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Albatros Production |
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Windsock Datafiles #112 LVG C.IV by P.M. Grosz |
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Reviewed By Michael Scott, #43177 |
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MSRP: £10.25 GBP Albatros Productions Ltd 10 Long View, Chiltern Park Estate Berkhamsted, Herts, HP4 1BY www.windsockdatafilespecials.com This is a standard Datafiles publication dealing with, in this case, an important but relatively unknown aircraft outside WWI historical and modeling circles. The author adequately covers the development, deployment and operational history of the airplane and the publication is, as usual, liberally seeded with photographs and scale drawings in 1/72 and 1/48 scales. This aircraft was equipped with a 220 h.p. Mercedes ‘straight-eight’ engine which permitted the pilots to get higher and go faster than the enemy pursuit planes, which undoubtedly made it a favorite with the German air crews. This was not without problems - this was, after all the beginnings of combat aviation and technology was pushing its limits as always in wartime. The prop was driven through a gearbox, which suffered numerous failures and the author points out that when this same engine was used in a multi-engine configuration, crankshaft problems soon followed. Possibly due to a mysterious harmonic that overly stressed the crank. Or not. We will never know for sure. For the modeler who wants to build one of these creatures, this is surely an essential reference work. Indeed, the LVG was one of the first operational aircraft to take a deliberate approach to streamlining for efficiency which should justify its place in early aviation history. |
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