Victor Yeates

Everyone with an interest in the RFC in The Great War should read ‘Winged Victory’ by Victor Yeates.
It’s a novel but Yeates served on 46 Sqn. RFC and was an ace on Camels.
The book is written as a novel with the names changed to protect the innocent (and perhaps the guilty) but the reader can tell from page one that the author was really there.

There’s a lot of detail in the book about operating rotary engines and Vickers guns. Yeates mentions ‘charging handles’ several times and the problems with interrupter gear.
This book is a must–it is the best book written about The Great War.
Go out today, buy it and spend this weekend reading it!
You’ll join Cross And Cockade by Tuesday and spend the rest of the time between now and Christmas studying the first war in the air.
Yes, I like it very much. 🙂 🙂
Cheers
Andy

Good stuff. I never knew of the hydraulic system. I still find it amazing that SE5a pilots used to change the Lewis drum on the upper mainplane in flight. That idea was certainly thought up by a non flyer IMHO… The mental judo applied to overcoming the problem of forward firing armament is quite amazing – look at the FE pushers for instance. Did anyone actually fit guns to the wings? If not why not? Were the wings not strong enough or was the drag penalty too great (as the wings weren’t thick enough to take a Lewis or Vickers internally)?

Hi
The Lewis gun mounting on the SE5 and 5A was known as a Foster Mount. It was devised by Sergeant R.G. Foster of 11 Sqn. RFC in 1916. It allowed the pilot to pull down the Lewis gun on a quadrant rail to change the ammunition drum.
I think the Lewis was tensioned with bungee cords to overcome gravity when pushing it back into position.
The Lewis was fired via a Bowden cable from the cockpit.
It was first installed on RFC Nieuport machines in that year, but was later used on other types, the SE5 family being the most well known.
Albert Ball certainly developed his own method with the Foster Lewis, he would pull it down on the rail and fire it upwards into the belly of an enemy aircraft while flying underneath it.

Aircraft guns were grouped together close to the fuselage on early aircraft for several reasons.
Firstly I would think they needed to be close to the centre of gravity, second the wings of early aircraft were never going to be strong enough to withstand the stresses involved with gun mountings and thirdly a crew member needed to be able to reach the gun to clear stoppages as early aircraft machine guns were so unreliable.
This practice was continued in Britain until the Hurricane was introduced. The previous RAF fighter the Gloster Gladiator still had two of it’s four guns located in such a way that the pilot could reach the breeches.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Andy

Melvyn…
say hi to Tony Harmsworth for me, willya? Just don’t send the kilt pic.
Mark

Mark
Big mistake.
Never ever send anyone a picture here with the line ‘Please don’t send’ attached.
No doubt MH has already altered it and sent it to Tony Harmsworth.
That’s how all this got started!!
Andy

Sad…

Geoff
I’m saddened by your apparent reluctance to put the boot into Patty when he’s off line at Reno and not able to defend himself. I’ll be the one that pays in the end so you might as well have a good time. 😉 😉 🙂 🙂

Rob
was it ‘Fleet Air Arm at War’ by any chance??
Cheers
Andy

Thanks for postingRob.
May he rest in peace and away from pain.

Melv
You look good good in the leather gear.
Does Carol go for that in a big way?
All the best
Andy 😀 😀 😀

Melv
Does that Red X mean something significant?
Like burried treasure here?