08.05.2011, 08:52
That dope was actually highly flammable, just certain materials weren't available back then, or at least in abundance, like Helium so then ended up using hydrogen for balloons and Zepplins.
Was the canvas cotton? I know the british used irish linen, perhaps some may have even tried silk, flimsey as those machines look today they're used the best they could for the time.
Just in case..... Most wings back then were flat but the cantilever wing first came in 1915 I beleive, it wasn't until Fokker moved to the Dr1 and D7 when that design became widely used. I don't think the allies ever used to it themselves until a while after the war, but they were the first to implement dihedral wings (in the SE5 and Snipe and bottom wings of the Camel for example), which the Germans didn't adopt.
Was the canvas cotton? I know the british used irish linen, perhaps some may have even tried silk, flimsey as those machines look today they're used the best they could for the time.
Just in case..... Most wings back then were flat but the cantilever wing first came in 1915 I beleive, it wasn't until Fokker moved to the Dr1 and D7 when that design became widely used. I don't think the allies ever used to it themselves until a while after the war, but they were the first to implement dihedral wings (in the SE5 and Snipe and bottom wings of the Camel for example), which the Germans didn't adopt.