Following the introduction of the Fokker E I, II, and III with their revolutionary forward firing synchronized machine gun(s), the Germans were able to rule the skies over the front for a period of time. The French and British, slower to develop their own synchronization gear, took different approaches to combating the Fokker scourge. The French attached a machine gun to the top wing of their Nieuport 11s that fired over the propeller arc. The British instead chose to use a pusher airplane developed by Geoffrey de Haviland's Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) that mounted the engine behind the cockpit, leaving a clear field of fire in the front for a fixed Lewis machine gun.
Despite its ungainly appearance, the DH-2 was faster than the Fokker machines and more maneuverable. Together, the Nieuports and DH-2 spelled the end of Fokker dominance over the trenches by the time of the Allied offensive in July of1916. By the end of the year, the Germans had regained control of the air with their newer, twin machine gun Albatros fighters. A total of 401 DH-2s were delivered, with 100 assigned to training units, the balance to RFC squadrons in France, the Middle East and Home Defense Units. The Germans referred to the DH-2 in their combat reports as "lattice tails".
The Dh-2 was powered by a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine. Different windscreens were experimented with at the local level. Depending on when and where the DH-2 was produced, it used either a 2-bladed or 4-bladed propeller. Extra ammunition drums were located on each side of the cockpit and occasionally inside the cockpit. The tail booms were tubular steel, with the rest of the major components being wood and fabric.
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The 1976 SMER
kit of the Airco De Havilland DH-2 is from the original 1959 Merit mold,
with new decals. Like many of the WW I kits from that era, it has raised
markings on the fuselage, rudder and wings for where the national markings
were located. The only real way to cure this problem is to sand them off.
You lose some detail on the wings, but careful sanding and a few layers of
paint take care of most of the problems. Anyway, in 1/48 scale the only
other source for a DH-2 is the kit from Eduard. I haven't built that one
yet, preferring to learn on an older kit to see how things are supposed to
look. The building of the model is fairly straightforward. The spartan
cockpit is built up with a seat, generic (i.e. inaccurate) instrument panel,
floor, control stick and panel behind the seat. Each boom is pre-formed and
fits into grooves on the wings. In addition, they slide nicely into grooves
on the horizontal stabilizer. The cockpit sits on top of the one piece
bottom wing. The landing gear fits into a notch on either side of the
cockpit tub and slips into a rectangular cut out behind the engine.
The interplane struts are 4 inverted U that fit into troughs on the
underside of the top wing. Finally the cabane struts are attached to the
cockpit tub at somewhat oversized indentations. The fit of the kit is
excellent with hardly any sanding necessary (0ther than that required to get
rid of the raised markings!).
If you intend
to make a super accurate DH-2, build the Eduard kit. The SMER supplied
machine gun seemed oversized to me, so I substituted a smaller Lewis gun
from the spares box. The decals I took from the decal dungeon...the blue may
be a little too dark for the time period when the DH-2 was used, but it was
the closest match I had to the blue I used when painting the tri-colored
rudder.
The
RFC equipped 3 RFC squadrons with the DH-2 by May, 1916: Nos. 24, 29, and
32. 24 Squadron was led by Major Lanoe Hawker, V.C. It was organized into 3
flights of 6 aircraft each. A flight chose red as its identifying color, B
flight chose white and C flight chose blue. At first only the wheels were
painted in the flight color. As more airplanes became involved in flights
and fights over the front, additional markings came into use to help in
identification. The outer interplane struts were painted in flight colors,
with various stripes added in white for A and C flights and Black for B
flight. The pattern applied indicated the pilot and his place in the flight.
I chose to model a DH-2 from C flight and the blue and white markings
indicate, I think, the second plane in the flight.
I
used Model Master enamels for all of the painting except for Tamiya X4 red
on the rudder. The clear doped linen on the wings and fuselage is MM radome
tan. The gray on the cockpit and booms is MM medium sea gray . The PC 10 on
the top of the wings and horizontal stabilizer is MM olive drab. The wheels
are MM light gray. The blue is MM French blue.
The
rigging on this is not for the faint of heart. I kept putting off doing a
DH-2 because of the complicated rigging. The kit provides little if any
guidance in its instructions. I pulled out Eduard's instruction sheet as
well as the rigging diagram from the Wingnut Wings kit. After looking these
over and studying photos in the Windsock Datafile and DH-2 In Action books,
it does appear as if there were some variations among the DH-2s, so I
tried to figure things out the best I could. I am sure I either missed
some rigging or connected things at the wrong location. I tried my best and
am content with the result. The wings and horizontal stabilizer had small
pyramids of plastic to represent the control horns. While they were horribly
inaccurate in size and shape, I tried to use as many as possible. (Why? I am
not sure.) Those on the horizontal tailplane remain, but those on the wings
had to be replaced since they were where the sanded off markings were
located. To represent the boom rigging I used ceramic wire. The rest of the
rigging is silver thread. Finally, although the landing gear is pretty
sturdy, I decided to use thick wire instead of thread for the 2 X rigging
pattern to make things super sturdy.
So,
not a kit for the faint of heart when it comes to rigging. However, the
completed kit, even without rigging, provides a nice entry into early WW I
aviation.
Mike
Muth
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