Fokker DVII at Knowlton, Quebec -- a few new photos

[aabryant]

After growing up in the Eastern Townships and being a lifelong aviation buff, I was astonished to learn about the genuine, unrestored Fokker DVII that resides in Knowlton (Lac Brome), Quebec.

I finally managed to see and photograph this machine last week. All I can say is "wow". The aircraft is a gem, as is the museum. Where else can one see a genuine 1918 Albatros factory-applied lozenge camouflage pattern surrounded by period 1921 stained glass?

This small museum is operated by the Brome Lake Historical Society, a body that receives almost no government funding. Knowlton is located about 1.5 hours east of Montreal, and is equidistant to the Quebec-Vermont border at Stanstead. There is a modest ($5.00 Cdn.) admission fee. The museum is tripod and camera friendly. Language barriers are non-existent. Most people in this part of Quebec are fluently bilingual (French and English). I found the museum volunteers to be friendly and helpful, although they seemed somewhat bemused that somebody would actually travel across the country from British Columbia just to see an old aeroplane...a feeling shared by my long-suffering wife Heather! The museum has no official website, but an excellent photo essay of this airframe, including more numerous and better quality images than mine, can be found at:http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/BromeCountyMuseum/index.html

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed seeing this rare bird!

Entrance to the museum


Remember. It's just an old wooden propeller...it's just an old wooden propeller...it's just an old...


But it's attached to this


and the whole darn thing is surrounded by all this gorgeous old-growth wood and wonderful stained glass


Now I'm quite sure nobody has dusted here recently, and the lighting is less than perfect, but there is a helpful stairwell on the NE corner of the building that allows one to see the topside of the aircraft. I used one of those small "gorillapod" travel tripods to wrap around the stairwell railings. A very handy gadget even with my rather heavy Nikon D90. Note that the aircraft is not pristine. There is noticeable fabric damage in a few areas, including the top of port wing visible here. I'm glad nobody has tried to fix it in the interests of "restoration".


Did I mention the unbelievedly gorgeous stained glass? It makes getting the white balance rather tough for poor photographers like myself, but the natural light gives a warm glow to everything in a building that hasn't changed much since 1921 when it was built expressly to house the Fokker, and ceremoniously opened by then-Prime Minister of Canada Robert Borden. Sadly our current Prime Minister Stephen Harper is more interested in closing things related to Canadian heritage, science or culture than Mr. Borden was, but I digress.


More fabric damage, this time on the port rear fuselage. This may have happened sometime after 1962 when the aircraft was last moved outside at the Canada Aviation Museum and reassembled in the current location, but this is pure speculation on my part. The damage does not look "new" to me.


The engine bay appears complete to me, but I'm no expert


Undercarriage detail. I was quite taken by the quaint Boy Scout mounting technique. Seriously. Is that a square lashing or the prototype for a bungee cord?


Underside port wing. This was the only place where the lozenge camouflage was noticeably irregular compared to the rest of the airframe. To my untrained eye this looks like a patch job, but was it done in 1963 or 1921 or 1918?


Others before me have noted that various parts of the airframe show different serial numbers. Apparently changing elevators/rudders/ailerons and other components was fairly typical in the field during WWI. Remember that the Fokker DVII only started arriving on front lines in April 1918. So was this a genuine field mod or a re-assembly of components by the Canadian Government after one Senator Bolton of Knowlton politely asked "could we pretty please have an aeroplane for our museum?" Trivia. Total travel cost to ship a Fokker by train from Camp Borden, Ontario to Knowlten, Quebec in 1920? $112.50 Cdn. Those were the days my friend.


The cockpit area seems to be completely intact. Sadly my detailed pics of the dual spandaus turned out poorly.


For me the most incredible part was the realization that this was not a museum re-creation. This was the original item created at the Albatros factory in 1918.


There were a bunch of other war trophies within the museum, including this mortar


and these incredible examples of WWI wartime propaganda juxtiposed beside another piece of exceptional glasswork.


Full disclosure: My late grandfather Albert Bryant served at Mons, Vimy and Ypres (16th Field Artillery). Seeing this amazingly well-done local museum brought tears to my eyes and made it really hard to hold the camera steady. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[JDK]

Great report, Andrew, great photos.

Using 'Bungee'* cord as a suspension system was the most common undercarriage system in the great war and just pre.

PS you have a PM!

'Bungee' or 'Bungy' - factory-produced braided shock cord.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungee_jumping#Equipment

[Richard W.]

Marvelous. Thank you.

Was there any purpose for the two-tone appearance of the propellor? Two types of wood?

[JohnB]

What a priceless relic.
And the fact it's in a small musem and not in some hermetically sealed national collection makes it even better.

[MacHarvard]

About 30 years ago, we took the kids to the zoo at Granby and then carried on down to Stanstead into Vermont. There was no border crossing of any kind at that time and when we hit a small town and saw the flags, we suddenly realized we were in the United States! How things have changed!

The link posted doesn't work for me at the moment, but I'll do some more tweaking. However, I took a quick look for a website for the museum and came up with this: http://www.bromemuseum.com/

Thanks for the headsup on something I missed completely on my own, Andrew. Looks like a weekend jaunt will be in order this summer.

cheers
Doug

[aabryant]

Oops. I goofed on the URL for William Maloney's website, which is at http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/BromeCountyMuseum/index.htm

Thanks for the replies JDK and Doug. There appears to be much of aerospace history located in remote Quebec towns...


Best, Andrew

[JDK]

Was there any purpose for the two-tone appearance of the propellor? Two types of wood?

That's a good question. AFAIK, there's no advantage or need for different hardwood colours, and many props were (part) sheathed or fabric covered at various points in the pioneer and Great War era, so you'd never see them. However it's obviously a popular aesthetic choice. Anyone able to comment further?

A bit more background, here from Ray Rimell's World War One Survivors, Ashton / Motorbooks 1990.

One of the most authentic specimens of the seven known surviving D.VIIs may be found in Quebec, lovingly maintained by the Brome County Historical Society. Their Fokker was one of 22 D.VIIs sent out to Canada as war trophies, 6810/18 being despatched from Feltham in the UK on 12 March, 1919. Several German aeroplanes were initially stored at Camp Borden, Ontario, and records suggest that various machines were sent to McGill, Mount Allison, Acadia, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan Universities and to Brome County. At least seven of the 22 D.VIIs were loaned to a company formed by wartime aces Major William Avery Bishop, VC, and Lieutenant Colonel William George Barker, VC, which toured the country giving air displays. Brome County's D.VII appears to be the sole survivor and was shipped from Camp Borden to Knowlton on 27 May, 1920, at a cost of $ 112.50.

During the 1960s RCAF Trenton undertook to refurbish the Fokker whilst endeavouring to retain as much of the original five-colour 'lozenge' fabric covering as possible. Deterioration was evident in many places and careful patchwork had to be done using reconstructed material made available by NASM, Washington DC.

Recent study of 6810/18 by enthusiasts has revealed some interesting features of this historic aeroplane. It was noted that the D.VII, like so many other WWI museum exhibits, is a composite of several-different machines. The number 6810 appears on the fuselage and all cowling panels except the nose piece, which bears 'OAW 6504'. Other components identified thus far include the tailplane (6506); elevator (8313); starboard aileron (8502) and port aileron (8502). Whether these substitutions were made to the aero- plane during its wartime service or in early Canadian ownership is not known.

Quite a few points of interest there, particularly regarding the fabric, and relating to the comments by Andrew.

Regards,

[Russell Smith]

Gorgeous pic of a gorgeous bird. Thanks for posting!

Ed Soye (a member here) has done extensive research on this bird. Hopefully he'll see this thread and pitch in.

[Edward Soye]

Good Morning,

If anyone is interested in some more context as to why the most original example of the Fokker D.VII in the world is at the BCHS in rural Quebec, please see my article on the Vintage Wings website.

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/38/language/en-CA/Those-Canadian-Fokkers--War-Trophies-and-the-Nascent-Canadian-Air-force.aspx

By way of context, I wrote my masters thesis (Canadian War Trophies: Arthur Doughty and German Aircraft Allocated to Canada After the First World War) on the subject. The article above is a small sample of the research that went into the larger project.

Also, Russ has beautifully depicted this aircraft shortly after its arrival in Toronto during the summer of 1919. See http://www.russellsmithart.com/Small%20pages/Spoils%20of%20War.html

Sincerely,

Edward P. Soye

edward.soye@gmail.com