a short life span! What chutzpah they must’ve had…[:D[
Gary
Wow, that is probably true then for these allied seats and belts. So I guess I should proceed as per instructions!
I read an article many years ago by one of the first naval aviators (Tower, maybe) in an aviation magazine. The Curtis pusher he was flying had no belts- he hit turbulence and was thrown from the seat, was able to grab something and climb back into cockpit. This was at a pretty good altitude! They quickly fitted belts to the machine.
I have heard that not only was the life expectancy incredibly short from falling out, getting shot down etc They also had raging diarrhea due to the fact they used castor oil to lubricate the engines and would spend pretty much all the time flying being spray by it!
Which adds a new layer to it all for me!!
Phil
I read somewhere that some pilots required a shot of liquor prior to flight. They said it helped alleviate the problem with the castor oil. I sure would need a good stiff belt before I climbed into one of those things prior to a combat flight.
Ooooh, imagine the chaffing…[:|]
“A new layer”…a pun methinks.[:D]
Found Lothar von Richthofen in 1/4:
!http://bestpilots.typepad.com/.a/6a00e553cb00e488340168e93aec16970c-500wi
and seat [I]
And 95 years later…
I was aware that the Germans used shoulder straps and lap belts, but I don’t think the allies ever adopted the shoulder straps until much later (early days of WW2).
As far as the caster oil, I wonder if that was only used in the rotaries, as that required mixing oil with gasoline, and caster oil mixes better than mineral oil. I know the cowls and exhausts were designed to reduce as much as possible the exhaust into the cockpit. Lets face it, CO is just as bad for you as caster oil fumes- maybe worse.
I helped to do a video on the running of a Gnome engine several years ago, and marvel at the engineering that went into the engine!
There were two types of motors commonly used by all combatants. Rotaries & inlines, with only the rotaries using castor oil in the fuel mix. The vapors / exhaust were kicked out under the fuselage in the slip stream. The only time that the pilot could get doused with exhaust was at start up. Hence the reason most wore heavy wool scarfs to filter out the exhauust fumes. The also Brits used leather masks to augment their goggles & scarfs.
Falling out was not an issue unless the lap belt or harness was not used. The rear man in the tractor two seaters often had to stand up to move the gun rings. Most British 2 seat aircraft had leather or cable tether lines for this. The front man in the pushers had to stand and brace his knees against the cockpit walls to shoot over the top wing (clearing the propeller tips) and shoot at the enemy. (Reference the FE 2b types).