The San Diego Dr-1 is a bit of a joke. It remnds me of the "antique"
car shows so popular today. The dars look about thirty times better
no than they ever did when in production. Polished brass, flawless metal work
and finishes bestowed by their owners lovingly........ RUBBISH!
Examine the Dr-1 more closely if you ever see it close up. Beatifully done
leather work and stitching (wrong). Painted interior ( wrong). Machined
brass cowl attachment fittings ( wrong). And the Coup de grace, polished
enigine turned foot skid plates under the rudder bar in the cockpit!
> The color ( which also matches the paint color of my original Morell
>Aneomometer ) was probalbly choosen to give better visability in bad
>lighting conditions as well as protect bare wood and fabric from fuel
>and oil.
More by error probably than anything else the base interior color is not too
far off. The way the real Dr-1 were done is basicly this way. The main
interior tubular structure was painted a soft grey to minimise corrosion.
The interiors of the tubing were NOT however protected with oil as is
(or should be) done. Note older Dr-1s in field service sometimes show rust
stains bleeding out into their fabric.
Other interior parts like the clips that held things to the frame, or the gun
brackets were usually "japanned". This corroponds pretty much to Black stove
paint.
Fabric interior would look pretty much like the base fabric color, but would
take a bit of the cast of the streaking color sowing thru from the other side.
All wood were simply varnished thinly.
Fokker ( the man) seemed to have to guiding principle. Make it LIGHT, and
make it CHEAP.
Silver Hill Historic Aviation Ltd. | Research - Documentation
4051 Ivy Lane | Photography - Paints
Easton, Pa. 18045 | Antique Instrumentation