Hans Trauner sent in the following photos. information, Hans can be contacted via E-mail at: hans.trauner@nefkom.net
The pictures shows Halberstadt Cl. IV, 8103/18, on loan from the NASM, currently in the Flugwerft Schleissheim, the Oberschleissheim branch of the Deutsches Museum, Munich. 8103/18 is part of a collection of four Halberstadt CL.IV from Paul Straehle, the forme JASTA 18 pilot. He started Straehle Luftverkehr ( Air Traffic) with several Halberstadts in 1919. The last flight of one of his Halberstadts was on Sept. 09, 1938. The D71 was restored by Daimler Benz in the sixties, but three more where still stored in Schorndorf. In the beginning of the eighties Paul Straehle tried to find a new place and planned to restore one of his Halberstadts to fly it. No partner could be found in Germany, so the complete collection went to the U.S. in 1982. Stan Parris and Ken Hyde swapped them for 6 T-28 from the Air Force Museum in Dayton. But they remained unrestored. The Museum fuer Verkehr und Technik offered to restore the Halberstadts, for getting one of them for display. The MVT now has D-IBAO on exhibit in Berlin, the US-Airforce-Museum got the 'Zebra' ( serial unknown) and the NSAM got 8103/18. It is still ( April 2001) in Schleissheim, until the NASM has finished the new buildings, I presume. This series of Halberstadt restaurations are one of the best of WWI german aircrafts,yet. In my view they only compares to NASM's Albatros D.V. Lozenge fabric was printed after painstaking research, as a lot of original fabric was saved. On 8103/18 the fuselage camouflage could be restored, also, including correct shades of the used paints.
Beautiful restoration of original plane, this aircraft features brass turnbuckles. The tires appear to be authentic 'Continental' and are mounted on wheels covered with fabric. These covers have laced valve access points and the hubs have been painted and cotter-pinned. The undercarriage is sprung with black rubber bungee cords, and the suspension is protected from damage by looped wire travel-limiters. The propeller is a seven-lamination Luchenwald that appears to be walnut and spruce, and is mounted to a hub that has a black center plug notched for some sort of mechanical prop-turner.
The wings are covered in five-color lozenge fabric applied at a 45-degree angle. The rib tapes are cut from the same fabric, as are the leading edge tape, which is doped over the rib tapes. The lower wings only have metal stacking pads, and there appear to be cotter or clevis pins that hold the spars to the fuselage. These pins are secured to the plane with small chains to prevent their misplacement when the wings are removed.
The underside of the center section of the top wing, and all metal fittings not otherwise described are painted a grayish green, including the metal tube struts. This center section features the unpainted aluminum Teeves und Braun radiator, through which one can see daylight. The gravity tank features two small copper gas lines, one forward and one aft, traveling down into the engine compartment.
The engine pipes are a blue-black steel, as is the exhaust, and all rubber fittings are black rubber. The leading cylinder is painted with a red band, which I presume to indicate an over-compressioned engine.
Other fittings of note include the pressure pump outside the pilot's cockpit on the starboard fuselage, and the unpainted two-part gun ring atop the gray-green metal struts. The crew also has a wing-well compass on the port lower wing, and an anemometer (painted black) on the starboard interplane strut. There is a fuel drain underneath the pilot's main tank. Note Halberstadt decal on rudder only. Also note the thumb-turn cowl fastener buttons and the tiny springs holding the cowl chin panels together.
The following pictures were taken at the USAF Museum by Matt Bittner. For more information, Matt can be contacted via E-mail at: tbittners@sprintmail.com