Updated: 10.06.99

The PC version of DoA has an aircraft information window in each plane selection. This is not implemented on the Mac version. I've added the information to this page for the benefit of Mac users. Also below are the Zeppelin piloting 101 and the SE5a Lewis gun documents.

Spad VII

The Spad VII was a good all-around aircraft in 1917. Slightly outclassed by the Fokker DR1, it also slightly out-performs the Albatross D-Va. It is slightly slower than the Bristol F2B in speed at 119 mph in level flight.

The Spad VII carries one .303 Vickers machinegun, making it a bit undergunned.

The Spad VII zooms a bit better than either of its main opponents in Dawn of Aces, the DR1 and D-Va, so pilots should try to use vertical maneuvers as much as possible, twisting and turning to keep the DR1's and D-Va's from getting a shot until they fall off. Then you kick rudder, reverse, and hammerthem on the way down.

French built, over 6000 of this type were produced, first seeing service in 1916.

Albatros D-Va

The Albatros D-Va began service in October 1917, but was already becoming outclassed by Allied fighters. Still, it remained in production and some 1600 of the type were built.

The D-Va is armed with two 7.92mm Spandau machineguns in the cowl, giving it as much firepower as any other fighter. A beautifully streamlined aircraft, it is fairly fast (116 mph) and maneuvers well, but not as well as its opponents in most cases. It is a forgiving aircraft, however, and new pilots won't find themselves in too much trouble from their own mistakes, except for one particular weakness...it has a weak lower wing, and high stress will cause it to rip off. Try not to exceed 150 mph.

Fokker DR1

The Fokker DR1 triplane gained fame as the bright red mount of Manfred Von Richthofen, whose 80 kills made him WW1's leading ace. It possessed good climbout and incredible manuverability. If you manage to tie an opponent into a level or descending turn fight, you'll find nothing can match it. However, it is a slower plane compared to its opponents, and it does not turn and climb at the same time quite as well as many planes. Being a bit under-powered, you'll often find yourself behind an opponent but not able to point the nose up enough to get a good shot. A pair of Spandau 7.92mm machineguns are mounted on the cowl, giving it a very good punch.

The DR1 entered service in 1917, with some 300 being produced.

In Dawn of Aces, the DR1 and the deadly British Sopwith Camel are very well matched.

Sopwith F1 Camel

The Sopwith F1 Camel was widely regarded as the best of the British fighters. It entered service in 1917, with a total of over 5000 produced.

Able to meet the German fighters on at least even footing, it boasted good speed and outstanding manuverability. It was said that its ability to snap roll to the right was so quick, many pilots preferred to make a 3/4 snap-roll to the right to turn left, being quicker than the 1/4 roll to the left to achieve the same turn, with the added bonus of causing confusion to an enemy pilot trying to follow the manuever. While these characteristics make it a great fighter, they also make it somewhat unforgiving if flown poorly.

The large rotary engine in this plane causes some interesting gyroscopic effects, and until you're accustomed to them, aiming your guns may be difficult. In Dawn of Aces, only the Fokker DR1 stands out as an equal to the Camel in a turning fight, and then only if the turns are level or descending. It is armed with twin Vickers .303 machineguns on the cowling, giving it very respectable firepower.

Bristol F2B

The Bristol F2B ("Brisfit") reconnaissance fighter arrived in the Summer of 1917. A two seater, the F2B had a single Vickers 7.7mm (.303) Vickers gun in the front for the pilot, and a single Lewis gun of the same calibre for the observer in the rear. As with other fighters of this type, it will not turn nearly as well as a single seater, and it is an ill-advised F2B pilot who engages one of the German fighters as an equal. Of all the fighters in Dawn of Aces, this might be the worst turner, although it makes up for this by also being quite fast, with a top speed of around 123 mph in level flight. Unfortunately, the speed difference is usually not enough to give quick seperation from an attacking fighter, since the difference is normally only 10-20 mph at most. Still, it will certainly help in a long chase.

Like other two-seaters in Dawn of Aces, The Bristol has the ability to carry a backseater who can call in artillery strikes against enemy installations. Letting a Bristol circle your base is just not a good idea.

Halberstadt CL II

The Halberstadt CL II was originally designed as an escort and reconnaissance aircraft, but in late 1917 proved so effective at supporting German troops in ground attack that it was used almost exclusively for that purpose through the rest of the war.

The CL II carries a pilot and an observer, with a single 7.92mm machinegun firing forward for the pilot, and another single 7.92mm machinegun swivel mounted for the observer in the rear.

While not nearly as manuverable as the single seat fighters, the CL II is still fairly agile, if somewhat slow. Pilots should fly the plane with a mind towards getting their own shots, leaving the observer to pick up opportunities as they present themselves.

Like other two-seaters in Dawn of Aces, The CL-2 has the ability to carry a backseater who can call in artillery strikes against enemy installations. Letting a CL-2 circle your base is just not a good idea.

Spad XIII

As a successor to the well received SpadVII, the model XIII was faster and possessed a better climbrate than the "7". Its armament was also increased to 2 machine guns from the original single gun design.

Pilots soon found that they could disengage at will with this fast scout. This gave them a huge advantage against the slow- turning fighters of 1917 that were the norm. The XIII could also carry a decent load of bombs under the wings to use in a support or scout role.

The Spad XIII, at present, is the fastest plane in DoA. Use its speed and its ability to extend away from a fight and re-enter at will, to exploit the Spad to the fullest. Climbing ability also makes it a good choice for Zeppelin hunters. The Fokker DVII was designed as a fast scout/fighter. After initial deployment the DVII soon proved to be very effective in this role, and could fight on par with anything in the French or British inventory at the time of its debut in 1918.

Fokker DVII

The DVII is not superb in any one area over most other scouts, but its ease of handling, substantial climb ability, and great maneuverability, make it a decent all around fighter.

While not able to fit bombs on for support or bombing missions its ability to get to the action fast make the Fokker DVII a good choice for an interceptor or escort fighter.

LZ30 Zeppelin

The Zeppelin gained world wide fame when the Hindenburg crashed after WW1. But many people do not realize that the Hindenburg's lineage is born from a design as a combat airship!

The LZ30 was the mainstay Zeppelin of 1917 and operated with relative impunity from fighter attack due to the rate of ascent it could achieve by dropping ballast.

Near the end of the War the faster and better climbing scouts of the day began to threaten the big Zeppelins and they were eventually retired from frontline and deep strike duty.

In DoA the Zeppelin is quite a handful and does not fly remotely like a plane...it is simply a whole different animal. It is advised to read up on it's operation before venturing out in this lighter-than-air-ship.

Its bombload is massive. And with the ability to call artillery strikes as well, it can be seen as nothing less than an evil menace to its enemies.

Read "Zeppelin piloting 101" in your DoA directory for a tutorial on this, DoA's most feared bomber.

SE5a

The Royal Airplane Factory delivered the SE5 to RAF squadrons in 1917. It quickly became a favorite of fighter pilots due to itsease of handling and unique armament: A single Vickers gun firing from the fuselage, and a wing-mounted Lewis Gun fired as a separate weapon. Pilots found that the Lewis gun could be fired from its "reload" position which pointed up at a 45 degree angle. This was found to be useful in the "low 6" attack, and to "cut angles" on a tighter turning foe.

The Lewis gun in DoA can be fired straight ahead by simply pressing "b" or the secondary weapon button on the joystick, or can be pulled back to its famous "up 45" position by hitting the "\" key. In this mode the gun fires up and forward. The SE5 pilot can become very effective in dogfights by turning some "missed shots" into a stinging salvo from the Lewis if he is fast on the switch!

Zeppelin piloting 101

WW1 German lighter-than-air ships. Zeppelins.

Flying these enormous airships takes a different mindset. These are NOT airplanes.

They were relatively slow, with a maximum cruising speed somewhere around 65 mph. The greatest speeds were reached when the ship was pointed in the direction it was moving, presenting the least cross-section to the flow of air. Being perfectly aligned this way meant you were at ZERO angle of attack.

With sufficient airspeed, the Zeppelin could change altitudes by simply "driving" up or down using dynamic lift. The control surfaces require sufficient airflow (about 20-25 mph) over them to have an effect. The climb/dive rates generated by dynamic lift are somewhat slow, however...and there's a point where the airflow over the body of the ship cannot counteract the weight/buoyancy of the ship. Get too heavy or too light, and no amount of elevator will help.

Of course, the great WW1 airships used hydrogen gas for most of their lift, and water ballast (along with everything else aboard, including bombs) to counteract that lift. Venting the hydrogen allowed them to descend, while jettisoning weight allowed them to ascend. The climb/descent rates generated this way were much greater than those provided by dynamic lift.

To take off, simply start the engines, drop some water ballast, and you're off. As the Zeppelin ascends, it automatically begins to vent hydrogen to keep the skin from bursting as pressure outside decreases. Unfortunately, there is no way to replenish this gas.

The Zeppelin also has an emergency one-use ballast system, kept in reserve, to brake a descent if no other ballast is available. Using this drops all remaining gunner ammunition, the guns, any remaining bombs, and all but 5% of your fuel. To use this system, hit <SHIFT KEYPAD +> three times.

When the airship ascends, it is constantly losing hydrogen, and thus lift, as the gas is vented. At maximum altitude (somewhere around 13,000 ft) the Zeppelin can no longer climb, having vented too much hydrogen to lift itself further. This is fine if you don't mind a one way trip. You can stay up there forever, using the control surfaces for altitude adjustments.

However, coming back down quickly (or even reasonably slowly) means venting even more hydrogen. Once you begin this descent, there are only two ways to stop descending. One way is to lose weight, the other is to "fly" with dynamic lift. If you've kept ballast or bombs aboard, losing weight is no big problem. If you've already used all your ballast and dropped all your bombs...well...let's hope you didn't already drop that emergency ballast.

If you can keep your speed up, you can also use dynamic lift to slow your descent by "flying" the ship. Zeppelins don't do this very well though, and should you lose a couple engines or run out of fuel, it will be hard to maintain sufficient speed to generate any lift at all.

If you find yourself in a Zeppelin at 13,000 feet with no ballast or bombs, it generally means you're stuck there. Any method for getting down will be VERY slow, (since you can't afford to vent any more hydrogen) and if you miscalculate, you won't stop till the big crash at the bottom (Oh, the humanity!).

DOA Zeppelin Controls

You've got a huge bag of explosive hydrogen, 30,000 - 35,000 lbs of water ballast and fuel, 4 engines, a 10,000 lb bombload, and 6 gun positions with gobs of ammo.

WHY on Earth are you trying to fly this thing????

Well, too late now...you're already going up, aren't you?

So...how do you control this beast?

The Zeppelin has six cells, numbered 1 through 6 forward to aft. Each contains its own hydrogen gas and water ballast.

- Select/Deselect an individual cell by pressing <CTRL 1> through <CTRL 6>.

- Select ALL cells by pressing <KEYPAD INS>.

- Deselect ALL cells by pressing <KEYPAD DEL>.

- VENT GAS from the selected cell(s) by pressing <KEYPAD ->.

- DROP BALLAST from the selected cell(s) by pressing <KEYPAD +>.

- STOP venting gas *and* dropping ballast from the selected cell(s) by pressing <KEYPAD *>

- DROP EMERGENCY BALLAST: <SHIFT KEYPAD +> three times.

Note that you can use differential ballasting/venting to tilt the ship. Drop water from the #1 cell, and the nose will rise. Vent gas from number 6, and the tail will drop...and so forth.

The Zeppelin has four engines. Numbered as follows:

#1 = forward

#2 = aft

#3 = left center

#4 = right center

Engines 3 & 4 are reversible. Engines 1 & 2 run ahead only.

- Select all engines by pressing <SHIFT E>.

- Select an individual engine by pressing <SHIFT 1> through <SHIFT 4>.

- Select *and* start all engines by pressing <E>.

- START/STOP Eng #1 through Eng #4 individually by pressing <ALT 1> through <ALT 4>.

- To RUN Eng 3 or Eng 4 in REVERSE, press <ALT 3> or <ALT 4> again. Pressingfurther cycles these engines though stopped, running ahead, and running in reverse.

The Zeppelin's tail incorporates rudder and elevator surfaces. Control these with the joystick.

Running engines 3 or 4 in reverse can greatly increase turn rates. Running them both in reverse will help slow you down when it looks like you're gonna overshoot that landing.

Instruments

- Slip indicator: Same as in other aircraft. Indicates HORIZONTAL AoA.

- AoA (Angle of Attack): Indicates VERTICAL AoA.

- Pitch: Indicates fore-aft pitch relative to horizon.

- Cell selection: Red Light on when cell selected. The single red light to the side is lit when all cells are selected. (only cell 1 working)

- Cell Inflation: Gas pressure in selected cell. (only cell 1 working)

- Gas % remaining: Hydrogen gas left in selected cell. (only cell 1 working)

- Ballast Wt: Ballast remaining in selected cell. (only cell 1 working)

- Rudder and Elevator angle: Self explanatory.

- Buoyancy: Indicates light or heavy state up to 5,000 lbs.

- Other instruments/indicators are as normal in other aircraft.

Bombing

There are two bombbays. The <O> key opens and closes both doors.

Our Zeppelins carry three types of bombs: (and alot of 'em!)

60 x 25 lb incendiary bombs

40 x 110 lb HE bombs

4 x 660 lb HE bombs

Cycle through each bomb type with the <BACKSPACE> key.

Aim the bombs basically by leading the center of your shadow. This is not a Norden (not yet...it will be). If you're sitting still, you're golden.

Drop bombs by pressing <B>.

Gunners

You have 6 gunner positions aboard. You can occupy them yourself or bring other people along to man them for you. Press the indicated key to jump to that position.

They are:

2 = Upper tail

3 = Front gondola

4 = Left engine car

5 = Right engine car

6 = Top

7 = Aft gondola

Press the 1 key to jump back to the pilot position.

Artillery Spotting

Zeppelins carried alot of bombs, but were even better artillery spotting platforms. It basically goes like this: Get yourself within view of your target, call in spotting rounds, adjust their fire, then drop a barrage of 20 rounds on your target.

All rounds have a bit of deviation in them...so they'll tend to fall in a pattern around the spot you call them in on, including the spotting rounds themselves. The artillery batteries have a maximum range of about 15 miles or 1.5 sectors. This translates to about 60 seconds from the time a round is fired to the time it lands at max range. At present, your artillery battery is located at the field you took off from.

To call in fire:

- 1: You must fire a spotting round with the <.spot> command. This round is aimed at the center of your shadow on the ground...give or take the deviation.

- 2: Adjust fire from spotting round impact with the <.correct xxx yyy> command, where xxx = compass bearing from prior impact in degrees (from north, NOT from your heading) and yyy = range from prior impact in yards (max 500).

- 3: Continue adjusting <.correct xxx yyy> from *each successive impact* until you're on target.

- 4: Call in a 20 round barrage on the last impact with the <.barrage> command.

Firing a barrage clears all spotting and adjustments. Firing a spotting round clears all spotting and adjustments. If you get yourself bass-ackwards and confused during adjustment, simply fire another spotting round <.spot> and begin adjusting from there.

To give you an idea...your shadow is roughly 400 yards long.

Incendiary Bullets (and their effects on big bags of explosive gas)

Your nemesis in the air will be those planes carrying incendiary bullets. While normally armed planes can bring you down, it takes several planeloads of bullets to do it. They have to poke alot of holes in a big object. Incendiaries, however, are designed to light up that big bag of flammable gas you're riding under.

Even then, the attacking pilot must put many rounds into you. Hydrogen needs to mix with oxygen before it'll burn, and that means the attacker needs to poke enough holes to allow enough gas to escape and mix with oxygen near the bag to create an explosive mixture. Once that happens...BOOM!

Of course, there ARE other parts of your airship that don't take kindly to bullets of ANY type...things like engines, controls, guns.

Just when things look their worst

You'll be happy to know that, should you hit the ground only middling hard, the structure of the Zeppelin tends to absorb alot of impact. If you time it *just* right, you can actually jump out at very low altitude (hit <ENTER> three times) and manage to run (not walk) away. This is not the recommended landing procedure.

Final Note

You will find Zeppelin flying to be a slow, almost zen experience. Nothing happens very fast, and you must think ahead because what you do now won't show real effect for some moments. It definitely takes getting used to.

Mind your AoA. It makes a big difference.

How to use the Lewis Gun on the SE5a

The SE5a has a Lewis Gun mounted above the pilot on the center wing spar.

It has 2 modes:

1) Forward firing

2) "Up 45"

As a forward firing gun it fires on a trajectory with the fuselage mounted Vickers gun.

In "up 45" mode the gun slides back in it's track to fire as a single weapon.

KEYS:

KEY \ = toggles from forward fire to "up 45"

KEY b = fires Lewis Gun in BOTH modes, or drops 20lb cooper bombs

bkspc = selects Lewis Gun or Bombs

Switching between these modes quickly and with minimal disorientation is the key to mastering the SE5a in air to air combat. The pilot of the SE5a carried only two drums of ammo for the Lewis Gun...this gun is not best used to "range" a target, be sure of your mark less you waste valuable ammo.