Albatros Productions, Ltd

Hansa Brandenburg D-1, Windsock Datafile #118

by  Harry Woodman

Reviewed By  Art Silen, IPMS# 1708

MSRP: £ 10.50 UK Available from: Albatros Productions Ltd, 10 Long View, Chiltern Park Estate, Berkhamsted, Herts, HP4 1BY www.windsockdatafilespecials.com In remembering and recounting of history we tend to write about events and personalities whose stories have drama and impact that resonate with our present lives, and for the most part we are attracted to scenes of high drama: kings, warriors, and luminaries of every description. It is not often that we remember people and events that exemplify unfulfilled expectations, and even failure. And so it is with aviation history that minor characters and events are relegated to the realm of specialists and academic historians, and were it not for the efforts of talented amateurs, many of those stories would remain untold. Even when studies are published in works intended for general readership, the product is all too often done in summary fashion with a few pertinent statistics and not much more, and despite the high drama, heroic effort, and sacrifice hidden below the surface. So it was with the story of the Hansa Brandenburg Kampfdoppeldecker D-1, known to its users as the KD. In preparing to review Woodman's book I scoured my library for references to this rather unique aircraft whose service in the Austro-Hungarian Idflieg (Air Force) is now only a footnote in most general aviation histories. The KD is mentioned in Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation without photograph or general arrangement drawing, and Green and Swanborough's, The Complete Book of Fighters makes no mention of it at all. The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914-1980, translated from the original Italian, contains substantive reference to the KD, with a small general arrangement drawing and color illustration, and one might well suppose that the KD's inclusion was prompted by the fact that the Austrians were Italy's principal opponents during World War I. I also checked to see whether the KD was included among Profile Publications booklets that were marketed between 1967 and 1974; apparently not. The KD was mentioned (with photographs only) in Thetford and Riding's Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War, published by Harborough in 1954; but a later Harborough book, Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War, edited by W.M. Lamberton (1960) includes a decent, one page history and general arrangement drawing in 1:72 scale. Part of the problem in obtaining historical information about this and other information about military developments in the last years of the Habsburg Empire, as I've mentioned in earlier book reviews, was the isolation of Central and Eastern Europe from western historians because of the Cold War. With the ending of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the captive nations that were once part of the Soviet empire have now reasserted themselves, and formerly inaccessible information has now become available to western researchers. Enter Harry Woodman. For modelers of a certain age and genre, Woodman is regarded as the father of scratchbuilding in sheet styrene plastic. Other scratchbuilders used balsa wood or kitbashed to create models that were not represented by existing commercial kits, even as vacuform kits, such as Rareplanes, were rushed to market to fill the void. In 1975, Woodman published his seminal book on scratchbuilding and detailing, "Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card." He and his cohorts, Ray Rimell and others, have had an enormously beneficial influence on scale modeling, allowing us to do in plastic what could not be done successfully in wood, the making of fine scale models whose refined details could now be replicated in as close to true scale as possible. All that was needed was a set of well drawn plans and sheets of polystyrene plastic, a sharp knife, a draftsman's compass, a razor saw, and we were off and running. If George Lee was our mentor and guide, Harry Woodman and his brethren in far-off England were our inspiration. During the 1970s Woodman wrote numerous articles on World War I aircraft, and his was a familiar name to me when the Hansa Brandenburg book arrived. In his acknowledgements, Woodman pays tribute to those aviation historians who had previously researched and published their findings about the KD. The KD was initially a product of the Hansa und Brandenbergishe Flugzeugwerke AG, although once production began, a license-built clone was manufactured by the Phönix Flugzeugwerke AG, with further manufacture to be undertaken by Ufag (although Woodman mentions only the first two firms, as apparently no Ufag-built machines were ever delivered to the Austrian government). The KD was an ungainly machine characterized by its square-cut wings connected together by sixteen struts joined at a common point midway between each of the two wings, in a star-like array that caused the aircraft to be known as the "star-strutter". These interplane structures resembled nothing more than two pyramids joined at their apexes, with the interplane struts outlining the four corners of each pyramid. The idea behind this design came from Professor Richard Knoller, and was intended to minimize aerodynamic drag while at the same time imparting structural strength to the whole by transferring wing loading uniformly throughout the entire wing structure. From an engineering standpoint, the idea was sound, and we see many examples of this principle applied in many construction settings. Each connecting rod within the array was sheathed in an aerodynamically shaped fairing that was intended to smooth the air flow around it, and the common joint at the center was concealed within an egg-shaped shell. Such was the strength of the overall structure that interplane tensioning wires were unnecessary, and photographs of crashed KDs show the wing structures to be essentially intact. Unfortunately, however, the remainder of the KD's design had none of the refinement and aerodynamic efficiency that characterized many of its opponents, principally French-supplied Nieuports in Italian service. The fuselage was heavy and covered with varnished plywood. The 160 hp Austro-Daimler motor sat high in the forward part of the fuselage, severely obstructing the pilot's forward view, while the turtledeck abaft the pilot's seat made rearward vision difficult. Early KD aircraft had no vertical fin and a tiny comma-shaped rudder. The result was an aircraft that was directionally unstable and prone to stalling and spinning. Its rate of climb was poor, and with a service ceiling of about 3,000 meters, it was unable to effectively engage the Italian Nieuports, whose ceiling was as much as 2,000 meters higher. Even when KDs were able to engage their opponents, their armament made prospects for success problematic. KDs were equipped with Schwarzlose belt-fed machine guns originally intended for infantry use. This weapon was housed in a plywood box atop the upper wing on the center-line, next to the radiator. It was slow-firing, and because of the shortened gun barrel, had a reduced muzzle velocity, resulting in a relatively short range. If it jammed, the pilot would be unable to clear the blockage. In all, 122 KDs were built, 50 by Hansa Brandenburg and 72 by Phönix (two of which were used for development projects). In general, the Phönix-built machines were the better performing, with higher rated engines (185 hp versus 160 hp), and several other engineering improvements adopted by Phönix engineers, including a raised pilot's seat, new vertical fin and larger rudder. With the Phönix aircraft's improved performance, the type's success in combat greatly overshadowed that of the parent company's product, and in fact, Woodman mentions that of 68 confirmed victories enjoyed by KDs, Phönix-built machines accounted for 65 of them. It's fair to say that KD pilots hated their mounts because their flying qualities were abysmal. Although the name "star-strutter" appears mostly in English-language publications, Austrian pilots referred to their aircraft as "the flying coffin". KDs had non-combat losses that far exceeded losses in action, and while other aircraft designs, such as the Sopwith Camel, displayed vicious handling characteristics, the KDs had none of the combat maneuverability that made the Camel the fearsome weapon it was. What successes KD pilots enjoyed came from their flying skill and determination to engage their enemy. In all, KDs served in front-line combat from November, 1916, and it was not until January, 1918, that the type was officially withdrawn from combat. In contrast with the aircraft he describes, Woodman's book is a jewel. Thirty-four pages in length, including cover illustrations and photographs, the book features new and exceptional photographs on almost every page, including color photographs of a Hansa Brandenburg-built machine now residing in Prague's National Technical Museum. Black and white photographs are in large-format with informative annotations. Additionally, there are detailed, multi-view scale drawings of the principal KD variants in 1:48 and 1:72 scales. Sad to say, too, these drawings also contain prominent notices of the publisher's copyright to warn off those who might be tempted to misappropriate them for their own commercial purposes. One need only look around to notice that well-crafted scale drawings are far fewer than they were in years past because publishers are unable to protect themselves against those who would take them for use in creating and marketing their own products. Simply put, this is theft, and responsible modelers should not engage in it, nor should they support businesses that engage in such practices. In sum, Harry Woodman has done a marvelous job in detailing the design and combat history of this unique aircraft. Special thanks to Albatross Productions for the review copy.

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