A_P_2015_04

April 2015 African Pilot 67

in planning this museum was to design most displays

around full scale replica aircraft that are completely

accurate in their external appearance. This approach

has several advantages, one of which is that replica

aircraft can be displayed in realistic settings complete

with simulated battle damage that is not desirable

when working with rare original airframes.

Every vignette is designed to show an important

aspect of the early evolution of aerial combat. The

first of these shows a German Etrich Taube with

its observer firing a rifle at an approaching British

BE2. The Taube, with its distinct birdlike wings, is

a full-size replica whilst the BE2 is a large model.

With clever use of perspective the two planes seem

in correct proportion and the concept of aircrew in

these reconnaissance aircraft taking pot shots at

each other with small arms is effectively conveyed.

Having turned aircraft into offensive weapons, the

next question for the air arms of the warring nations

and therefore their aircraft designers, was how to

most effectively arm their aeroplanes, particularly

with machine guns. The next exhibit shows the two

major methods adopted in 1915, one involving the

placement of pilot and machine gun ahead of the

propeller in a pusher design such as the DH2 and

the other the invention of an interrupter gear that

allowed the gun to be fired through the propeller as

pioneered by the Fokker E1 Eindekker. Two full size

replicas of these aircraft types shown in a tail-chase

combat, illustrate the means by which guns could be

aimed at the enemy by aiming the aircraft. Although

part of this display, the DH2 is a flyable aircraft that

has featured in past airshows at Omaka.

The origins of aerial bombing are also portrayed in one

of the displays. The observer in a German Albatross

B II is shown dropping a bomb over the side of the

cockpit, aiming it simply with the naked eye. From

these crude beginnings, aerial bombing technology

would advance rapidly over the next few years.

Perhaps inevitably at least one display had to be devoted

to a dawn patrol and it is a beautifully constructed RE 8

which forms the centrepiece for this theme. The much

maligned ‘Harry Tate’ (in rhyming cockney) was one of

the types used in large numbers on the Western Front

and despite its vulnerability to enemy fi ghters it is apt

that it should be included here. Acknowledging the

role of ground crews in squadrons, the fi gures shown

preparing the aircraft include armourers loading the

ammunition drums of the Lewis guns.

The most appealing life-size diorama in the museum
is a winter scene meant to convey something of the
chivalry associated with air combat in this war. In a
snow-covered tableau, not based on any particular
incident, a British pilot who has just been shot down
The crew of an Etrich Taube representing the fi rst aerial combat