Sopwith Tabloid
WHILE aeronautical narration is studded with many aircraft of great legend and fame, a careful examination of early aviation history reveals a few less known machines which were of technical and functional impact far beyond that recognized and accorded in public or professional records. Certainly to be included in this small collection of relatively obscure but highly significant historical aircraft, is the Sopwith Tabloid. Relating to and be-
Bucker - Jungmann and Jungmeister
IN midsummer of 1936 there occurred a rather interesting aeronautical event. While heavier-than-air aircraft had previously been transported by lighter-than-air ships (e.g., Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawks by the Los Angeles, Akron, and Macon), the transatlantic crossing of an airplane within the hull of a rigid dirigible was, in the summer of 1936, either extremely infrequent or unprecedented. Although the specific transatlantic voyage is now of small recall, both the generic airplane and the particular dirigible are forever fascinating features of aviation history. Individual examples of the airplane, the Bücker Jungmeister, are still flying and are yet prized machines of highly competitive aerobatic performance. The dirigible was the most famous in history, namely the D-LZ 129, the subsequently illfated Hindenburg. Thus it was that aboard the D-LZ 129, Hindenburg, crossing the Atlantic east to west in August of 1936, there was a small and very distinctive biplane, a Bücker Jungmeister (young champion, or young master), Serial 42, carrying the identification YR-PAX, and adorned with the symbolic five circles of the Olympic Games.
The Arado/68F
DURING the first two decades following the termination of World War II there appeared several English and American reviews of Luftwaffe history which conveyed, either by implication or statement, that the Heinkel He 51 was the first fighter available to the pilots of the revived German Air Force. In the strict, explicit, historical sense, this was an erroneous assertion. While some 700 Heinkel He 51 machines were built (mostly by Arado, Erla, and Fieseler) and utilized before and after March 1, 1935, the date of formal Luftwaffe recognition, these classic biplanes were not the first Luftwaffe fighters. In fact, any such identification must involve some definition of the inception of the Luftwaffe itself;
Gloster
BY CIRCA 1918 most chasse, pursuit, or fighter aircraft of the biplane configuration were, even in those middle years of biplane evolution, of the single-bay interplane strut arrangement. Notable exceptions were the S.P.A.D. (Spad) XIII and the Sopwith Dolphin and Snipe. Other than cabane struts (between fuselage and upper wing), a single-bay biplane presents only one strut plane between the wings on each spanwise side as viewed from front (or rear). That is, in a single-bay biplane layout, there is only one "bay" between the wings on each spanwise side of the machine.
Heinkel He 45
A struggling Germany, still reeling from the defeat of WW I and the restrictions imposed by the Allies, began to secretly rebuild their air force within the Russian borders. This plane, conceived by one of the Fatherland's most prolific designers, would serve to train the new pilots of the Luftwaffe.
