Hi,am looking for info on a pilot from Jasta 59.I have rediscovered an old decal sheet in my loft,its the old 72nd Blue Rider sheet #BR203.The a/c I am interested in is the Albatros D Va 7352/17 of Jasta 59,unfortunately no details of its pilot are described.Anybody have any details.
TIA......Dave.

Hello Dave;

You are talking about the black cat right?

Hello JackFlash,yes,thats the one.
Dave

Greetings Dave;

In reference to Albatros D.Va 7352/17 there were at least two companies that did decals fo this machine. It was photographed by Jasta 59 member Ltn Oskar Scherf sometime around Sept. - Nov. 11,1918.

The other company that did the decals was Aeromaster in their 48-142 sheets. The pilot they attribute as its user was Ltn. Lehmann. Both Scherf and Lehmann are known to be in Jasta 59 by Sept. 1918. There is a photo of a Fokker D.VII in captivity after the war with this same insignia of the black cat.

Given Jasta 59 was assigned a wide cross section of different fighter aircraft, anyone in the unit could have flown his machine on any given date. Given that the machine was in the unit before any of these two gents showed up it could have been even he commander's aircraft at one point.

The National Air and Space Museum's book on the restoration of their DV has a photo of this aircraft on Page 19 showing mauve / green wings (as opposed to lozenge) and an over painted area under the fuselage cross. The windsock datafile Albatros Special also repeats this wing fabric error and gives a profile of this aircraft with lozenge wings.

BC

The overpainted area was a square 'field" where the original fuselage cross had been altered. It went from the iron cross to a thicker balkan cross (April / May 1918 ) to the final narrow (post July 1918) version we see here. The field could be a simulated wood colour like a dirty cream or even a grey.

Brad is also right about the two tone upper surface camouflage and light blue undersurfaces.

Thanks for all the info guys,most helpful.And thanks for the wing colour info,I was just hunting out my lozenge decals ready to slap them onto the wings.Thanks for the PM Stephen,sorry about not replying has have been out earning a crust and have just gotten up to modelling room and computer!
Regards......Dave.