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[Zflyer48]

Albatros J1
Something for the New Year.

Crew: two, pilot and observer
Length: 8.80 m (28 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 14.14 m (46 ft 5 in)
Height: 3.37 m (11 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 43.0 m2 (463 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,398 kg (3,082 lb)
Gross weight: 1,808 kg (3,986 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Benz Bz.IV , 150 kW (200 hp)
Performance

Maximum speed: 140 km/h (90 mph, 78 kn)
Range: 350 km (220 mi, 190 nmi)
Service ceiling: 4,500 m (14,800 ft)
Rate of climb: 2.0 m/s (400 ft/min)
Armament
2 × 7.92 mm (.312 in) Spandau LMG 08/15 machine guns, fixed downward
1 × 7.92 mm (.312 in) Parabellum MG14 machine gun for observer

[vonOben]

Great!
Much appreciated Zflyer48 

[stiv_069]

супер!

[David Prosser]

Thanks for this.

[UberDemon]

Damn dude!  You are one talented designer.

[Whiskey_Sierra_972]

Some strafing are coming!

Thanks for it!

[Zflyer48]

Soon to Beta. Another forgotten plane for a forgotten war.

[Zflyer48]

I found a lot of references stating the J1 had lower MGs for strafing. But. I cannot fine the angle at
which they are firing. Right now, I have it set at 45 degrees. If anyone knows the right angle, please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

[Dreamk]

On the Albatros JII (not  the JI) the two fixed Spandau machine guns were mounted at the bottom of the fuselage, behind the pilot, at an angle of 45 downwards. The downward-firing guns were controlled by the observer. He sighted the guns through a small hole in the armored floor of his cockpit. The installation was common to all the J types (not only teh Albatros). therefore the arrangement was similar to the AEG JII and not symetrical  - look at the mod of the AEG JII on this forum to see the arrangement of theses guns - it include meshes and java classes of the Spandau & Parabellum machine guns and the Becker cannon.
Look at this photograph and you'll see the guns protruding under the fuselage of an Albatros JII:

Yes, they are obvious only if you know what to look due to teh angle of view of the photograph, so to make it easier to identify the guns on the above photograph, here are photographs of a similar gun arrangement protruding under an AEG J


Some Albatros JI aircraft mounted a 20mm Becker cannon on the left side of the aircraft for ground attack, and especially destroying tanks:


As 1918 progressed more and more AEG and Albatros J-types were fitted with flexible 2cm Becker cannon for ground attack, especially destroying tanks, which became increasingly important to the German Army as the Allies deployed ever greater numbers of tanks. Initially the 2cm Becker cannon were fitted to the side of the fuselage for operational evaluation, but this limited their field of fire to one side of the aircraft. From August 1918 some AEG J.II and Albatros J.II aircraft were delivered with the cannon flexibly mounted in the floor of the observer's cockpit. The cannon fired downward and the observer aimed through an armored grill.


J class aircraft were deployed in one or two machines to the Fl.Abt. at Armee Korp or Armee Ober Kommand level. They were used to determne the location of the front line during a battle. This required the aircraft to fly very low over the battle about 50 m (164ft.)
The observer had load of the "small tear-gas bombs" which he was dropping close to the entrances to the Allied dug-outs, to force the hiding soldiers to
leave their shelters. Then the pilot returned over the trenches so teh observer could shoot at them with the double MG fixed in the bottom of his cockpit.

In 1918 seven selected Schlachtstaffeln were issued a single Alb.J.I machine with the Observer armed with a 20mm Becker Cannon to be used to fly low over the battle field to combat British and French Tanks.

[Dreamk]

here's a table with the data (including ramamnet and its angles) of the J-aircarft of 1918: Albatros JII and AEG JII . Ach! its in German - but one can easily understand...

[Zflyer48]

Thanks, DreamK.
BTW, nice to hear from you. Been awhile.
Mike

[Dreamk]

Yes, real life kept my far from modding for quite some time  . But I'm back for now  enjoying your creations - I always found the Baltic theater of operations fascinating, and all these recent planes Junkers D-1, Junkers CL-1, Albatros J1 and JII were teh satrs of this show.

I found some more photograph of the J2. The guns were indeed quite asymnetrical like on the AEG J2 . they were both located in teh left half of the fuselage one forward of the other but not on the same line:


and this is the installation tested with a Becker inside the fuselage firing downward, instead of being mounted on the side of teh fuselage as shown on teh photographs in my previous post:
(the cannon is not present only its installation. the hole is now in the middle of the fuselage, behind teh pilot position
The cannon is present - but the angle of the photography enables jsut to see the handles of this cannon. An interesting detail is the two observation windows in the floor of the aircarft - which taises of course the issue to teh degree of armour of these planes - it is known that the engine was not enough p[rotected but teh presence of these windows tends to indicate that only the pilot's position was armoured.


And a profile of color the JII - the famous "tiger camo" (probably only a single plane was painted like that)