Mike appears to be correct in identifying it as a Farman, but there are some significant differences: there are, for example, three wing strut pairs in the Kahn photo against four in the Farman Shorthorn: however, since many of these planes were basically hand-built, I would expect variations to occur as the designers (and the pilots!) gained more experience of practical configurations. The machine gun mounting in the nose is probably a late modification, perhaps made in the field, as there is no such mounting in the Farman illustration. From further research into Caudron models, it is unlikely that it was built by that company, as all their models for which I can find illustrations had puller airscrews rather than pushers.
John in Brisbane -----Original Message----- From: pdml-boun...@pdml.net [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of mike wilson Sent: Friday, 4 June 2010 5:19 PM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: Early 1900s in Colour On 4 June 2010 00:17, John Coyle <jco...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > Apart from the propeller being at the front, rather than at the rear in the > pusher configuration, this aircraft is very similar to the Caudron GIII: see > http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/photo_albums/timeline/Ca > udron%20G.III.htm > > the undercarriage is the same double-wheel configuration, as is the > twin-boom tail. No idea what the round object on the wing strut is, > although there appears to be a connection from it to the engine compartment: > perhaps an oil reservoir feeding by gravity? Problematic during aerobatics, > but I don't think aircraft of this vintage did much of that! I'm fairly sure now that it's some variation of a Farman Shorthorn. http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/farman_mf-11.php You can see that the tail fin is likely to be one half of a pair. I suspect it has been front-line modified into a bomber and the apparatus on the left side of the nose is some form of bomb-aiming device. Hence the bombs on the ground in front of it. The design of this particular machine does not, to my eye, encourage the throwing of ordnance. Too much stuff for it to hit/catch on before it is clear. I assumed the round thing was a Lewis gun magazine but now I'm not so sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Gun -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
