It .... Is .... Spectacular!!!
Anyone within driving distance to Canberra HAS to go and see the 'Great War In The Air' Exhibit at the AWM.
It really is one of the best done by the Museum - and they have done some brilliant ones over the years.
As Catch mentioned there are five original aeroplanes, the Se5a and the Pfalz D.XII suspended from the roof (if you go to the upstairs Cafe your on the same level as these); and the Albatross D.V, DH.9a and Avro on the floor.
It really is impressive to see these aeroplanes in the flesh. The Se.5a was smaller than I had always imagined - I guess due to the short (26' 7") wingspan (even the Camel has a greater wingspan at 28').
The Albatross D.V is simply beautiful - sleek and extremely streamlined for the period. With a 30' wingspan it literally dwarf's the Se.5a. Seeing the Albatross in the air would have been quite scarey! No wonder the Germans were so taken by it when it first came out in 1916.
The DH.9 is simply huge, the pilot being so far back along the fuselage it's a wonder he could see anything, even when flying level with that dirty great radiator stuck on top of the engine block. Landing must have been a nightmare and, as for taking off, the pilot's blind until he's in the air.
The Pfalz D.XII is very workmanlike, with none of the beauty of the earlier D.III's. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the claims for Fokker D.VII's were in fact the Pfalz D.XII - it looks very similar (but a poor man's copy).
And as for the Avro 504 well, she's a lady pure and simple. Would ahe been a wonderful aeroplane to learn to fly on.
Besides the aeroplanes there are many extra's (genuine pieces) placed around the display to keep the interest up. Various machine guns (including a camera gun); a real Sidcoat and a British full length flying leather jacket; medals (including the Blue Max); Richthofen's joystick from his Dr.1; a balloon observers basket and a flak gun; several different bombs including a 1,600lb British bomb; 1/32 scale models of the Sopwith Snipe and Triplane, R.E.8, Bristol Fighter and the DH.5, plus lots of placques and stories to create an interesting environment.
Dominating it all is the 70' x 12' screen that constantly changes with static pictures of aeroplanes, landing fields and personnel; then switching to short films of aeroplanes in flight, several spinning out of control and a few actually crashing. All geniune WWI footage.
Every 60 minutes a special show comes on, a narration of war in the air starting with original footage (black and white film) that fades into Peter Jackson's film - which is brilliant! All up it runs for just under 23 minutes, of which Peter's clip is 12 minutes.
GO! If you live nearby GO!
P.S. The one thing I felt that's missing from the Exhibition is the background to the restoration of the aircraft. There is no story about how the various aeroplanes came to be in the possession of the AWM, how long it's had them, and what efforts they have gone to to bring them back up to a exhibition standard.
At the opening dinner last Friday ( which was fun being surrounded by WWI aircraft nuts! :costumes
we were treated to a verbal history and slide show of how the restortaion was done. It took several years and quite painstaking research to get things right. For example the restoration staff actually found a company in Germany that still possessed one of the presses that was used to print the lozenge pattern camouflage - as it appears on both the Albatross and Pfalz. Another example is the research into what type of tape was used to sow over the stitching. Colours, parts, cabling, photographs, plans, material; all had to be sourced to make the aircraft as original as humanly possible.
They actually had some treated linen fabric mounted on a frame for us to touch - it's surprisingly strong. Drop a coin on it and it will bounce back up in the air. You can't push your finger through it - several folks were encouraged to try and failed.
:ernae:
