What to know about replica WWI plane involved in Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome fatal crash

The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York canceled its remaining air shows for the season after a World War I replica plane crashed on Oct. 5 , killing 60-year-old pilot and board member Brian Coughlin.

The aerodrome has one of the country's largest collections of antique airplanes and routinely shares that collection with the community through its living history museum and weekly air shows, a display that is at once daring artistry and storytelling.

Coughlin was flying one such plane, a Fokker D.VIII.

Fewer than 400 of the original Fokker D.VIII planes were made, according to Matthew Burchette, senior curator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Built just 20 years after the Wright Brothers made their first historic flight, its intricacies and technologies used at the time make for a complicated reproduction. Its impact in WWI, given the timing and the number made, was minimal, but historic replicas have preserved its story.

Burchette, who has worked at the museum for five years, has 30 years of experience working in aviation museums. The Seattle Museum of Flight has just under 20 WWI planes, and of those, three are originals; the rest are replicas or reproductions.

Fokker D.VIII aircraft's use in WWI

The Fokker D.VIII was Anthony Fokker's final design of World War I and wasn't built until late in the war. Not many made it to the frontline service, given how many were made.

Fokker's designs had started with E.III, a monoplane — a plane with a single wing — and then went on to biplanes, along with the Fokker TriPlane or Dr.I, — think "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron." The D.VIII came later, following the similar D.VII design but with a rotary engine instead of the D.VII's inline. The engine was bolted to the propeller, Burchette said, and the entire engine and propeller spun the engine was started.

It was fast and nimble, with a fascinating design, but ultimately didn't have much impact on the war.

Additionally and atypical for the time, there were no bracing wires used for the wings of the D.VIII. Burchette noted pilots were hesitant to fly in the D.VIII because of that.

"They were very used to A: two wings, and B: a lot of wires holding everything together," he said.

Piloting World War I planes was already a courageous feat in itself, as it was before the time of metal planes; they were still crafted from wood and fabric. Plane designers had to keep things light, and "the engines weren't very powerful," Burchette noted.

WWI planes had much more sparse wing spars than those used today, only running a portion of the wing length. There were also ribs that went forward to back on the wings, and everything was then covered in fabric. The wings were up on struts, so the pilot could see out the front, and then wires were crisscrossed and strung to strengthen everything, "kind of like bicycle spokes," he said.

"The only thing holding it together were all the wires going from the fuselage to these various points on the wings, and it all tied it together," he said.

The D.VIII and the D.VII however, didn't have these wires. "Where Anthony Fokker came in with the Fokker D.VII," Burchette said, "he put in a really big, heavy spar that was strong enough to support the wing, and it did not have any flying wires."

The D.VII was a biplane, while the D.VIII only had one more substantial top wing, which produced more lift and subsequently didn't need wiring. There were still a few wires, holding landing gear together and to help with controlling the plane, but other than that, Burchette said, "the only bracing was the metal tubing that held the wing in place."

The challenges of flying WWI planes, the Fokker D.VIII

WWI planes, especially ones with rotary engines like the D.VIII, would spray castor oil — used at the time instead of aviation oil — all over the place when they were turning. "You would end up just covered in this oil after a flight," Burchette said.

These aircraft could reach heights of 20,000 feet or more, but pilots at the time would need to keep their aircraft well below 14,000 feet just so they had the ability and chance of being able to catch a breath, and they'd wear multiple layers to stay warm, sitting in a wicker, wood or cane seat in the exposed cockpit. They typically stayed in the air for no more than two hours.

"I think to fly one of these — I'm sure it was exciting," Burchette said, "but maybe not something that you looked forward to."

How do Fokker D.VII replicas compare to the original

Bruchette noted there are two big differences when it comes to replica D.VIII planes compared to the original: the engine and the instrumentation.

"It kind of depends on the person building the replica... A lot of guys can't afford to find an original German Oberursel rotary engine, so they'll use something more modern, but they're going to try to replicate the flight characteristics as closely as possible," he said.

Instead of a rotary engine like the originals had, a replica may have a radial engine, where the engine itself is stationary and the propeller turns — the opposite of a rotary engine. This will cause the the plane to fly a bit differently, and most likely a bit more easily depending on the aircraft.

The replica aircraft Coughlin built and piloted used an original 160 HP Gnome, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome said in an email statement Thursday. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, it was manufactured in 1994 .

Regarding instrumentation, "you're going to have much better instruments," he said, in a replica, such as a radio or GPS, and much more to work with compared to the pilots of WWI. "These guys literally had the bare bones when it came to instruments," he said.

Original aircraft had minimal tools to indicate altitude, and their version of a throttle was just a switch or button. When they wanted to slow down, they had to cut the horsepower of the engine by pressing the button. Once the engine was going on one of these planes, it just kept running.

Flying these types of planes when they were built was not for the faint of heart, and creating their replicas is a skillful labor of love. "It's not intuitive," Burchette said.

Red Hook Police Department's initial investigation into the fatal crash determined unknown mechanical issues in the plane's engine had caused a fire. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the crash is ongoing and has not determined the cause.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: What to know about replica WWI plane involved in Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome fatal crash