Hope all of you are staying safe in the present situation and massive thanks to those that keep essential services running! Sadly, due to COVID-19 quite a few Inside The Cockpit trips were cancelled/postponed but I still have material to publish in the coming weeks so there won't be no break here for now :)
I found out that the Germans were using a different horse power calculation than the Allies so the actual horsepower was much closer to being the same. The Fokker machines were not as well machined as the Albatross models. Fokker was notorious for have less than,well perfect quality control. The thick wings would give good low speed handeling as well as more genteler stall charistics. I would not of liked to fly an airplane without any pitch trim controls. It would wear you out.
Another fantastic video Bismarck. Learned more about it than I would have from regular internet and sources. It's why I pay you for this. Hope Covid 19 has not hurt your channel and yourself too much. Take care man.
7:37 This airplane was a revolution in aeronautical engineering. The thicker, stiffer wing not only allowed the draggy wire bracing to be eliminated, it also was a better performing airfoil section. From the Wright Brothers until this airplane, designers used thin sections, modeled on birds' wings, which work well at that scale (as well as in the small wind tunnels of the day) but not so well as airplane scale.
Also on the wing in early aircraft you see a lot of wings with camber in the underside of the wing. Something that pretty much disappeared once proper wind tunnels were developed. I think about the only aircraft you would see camber in the underside of the wing yo day is on ultralights.
For those that don't know, the "video clips" credited to "Flying Circus" in the film are from the combat flightsim "IL2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus". Anybody who's interested in these old crates and wants to see what it's like to "fly" them should check it out.
Bismarck, this particulair plane was not built by Fokker nor Albatros or OAW, it was built in 1926 by the "MLD" or "Naval Air Service" in The Netherlands. Hence the strange cockpit layout, double radiator shutters, the metal turtle deck and allot of other details. It flew as D 20 for the MLD. The archives show that D 20, wich initially was built at Fokker in Amsterdam was taken into service by the MLD on August 30th 1920 but on May 12th 1925 it was totaly wrecked when flying into a steel cable on the beach near Petten. The MLD build a complete new plane and gave it the number D 20 again. It was officialy written off on March 16th 1937. Even before WWII it was sold to a German filming company who used it for propaganda movies, after WWII it was found in a German barn and taken to the museum. That's why they found a red colorscheme underneath the painted lozenge in the 1970's restoration and underneath that was the Dutch cocarde and D 20. This plane was not taken by Goering as some imply. Also for clarity Reinhold Platz had not much to do with the design of the D VII. Platz was master welder not designer, for that Fokker had a complete design team.
Hi, where did you get the information that is was sold to a German filming company? I understood the D20 was meant to be used in a Dutch museum that was still to be built. Also, the role of Platz still seems a hotly debated topic with no clear answer? It's been a while since I studied the D.VII so I'm curious to know if there is new info.
@@JorisKoolen This was told to me in the late eighties by the late Fokker historian Peter Alting who did research on it. If I remeber well D 28 was to be for the new museum. Platz was in function as chief designer in Amsterdam and it has been told by many in his staff that he lacked basic knowledge in airplane designing, also there is no autograph of him found on any of the DrI or D VII drawings.
I really have to say how much I love your vids on the, more in detail, aircraft walkround as such. I make scale models and have found your documentation of the aircraft to be invaluable. Keep doing what you do. LOVE your knowledge. Hoping you are well :)
Your living the history buffs dream. This is awesome, thank you again and again. As a motor head and history buff, im amazed that these engines were considered high compression at 6.5 to 1. Engines nowadays run 10-12 :1 from factory. Motors havent really changed a whole lot but they have gotten much more efficient. Interesting.
If you ever come to the U.S. you should go to the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It is basically an early 20th Century Barnstormers Show, but you get to see both original and reproduction Early Dawn of Powered Flight, Great War, post-Great War aircraft fly.
@@soaringbumnm8374 Rienbeck has had a different business model the last few years and doing very well, I would encourage anyone interested aircraft of the early 1900's to spend a Saturday or Sunday. There is a different theme show each day. These kids, woman, and men work thier hearts out to put on a great show and the flying is amazing!
Few D.VII were bought by Poland after the Armistice (I don't remember if there were newly build or used ones) and carried both balkenkreuz and Polish checkerboard for a time. Not to mention quite a few other post war users. Love the cloth wings!
The D.VII was specifically required to be surrendered to the Allies in the Armistice and quite a few counties used them after the war including the US with both the US Army Air Service and The Marines.
Just discovered your channel. Great work! I love your focus on the aircraft itself rather than the history. There is a lot of info about its historical impact, very little about the bird. Keep it up!
Excellent presentation Bis! Very informative and interesting. and especially nice to get a much closer look at a very vintage plane. Keep up the great work!
@14:37 the cockpit view shows the gauge on the right labeled as an aux fuel tank. The reserve tank did not have a fuel gauge. (that is what the watch is for) That gauge measures the air pressure to the tank. The hand operated air pump in the cockpit was used to pressurize the tank for starting. It was common for pilots to over-pressurize the tank to the point where the tank could burst. (ask Kermit Weeks) Once the engine was running, you would move a valve in the cockpit to us an air pump mounted on the engine to keep maintain the pressure. The engine driven air pump had a pressure relief valve to prevent over pressurizing the tank in flight. There were usually four valves on the instrument board. 1) the fuel valve that was either; off, main or reserve. 2) the air pump valve that was either to the hand pump or motor pump 3) air pressure distribution: main tank or reserve tank 4) this valve would block off the air pressure gauge in case of an air leak. When you would switch from the main tank to the reserve tank, you usually needed to pressurize the reserve tank first.
Excellent review, Bismarck. One of the best fighter aircraft of WW1. Particularly impressive to me is the focus on drag reduction-using far less wire bracing than in comparable Allied fighters, attributable largely to the cantilever wing design, cleaner more streamlined fuselage, etc.. Fokker squeezed as much performance out of the 180-200 HP BMW/Mercedes six cylinder engines as they could, keeping them a match with Allied designs using the 220 HP Hispano-Suiza V8 engine.
That was pretty cool. You are talking about a unique part of history we would never know of unless it is covered like you did here. I brings home how easy it would be to have one of these if you could store it.
My favorite WWI fighter. "domed pistons gave more volume" - I think you meant to say, it gave LESS volume hence the increased compression ratio. I've been there and seen that plane. Greets from Texas!
(1:10) The Fokker D.Vll was built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke but it was designed by Reinhold Platz who became the head designer at the Fokker factory in Schwerin in 1916.
I love this aircraft and its history, i was hoping you would do an inside the cockpit on it when you were in RAF london but then i realised its on the ceiling. great work keep it up!
Thanks for this great video as usual. 👍 Beautiful aircraft and excellent in its duties as well. Would love to check one out at the museum but I guess I’ll just have to settle for one of my Wingnut Wings 1/32 scale model kits. Close as I’ll ever get! Again, thanks for this and all your great videos.
I’ve been a pilot for 30 years and have had the pleasure to fly many very cool aircraft. The three planes on the top of my bucket list of planes I would like to fly are the P51, Spitfire, and DVII. Maybe someday. 😂. Anyway, thanks for this video….well done!
Cool video as always (haven't watched it yet though). Any videos coming up about the German Nachtjagd? I liked that video about the Bf 110 that landed in Dübendorf a lot.
Just amazing how far military aviation technology came in just 15 years after the first powered flight in 1903. Being their first in a long series successful designs the D.VII could be consider the mother of all Fokkers ;-).
I was watching a group of DR -1 flying, man, you should hear those grumbling rotary engines, beautiful. Thats one good looking and purposful , that camo flauge looks wild. Glad you are doing the ww-1 birds, Thanks Bismark!
The Spandaus on the DR1 and DVII ejected out a hole in front of the receiver and were channeled by open trays...on the right gun as can be seen in the shells were channel out to the right and the left gun they were channeled out to the left. Very crude method that annoyed Hermann Goring to the point that he installed shields on each side to make sure that empty cartridge cases did not come into the open cockpit. You can see it in his models. Aha, another subject I can do a video book on. 142 were given to the US which used them into the early 20's in their original Germany livery and only recovered all olive drab when it was due to service the covering.
Excellent video Thank you! Wikipedia says it was designed by Reinhold Platz who worked for Fokker. Anyway I always wondered how the side panel of the engine compartment could be removed when the cabane struts go right through it, most notably the forward most cabane strut. I looked carefully at your video shots of it.. and I still wonder how that was done, it looks like a metal panel without a parting line at the strut hole.
Yeah, I just watched a video with them before this. They're near me in Kansas City. For some reason the kit looks nothing like this museum plane to me. A lot of the details like the grill are probably hard to replicate, and also just the sheer size difference with the original. There's no equivalent for the huge Benz/BMW 6 cylinder either, so it seems like people are mostly using vintage continental/lycoming or just VW boxer engines. It's still pretty cool that you could build something like that for around $10k.
The Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida has a restored Fokker D vii in their collection. If you ever get the chance to visit the U.S it’s a great museum!
@@zerstorer7527 it was also an earlier plane design, so I guess it was "outdated" at the time, the Fokker D.VIII was invented, don't get me wrong, I like both of them, the albatross was equally nice in my humble opinion, the rounded edges was definitely something unique 👍🏼
@@rasmuswellejus2809 the Pfalz was also a very nice WW1 aircraft, basically, all german aircraft were far better designed and better looking than the British or French, se5 wasn't that bad though.
Understand that the two throttles are to prevent damaging knock from the over compressed ratios at different altitudes. 6.75 cr was considered excessive at the time but gave greater performance at higher altitudes where the air is less dense.
Great film, the throttle control in the centre, the 90° padded thing, how is this used and why 2 throttles ? curious as to how it is operated.... strange looking
Herr Bismark, I find your videos very informative and unbiased. I have always as far back as I can remember been a history fan and of aviation especially. When asked what is my favorite aircraft my usual reply is what nation and what war? For Germany, hands down it is the FW 190 series with the Dora being my favorite version there. The D-VII from WWI was and is my all time favorite WWI German aircraft. I also have a soft spot for the Me 110 which got a bad deal during the Battle of Britain. The 110 was in actuality a good all around aircraft even if it could not dogfight with the more nimble single seat fighters. I could sit for hours and talk aircraft i am here to tell you. I read the book The Blonde Knight of Germany which tells the story of Erich Hartman and when I was stationed in Germany as a panzer fahrer I almost got to meet him. Apparently one of the German friends I was acquainted with knew his brother. The post where I was stationed was named Panzer Kaserne and apparently at one time Erwin Rommel was the post commander. We must not let the history be forgotten. People and the world need to know that not every German in those days was a nazi, and that the vast majority of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe were just like other troopers, just serving their country. Keep up the good work, I'd support you on Patreon but at the moment finances are tight, when they loosen up, then I wi ll be able to help support you. Hals und Beinbruch!!! und Horrido!!!
@@davewellings6281 Social distancing is 1/2 mile from a beach, as demanded by outrage mobs who never go in the sun, nor swim (or bathe) yet there is no ditancing at all when THEY see that a supermarket trolley full of toilet paper is being wheeled out, they are LITTERALLY all over it like cockroaches....and then there's the dole ques.
Thanks for this video! I really hope to go see this plane in person some time. It's not certain if Fokker built any new D.VII's in the Netherlands, or just put them all together from parts and frames brought (smuggled) back from Germany. The one in this video was used by the Dutch navy (MLD), and was likely brought back to Germany by order of Hermann Göring, who was sorry that there were no remaining models in Germany of the plane he used to fly as an ace. Possibly this plane was the one designated D.28, which means it must have seen a lot of reconstruction before being put on display, as it would have had a BMW IV engine with a completely different cowling that was designed by the MLD. Another telltale sign of it being a Dutch variant, is the longeron (?) running down the side of the fuselage. Amazingly, this particular aircraft served in the Netherlands (probably as a trainer) until 1937. You could take that as a sign of how good and dependable and almost timeless the design was. Or just the sorry state of Dutch military aviation at the time. The Netherlands also has a D.VII in their military museum, but that one was brought back from the USA, where it was a movie star.
Hi I am doing rc plane copy of Fokker D.VII 1/4 scale and I like the version in the museum as think it's the most original look before pilots had it painted. I noticed the top wing canvas had blue in camo scheam. Is that an original pattern to have two different scheams or is it a complete different canvas put on in later years if can let me know be great
Love that Fokker D7! That plane and the rotary powered D8 ("Flying Razor!") are my all-time favorite Great War aircraft. I'm wondering if the use of the BMW engine (lighter weight) made the D7 a bit tail heavy? Conversely, did the Mercedes engine make it a bit nose heavy? Lastly was there any provision in that era of aeronautical science for a way to trim a horizontal stabilizer to compensate for engine weight? I laughed when I saw the Cessna 195 resting sublimely ... next to this envenomed terror of the skies! I have an old photo I found online of a D7 which I think might've been a war reparations airplane because it is devoid of guns and has the script "FOKKER D7" prominently painted on the vertical fin. It appears to be powered by the L-6 Liberty, and not either German engine. Perhaps the replacement parts for the Liberty would more readily available? EXCELLENT VIDEO! THANK YOU!
Thanks for the video! The is an example of this very airplane in the Lac Brome, Quebec, Canada museum. It was brought back as a war trophy at the end of the war. It still has its original covering and paint scheme. Unfortunately, it is stored in an old barn with primitive climate control. As a result, the covering has started to rip in places. I suspect most people visiting the museum have no idea of the historical significance of this artifact.
These are awesome. WW1 aircraft fascinate me and I am interested in modeling them. My first models - in the 1950s - were WW1. My father made balsa rubber powered by planes
Thanks for the aircraft detail. The engine is more built for torque with the long stroke? I am surprised that on many older engine's there is no valve cover to retain the oil,any way this fact would ensure it did not need changing so often?
G'day, Those old Engine Designs with no Rocker-Boxes (Mercedes, BMW, Royal Aeroplane Factory, Napier, Hispano-Suiza & Curtiss OX-5 come to mind) only had Oil circulating in the Crankcase end of the Engine...; all the Rockers had Grease-Nipples..., and wiping the hot Grease off the Fuselage before it cooled after every flight was part of the ritual - as was greasing the Rockers being part of the Essential Daily Maintenance... In 1978/79 at Olde Bowral Airfield I worked on a Replica Sopwith Pup which had a Radial Engine - and to fit under the Cowling it's Rockerboxes had to be removed, & Grease Nipples fitted ; my job was to wipe off the Grease from the underside of the Fuselage - I was pretty low on the pecking-order, but I was hands-on with a Sopwith Pup, so I thought it was excellent. Such is Life, Have a good one.... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
@chris younts G'day, Would you like a tissue, to dry behind your Ears...? Look up a word called, "EVOLUTION" ; and consider that Humans try out ideas, and persist with them as long as they appear to work. Overhead Valves needed Rockers to go with their Pushrods, unlike the Side-Valves which Inline Liquid-Cooled Engines, and the Side-Valve types didn't need Cylinder-Head Lubrication. Greasing the Valve-Gear worked a big heap better than not lubricating the Rockers...; and Grease-Nipples were LIGHTER than Rockerboxes full of hot Oil-Drips. So, under the Aeronautical Diktat of "Simplicate..., and Add More Lightness !" ; it was quite a while before the weight of the Rockerboxes could be justified by the Performance - obsessed MILITARY ; who were paying ALL the Developmental Costs of Designing Hairygoplane Engines worth building. At Open-Cockpit Fixed-Undercarraige Fabric-Covered Biplane Speeds...; Pigeons can generally hear the Machine coming, and they reflexively dive to avoid Airborne Predators. Birdstrikes were the least of a Fokker D-VII pilot's worries ; and the Valve-Train would chop your Pig-with-Wings (Hypothetical "Pigeon") into Poultry Puree ; it would be a Birdstrike to a Propeller Blade-Tip which might imperil the Aeroplane - not a Chook-Impact on.a Valve-Spring. In my underconstumbling. Take it easy. ;-p Ciao !
Great video, Bismarck, and thank you. I have a question about quality control. How where design defects (and perhaps praise) communicated to senior officers and to aircraft manufacturers?
Thanks for another great video. However you glanced over the D,VII's main technical advancement. For the first time during the war, and perhaps in aviation history, a wind tunnel program was carried out during the plane's development. This resulted in the flat bottomed airfoil you mentioned. Up till that point, both upper and lower airfoil surfaces were cambered like a bird's. By late 1917/early 1918 engineers on both sides began to realize that imitating nature had its limits. This research led to a veritable "paradigm shift" from which aircraft design has never looked back.
W.M. Yeats, who wrote Winged Victory, said they outperformed the Sopwith Camel in everything except turning to the right. He feared those upper wing extensions. It does not seem to have been particularly fast though. I am surprised they had such a great impact.
There is an original version in Quebec Canada that was one of several brought here after the war. It is in a museum and has never been restored. It is the real thing.
Interesting how 10m (30 ft) has been just about average for single seat, single engine fighter aircraft from 1917 to today. P51 is big, at 11.28m (37 ft), F16 is average at 9.96m (32 ft, 8 in) I believe the F16 has more power than the Fokker, though.
The design of the Fokker D.VII has been credited to the German aircraft designer and manufacturer Reinhold Platz, who worked at the Fokker Flugzeugwerke. Prior to that he also designed the Dr.1, both of which he intended to be a cantilever design. The Triplane was initially not meant to carry struts, with Platz claiming this to be safe. The struts were later added on the F.1 to reassure the pilots. Antony Fokker was in fact a somewhat unpopular figure in Germany, due to the poor quality control at Fokker and the many deaths caused by the Triplane's habit of losing its wings mid-flight. One such ace, who was killed was Heinrich Gontermann. Lothar von Richthofen narrowly escaped death after his Triplane turned itself into a Biplane. He practically had to flee Germany after the war to escape possible persecution.
Superb museum just outside Kraków too. They have what survived from Hermann Göering's collection. I wanted to see the PZL P.11 but it was not on display! Only 7zł to get in and around the museum!
Kermit Weeks of “Flight of Fantasy “ in Florida said that pattern was in the fabric when woven and not painted on. Later the pilots would paint on their own colors.
Do you mean 'dished' pistons? I'd have thought 'domed' pistons would actually decrease cylinder volume. Also, no mention of the D VII's main 'box spar' which I believe was an innovation, giving the aircraft's wings great strength and torsional rigidity.
Now that I have a closer look, the camouflage scheme could be described as a repeated pattern of two color hour glass shapes, express by putting two hexagons together
Might ? Sorry, but this is an absolutely must see and very easy to get to by public transport. There is a fantastic range of aircraft, engines and buildings, but for me, the D VII was the star. Not because of the technical innovations ( I only found out about most of these on this video), but because it is the most evil and sinister looking fighter that I have ever seen. You only have to stand in front of it to understand why it was written into the Armistice.
What was the purpose/benefit of the airfoil around the axle of the landing gear? I remember seeing such only on the DR1 and D VII. What aerodynamic effect did it have?
I think the Germans figured out before anyone else that a fatter wing gave a better lift. In contrast, other nations were fixated on thinner wings-no one really had a good understanding of the lift dynamics behind them. I offer the triplane as an example-the German tri plane’s fatter wing helped its climb and maneuver-not the extra drag of an extra wing.
Hope all of you are staying safe in the present situation and massive thanks to those that keep essential services running! Sadly, due to COVID-19 quite a few Inside The Cockpit trips were cancelled/postponed but I still have material to publish in the coming weeks so there won't be no break here for now :)
did you record more than just the Me262 in Schleißheim?
@@tommihommi1 this was the second visit. About six more planes to come from Schleissheim!
@@MilitaryAviationHistory awesome, I have so many childhood memories from there
all our museums here in London are closed
I found out that the Germans were using a different horse power calculation than the Allies so the actual horsepower was much closer to being the same.
The Fokker machines were not as well machined as the Albatross models. Fokker was notorious for have less than,well perfect quality control.
The thick wings would give good low speed handeling as well as more genteler stall charistics.
I would not of liked to fly an airplane without any pitch trim controls. It would wear you out.
Another fantastic video Bismarck. Learned more about it than I would have from regular internet and sources. It's why I pay you for this.
Hope Covid 19 has not hurt your channel and yourself too much. Take care man.
Thanks Cannon for the support, glad you are finding them helpful.
It's you again. You really are everywhere.
@@MilitaryAviationHistory That picture of Anthony Focker (1.10) ....
Are you *sure* he's not an ancestor of yours Chris?
7:37 This airplane was a revolution in aeronautical engineering. The thicker, stiffer wing not only allowed the draggy wire bracing to be eliminated, it also was a better performing airfoil section. From the Wright Brothers until this airplane, designers used thin sections, modeled on birds' wings, which work well at that scale (as well as in the small wind tunnels of the day) but not so well as airplane scale.
Also on the wing in early aircraft you see a lot of wings with camber in the underside of the wing. Something that pretty much disappeared once proper wind tunnels were developed. I think about the only aircraft you would see camber in the underside of the wing yo day is on ultralights.
For those that don't know, the "video clips" credited to "Flying Circus" in the film are from the combat flightsim "IL2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus". Anybody who's interested in these old crates and wants to see what it's like to "fly" them should check it out.
Bismarck, this particulair plane was not built by Fokker nor Albatros or OAW, it was built in 1926 by the "MLD" or "Naval Air Service" in The Netherlands. Hence the strange cockpit layout, double radiator shutters, the metal turtle deck and allot of other details. It flew as D 20 for the MLD. The archives show that D 20, wich initially was built at Fokker in Amsterdam was taken into service by the MLD on August 30th 1920 but on May 12th 1925 it was totaly wrecked when flying into a steel cable on the beach near Petten. The MLD build a complete new plane and gave it the number D 20 again. It was officialy written off on March 16th 1937. Even before WWII it was sold to a German filming company who used it for propaganda movies, after WWII it was found in a German barn and taken to the museum. That's why they found a red colorscheme underneath the painted lozenge in the 1970's restoration and underneath that was the Dutch cocarde and D 20.
This plane was not taken by Goering as some imply. Also for clarity Reinhold Platz had not much to do with the design of the D VII. Platz was master welder not designer, for that Fokker had a complete design team.
Hey, thanks for the info. I'll have another chat with the museum in regards to the aircraft once I can!
@@MilitaryAviationHistory You are welcome. And keep uploading your vids!
Awesome post thanks!!
Hi, where did you get the information that is was sold to a German filming company? I understood the D20 was meant to be used in a Dutch museum that was still to be built. Also, the role of Platz still seems a hotly debated topic with no clear answer? It's been a while since I studied the D.VII so I'm curious to know if there is new info.
@@JorisKoolen This was told to me in the late eighties by the late Fokker historian Peter Alting who did research on it. If I remeber well D 28 was to be for the new museum. Platz was in function as chief designer in Amsterdam and it has been told by many in his staff that he lacked basic knowledge in airplane designing, also there is no autograph of him found on any of the DrI or D VII drawings.
Thank you so much for featuring such comparatively little known aircraft
It was nice to see this one up close and personal. Thank you.
Just discovered your channel today...Good Stuff! Subscribed. Juan.
I really have to say how much I love your vids on the, more in detail, aircraft walkround as such. I make scale models and have found your documentation of the aircraft to be invaluable. Keep doing what you do. LOVE your knowledge. Hoping you are well :)
Thank you Mr Bismarck, a gem. I've been looking fwd to this for a while and not disappointed - cheers.
Your living the history buffs dream. This is awesome, thank you again and again. As a motor head and history buff, im amazed that these engines were considered high compression at 6.5 to 1. Engines nowadays run 10-12 :1 from factory. Motors havent really changed a whole lot but they have gotten much more efficient. Interesting.
Dude, your videos are fantastic and they only keep getting better. Thanks and well done.
If you ever come to the U.S. you should go to the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It is basically an early 20th Century Barnstormers Show, but you get to see both original and reproduction Early Dawn of Powered Flight, Great War, post-Great War aircraft fly.
Love that place.😎
One the list!
I thought Rhienbeck went belly up last year ???
Good news is they are offering post COVID19 tickets on their website.
@@soaringbumnm8374 Rienbeck has had a different business model the last few years and doing very well, I would encourage anyone interested aircraft of the early 1900's to spend a Saturday or Sunday. There is a different theme show each day. These kids, woman, and men work thier hearts out to put on a great show and the flying is amazing!
Few D.VII were bought by Poland after the Armistice (I don't remember if there were newly build or used ones) and carried both balkenkreuz and Polish checkerboard for a time. Not to mention quite a few other post war users.
Love the cloth wings!
The D.VII was specifically required to be surrendered to the Allies in the Armistice and quite a few counties used them after the war including the US with both the US Army Air Service and The Marines.
@@mcmax571 He literally addressed it in the video my guy that it was not specifically required and points to where it was close, but no cigar.
Thank you for recording this in English!
Has he ever done a video in a different language?
Just discovered your channel. Great work! I love your focus on the aircraft itself rather than the history. There is a lot of info about its historical impact, very little about the bird. Keep it up!
Bismark your videos have come such a long way, well done sir, excellent job and great watching!
Thank you
Great episode, it was fun chatting with you in front of this guy!
Outstanding! I love the engineering detail of your presentation. What an amazing aircraft for its time.
Excellent presentation Bis! Very informative and interesting. and especially nice to get a much closer look at a very vintage plane. Keep up the great work!
@14:37 the cockpit view shows the gauge on the right labeled as an aux fuel tank.
The reserve tank did not have a fuel gauge. (that is what the watch is for)
That gauge measures the air pressure to the tank.
The hand operated air pump in the cockpit was used to pressurize the tank for starting. It was common for pilots to over-pressurize the tank to the point where the tank could burst. (ask Kermit Weeks) Once the engine was running, you would move a valve in the cockpit to us an air pump mounted on the engine to keep maintain the pressure. The engine driven air pump had a pressure relief valve to prevent over pressurizing the tank in flight.
There were usually four valves on the instrument board.
1) the fuel valve that was either; off, main or reserve.
2) the air pump valve that was either to the hand pump or motor pump
3) air pressure distribution: main tank or reserve tank
4) this valve would block off the air pressure gauge in case of an air leak.
When you would switch from the main tank to the reserve tank, you usually needed to pressurize the reserve tank first.
Excellent review, Bismarck. One of the best fighter aircraft of WW1. Particularly impressive to me is the focus on drag reduction-using far less wire bracing than in comparable Allied fighters, attributable largely to the cantilever wing design, cleaner more streamlined fuselage, etc.. Fokker squeezed as much performance out of the 180-200 HP BMW/Mercedes six cylinder engines as they could, keeping them a match with Allied designs using the 220 HP Hispano-Suiza V8 engine.
That was pretty cool. You are talking about a unique part of history we would never know of unless it is covered like you did here. I brings home how easy it would be to have one of these if you could store it.
My favorite WWI fighter. "domed pistons gave more volume" - I think you meant to say, it gave LESS volume hence the increased compression ratio. I've been there and seen that plane. Greets from Texas!
(1:10) The Fokker D.Vll was built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke but it was designed by Reinhold Platz who became the head designer at the Fokker factory in Schwerin in 1916.
This is excellent! Fascinating material, detailed and well presented. A pity you couldn't get inside the cockpit.
I love this aircraft and its history, i was hoping you would do an inside the cockpit on it when you were in RAF london but then i realised its on the ceiling. great work keep it up!
Cheers, yes, a bit tough to get to the one in Hendon ;)
@@MilitaryAviationHistory indeed. :/
Thanks for this great video as usual. 👍 Beautiful aircraft and excellent in its duties as well. Would love to check one out at the museum but I guess I’ll just have to settle for one of my Wingnut Wings 1/32 scale model kits. Close as I’ll ever get! Again, thanks for this and all your great videos.
I’ve been a pilot for 30 years and have had the pleasure to fly many very cool aircraft. The three planes on the top of my bucket list of planes I would like to fly are the P51, Spitfire, and DVII. Maybe someday. 😂. Anyway, thanks for this video….well done!
Cool video as always (haven't watched it yet though). Any videos coming up about the German Nachtjagd? I liked that video about the Bf 110 that landed in Dübendorf a lot.
Still waiting for a decent vid about the He219 uhu, mit schragg muzik, one day....one day.
Your video was very thorough on this lovely aircraft. Thank you
"But then the German interrupters actually worked, so there's that...."
German dropping serious shade over here. 🤣
Just amazing how far military aviation technology came in just 15 years after the first powered flight in 1903. Being their first in a long series successful designs the D.VII could be consider the mother of all Fokkers ;-).
Great video, I have been to Munchen many times, I must pay this museum a visit next time. Vielen dank!
I was watching a group of DR -1 flying, man, you should hear those grumbling rotary engines, beautiful. Thats one good looking and purposful , that camo flauge looks wild. Glad you are doing the ww-1 birds, Thanks Bismark!
The Spandaus on the DR1 and DVII ejected out a hole in front of the receiver and were channeled by open trays...on the right gun as can be seen in the shells were channel out to the right and the left gun they were channeled out to the left. Very crude method that annoyed Hermann Goring to the point that he installed shields on each side to make sure that empty cartridge cases did not come into the open cockpit. You can see it in his models. Aha, another subject I can do a video book on. 142 were given to the US which used them into the early 20's in their original Germany livery and only recovered all olive drab when it was due to service the covering.
This is just as awesome as the more modern aircraft you have covered 👍👍
Built a 1/4 scale D-7 this winter nice to see details up close!
Another great video, keep up the good work 👏
Thank you Bismarck , I have not been to this Museum yet .
*GREAT video, Chris!*
Brilliant and most informative presentation
Excellent video Thank you! Wikipedia says it was designed by Reinhold Platz who worked for Fokker. Anyway I always wondered how the side panel of the engine compartment could be removed when the cabane struts go right through it, most notably the forward most cabane strut. I looked carefully at your video shots of it.. and I still wonder how that was done, it looks like a metal panel without a parting line at the strut hole.
There is a company here in the US that make a kit of this plane. Airdrome Aeroplanes. There plane is an 80% full metal replica of the original.
Yeah, I just watched a video with them before this. They're near me in Kansas City. For some reason the kit looks nothing like this museum plane to me. A lot of the details like the grill are probably hard to replicate, and also just the sheer size difference with the original. There's no equivalent for the huge Benz/BMW 6 cylinder either, so it seems like people are mostly using vintage continental/lycoming or just VW boxer engines. It's still pretty cool that you could build something like that for around $10k.
And people "criticise" you because you're not a fighter pilot ? .... Haaa... internet...... Thanks a lot for you vid !!
The Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida has a restored Fokker D vii in their collection. If you ever get the chance to visit the U.S it’s a great museum!
Imo, the best fighter of WW1
What about the triplane?
@@rasmuswellejus2809 The triplane was an excellent climber & dogfighter but was slow
@@zerstorer7527 it was also an earlier plane design, so I guess it was "outdated" at the time, the Fokker D.VIII was invented, don't get me wrong, I like both of them, the albatross was equally nice in my humble opinion, the rounded edges was definitely something unique 👍🏼
@@rasmuswellejus2809 the Pfalz was also a very nice WW1 aircraft, basically, all german aircraft were far better designed and better looking than the British or French, se5 wasn't that bad though.
@@ripmax333 I just like German engineered things in general 🙌🏼
Cool, dass du mal wieder was in Oberschleißheim machst👍
Geiles Museum, muss ich mal besuchen
das war das erste Flugzeug das synchronisiert durch die Propeller geballert hat. wie immer deutsche Erfindung^^
Excellent video! Clear and concise.
Some aircraft even had cockpit & instrument lights. Not to mention the electric Oigee illuminated reflector gunsight.
Understand that the two throttles are to prevent damaging knock from the over compressed ratios at different altitudes. 6.75 cr was considered excessive at the time but gave greater performance at higher altitudes where the air is less dense.
excellent video - keep them coming
Thank you for all the great videos, be safe
Great film, the throttle control in the centre, the 90° padded thing, how is this used and why 2 throttles ? curious as to how it is operated.... strange looking
Herr Bismark, I find your videos very informative and unbiased. I have always as far back as I can remember been a history fan and of aviation especially. When asked what is my favorite aircraft my usual reply is what nation and what war? For Germany, hands down it is the FW 190 series with the Dora being my favorite version there. The D-VII from WWI was and is my all time favorite WWI German aircraft. I also have a soft spot for the Me 110 which got a bad deal during the Battle of Britain. The 110 was in actuality a good all around aircraft even if it could not dogfight with the more nimble single seat fighters. I could sit for hours and talk aircraft i am here to tell you. I read the book The Blonde Knight of Germany which tells the story of Erich Hartman and when I was stationed in Germany as a panzer fahrer I almost got to meet him. Apparently one of the German friends I was acquainted with knew his brother. The post where I was stationed was named Panzer Kaserne and apparently at one time Erwin Rommel was the post commander. We must not let the history be forgotten. People and the world need to know that not every German in those days was a nazi, and that the vast majority of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe were just like other troopers, just serving their country. Keep up the good work, I'd support you on Patreon but at the moment finances are tight, when they loosen up, then I wi ll be able to help support you.
Hals und Beinbruch!!! und Horrido!!!
3.4 social distances long,
4.4 SD's wingspan and
1.4 SD's tall. 😂
Social distance (UK)= 2m
1.7 SD's long
2.2 SD's Wingspan
0.7 SD Height
Pay that one- haha
@@davewellings6281 Social distancing is 1/2 mile from a beach, as demanded by outrage mobs who never go in the sun, nor swim (or bathe) yet there is no ditancing at all when THEY see that a supermarket trolley full of toilet paper is being wheeled out, they are LITTERALLY all over it like cockroaches....and then there's the dole ques.
@@davewellings6281 You British really have to do everything differently, don't you?
@Opecuted I knew it!
Thanks for this video! I really hope to go see this plane in person some time.
It's not certain if Fokker built any new D.VII's in the Netherlands, or just put them all together from parts and frames brought (smuggled) back from Germany. The one in this video was used by the Dutch navy (MLD), and was likely brought back to Germany by order of Hermann Göring, who was sorry that there were no remaining models in Germany of the plane he used to fly as an ace. Possibly this plane was the one designated D.28, which means it must have seen a lot of reconstruction before being put on display, as it would have had a BMW IV engine with a completely different cowling that was designed by the MLD. Another telltale sign of it being a Dutch variant, is the longeron (?) running down the side of the fuselage. Amazingly, this particular aircraft served in the Netherlands (probably as a trainer) until 1937. You could take that as a sign of how good and dependable and almost timeless the design was. Or just the sorry state of Dutch military aviation at the time. The Netherlands also has a D.VII in their military museum, but that one was brought back from the USA, where it was a movie star.
WOW !!MY FAVORITE AEROPLANE,--THANKS FOR SHOWING,--AND "ORIGINAL" TOO ,-JUST FANTASTIC !!
Really excellent presentation. Thank YOU
Amazing plane one of the best of WW1.
Hi I am doing rc plane copy of Fokker D.VII 1/4 scale and I like the version in the museum as think it's the most original look before pilots had it painted. I noticed the top wing canvas had blue in camo scheam. Is that an original pattern to have two different scheams or is it a complete different canvas put on in later years if can let me know be great
Love that Fokker D7! That plane and the rotary powered D8 ("Flying Razor!") are my all-time favorite Great War aircraft. I'm wondering if the use of the BMW engine (lighter weight) made the D7 a bit tail heavy? Conversely, did the Mercedes engine make it a bit nose heavy? Lastly was there any provision in that era of aeronautical science for a way to trim a horizontal stabilizer to compensate for engine weight? I laughed when I saw the Cessna 195 resting sublimely ... next to this envenomed terror of the skies!
I have an old photo I found online of a D7 which I think might've been a war reparations airplane because it is devoid of guns and has the script "FOKKER D7" prominently painted on the vertical fin. It appears to be powered by the L-6 Liberty, and not either German engine. Perhaps the replacement parts for the Liberty would more readily available?
EXCELLENT VIDEO! THANK YOU!
Thanks for the video! The is an example of this very airplane in the Lac Brome, Quebec, Canada museum. It was brought back as a war trophy at the end of the war. It still has its original covering and paint scheme. Unfortunately, it is stored in an old barn with primitive climate control. As a result, the covering has started to rip in places. I suspect most people visiting the museum have no idea of the historical significance of this artifact.
Great video Bismarck. I still remember the days when you posted sim flight videos lol.
Thank you, Bismarck. I love biplanes and this is a fantastic history lesson. Bis Spater.
These are awesome. WW1 aircraft fascinate me and I am interested in modeling them. My first models - in the 1950s - were WW1. My father made balsa rubber powered by planes
Thanks for the aircraft detail. The engine is more built for torque with the long stroke? I am surprised that on many older engine's there is no valve cover to retain the oil,any way this fact would ensure it did not need changing so often?
G'day,
Those old Engine Designs with no Rocker-Boxes (Mercedes, BMW, Royal Aeroplane Factory, Napier, Hispano-Suiza & Curtiss OX-5 come to mind) only had Oil circulating in the Crankcase end of the Engine...; all the Rockers had Grease-Nipples..., and wiping the hot Grease off the Fuselage before it cooled after every flight was part of the ritual - as was greasing the Rockers being part of the Essential Daily Maintenance...
In 1978/79 at Olde Bowral Airfield I worked on a Replica Sopwith Pup which had a Radial Engine - and to fit under the Cowling it's Rockerboxes had to be removed, & Grease Nipples fitted ; my job was to wipe off the Grease from the underside of the Fuselage - I was pretty low on the pecking-order, but I was hands-on with a Sopwith Pup, so I thought it was excellent.
Such is Life,
Have a good one....
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
@chris younts
G'day,
Would you like a tissue, to dry behind your Ears...?
Look up a word called, "EVOLUTION" ; and consider that Humans try out ideas, and persist with them as long as they appear to work.
Overhead Valves needed Rockers to go with their Pushrods, unlike the Side-Valves which Inline Liquid-Cooled Engines, and the Side-Valve types didn't need Cylinder-Head Lubrication.
Greasing the Valve-Gear worked a big heap better than not lubricating the Rockers...; and Grease-Nipples were LIGHTER than Rockerboxes full of hot Oil-Drips.
So, under the Aeronautical Diktat of "Simplicate..., and Add More Lightness !" ; it was quite a while before the weight of the Rockerboxes could be justified by the Performance - obsessed MILITARY ; who were paying ALL the Developmental Costs of Designing Hairygoplane Engines worth building.
At Open-Cockpit Fixed-Undercarraige Fabric-Covered Biplane Speeds...; Pigeons can generally hear the Machine coming, and they reflexively dive to avoid Airborne Predators.
Birdstrikes were the least of a Fokker D-VII pilot's worries ; and the Valve-Train would chop your Pig-with-Wings (Hypothetical "Pigeon") into Poultry Puree ; it would be a Birdstrike to a Propeller Blade-Tip which might imperil the Aeroplane - not a Chook-Impact on.a Valve-Spring.
In my underconstumbling.
Take it easy.
;-p
Ciao !
That engine sticking out of the hood of a car would be so cool xD
*The ultimate 1920s hot rod with a classic body :)
Robert Bentley take a close look to this Mercedes engine when ww1 finished..
Es ist interessant, wie modern die WK 1 Flugzeuge schon waren .
Great video, Bismarck, and thank you. I have a question about quality control. How where design defects (and perhaps praise) communicated to senior officers and to aircraft manufacturers?
FWIW, that Cessna 195 behind the Fokker is ALSO beautiful...👍
I think the image of one in inverted flight is in US Air Corps service.
Love it man. Keep up the awesome work
how often did one need to pump the fuel pump when flying?
Probably just when starting it up.
Pretty safe to say once the engine was running, the fuel flowed via vacuum like cars of the time
Excellent video
Very interesting. Good video. Really enjoyed this
Aviation museum closed due to public health measures? Bismarck to the rescue!
Thanks for another great video. However you glanced over the D,VII's main technical advancement. For the first time during the war, and perhaps in aviation history, a wind tunnel program
was carried out during the plane's development. This resulted in the flat bottomed airfoil you mentioned. Up till that point, both upper and lower airfoil surfaces were cambered like a bird's.
By late 1917/early 1918 engineers on both sides began to realize that imitating nature had its limits. This research led to a veritable "paradigm shift" from which aircraft design has never looked
back.
W.M. Yeats, who wrote Winged Victory, said they outperformed the Sopwith Camel in everything except turning to the right. He feared those upper wing extensions. It does not seem to have been particularly fast though. I am surprised they had such a great impact.
There is an original version in Quebec Canada that was one of several brought here after the war. It is in a museum and has never been restored. It is the real thing.
Interesting how 10m (30 ft) has been just about average for single seat, single engine fighter aircraft from 1917 to today. P51 is big, at 11.28m (37 ft), F16 is average at 9.96m (32 ft, 8 in)
I believe the F16 has more power than the Fokker, though.
I now know where to go for my historical aviation fix
The design of the Fokker D.VII has been credited to the German aircraft designer and manufacturer Reinhold Platz, who worked at the Fokker Flugzeugwerke. Prior to that he also designed the Dr.1, both of which he intended to be a cantilever design. The Triplane was initially not meant to carry struts, with Platz claiming this to be safe. The struts were later added on the F.1 to reassure the pilots. Antony Fokker was in fact a somewhat unpopular figure in Germany, due to the poor quality control at Fokker and the many deaths caused by the Triplane's habit of losing its wings mid-flight. One such ace, who was killed was Heinrich Gontermann. Lothar von Richthofen narrowly escaped death after his Triplane turned itself into a Biplane. He practically had to flee Germany after the war to escape possible persecution.
i bought some plans for this plane that i plan to begin building somtime in the beginning next year hopefully it all works out
Superb museum just outside Kraków too. They have what survived from Hermann Göering's collection. I wanted to see the PZL P.11 but it was not on display! Only 7zł to get in and around the museum!
I'm always intrigued by the WW1 German camouflage, looks like a modern-day cell phone map!
Or bright red, so you know who was going to kill you.
Kermit Weeks of “Flight of Fantasy “ in Florida said that pattern was in the fabric when woven and not painted on. Later the pilots would paint on their own colors.
Digital camo
Charles Goodwin Which does make it cell phone camo!
It is known as the lozenge pattern
I want the shirt! I didn't notice when i watched this the first few times
Excellent tutorial..
Thank you for making this in English - gr8 video. V. interesting.
Pai nga korero e hoa..hai mohio te hiitori o enei ererangi tawhito.. kaapai presente ✌️🤙 Kia ora...thnx👍
Do you mean 'dished' pistons? I'd have thought 'domed' pistons would actually decrease cylinder volume. Also, no mention of the D VII's main 'box spar' which I believe was an innovation, giving the aircraft's wings great strength and torsional rigidity.
Well, the "volume" of the piston increases, with a dome.
Now that I have a closer look, the camouflage scheme could be described as a repeated pattern of two color hour glass shapes, express by putting two hexagons together
I've got a trip booked to Bavaria in September. Assuming I can still go, I might check this museum out.
Might ? Sorry, but this is an absolutely must see and very easy to get to by public transport. There is a fantastic range of aircraft, engines and buildings, but for me, the D VII was the star. Not because of the technical innovations ( I only found out about most of these on this video), but because it is the most evil and sinister looking fighter that I have ever seen. You only have to stand in front of it to understand why it was written into the Armistice.
A little known fact, the prototype DVII was a bear to fly, the fuselage was lengthened, which then turned an average pilot into a very good pilot.
What was the purpose/benefit of the airfoil around the axle of the landing gear? I remember seeing such only on the DR1 and D VII. What aerodynamic effect did it have?
i glaube das war das erste Flugzeug das synchronisiert durch die Propeller geballert hat. wie immer deutsche Erfindung^^
You probably mean less volume rather than more (in the combustion chamber that is) with the domed pistons for a higher compression ratio.
great video
Love this...post what you can
I think the Germans figured out before anyone else that a fatter wing gave a better lift. In contrast, other nations were fixated on thinner wings-no one really had a good understanding of the lift dynamics behind them. I offer the triplane as an example-the German tri plane’s fatter wing helped its climb and maneuver-not the extra drag of an extra wing.