Martinsyde G100 7488

This profile is taken from a photo which appears in "One Airmans War" depicting Martinsyde 7488 on its back after a landing accident on the 28th of February 1917. The pilot was Lieutenant John V. Tunbridge who lost a wheel on taking off and flipped the aircraft on it's back, seemingly a fairly common incident in the squadron with the G100 aircraft. The book also contains a photograph of 7477 on it's back with a lost wheel and the Schaedel book, depicts another G100 flown by Captain Oswald Watt on it's back with a missing wheel. The Datafile No.70 also depicts a 14 Sqn RFC Martinsyde on it's back missing a wheel. Most of the Martinsyde aircraft which served in the Palestine and Mesopamian theatre had a bar across the forward wheel struts.

Martinsyde 7488 in it's early time with the squadron contains dark doping on it's fuselage and a CDL fixed vertical stabilizer. The darker doping may have been either PC12 or PC10, the profile is speculating that the doping is PC12. Later photographs of 7488 which appear in the Australian War Memorial photographic database and in the Windsock Datafile No.70 show 7488 in an all over CDL scheme. This transition seems to be true for all early G100 Martinsydes which saw service with the Squadron.

Joe Bull wrote in his diary for the 28th of February;

Several of our machines went after him [an attacking Turkish aircraft], and one lost a wheel when leaving the ground. It was a Martinsyde [No.7488] piloted by Lieutenant Tunbridge. The ground signals were put out to let him know he had only one wheel to land on. Everybody turned out to see the smash which we knew must happen but he landed in such a way that the damage was practically nil, although the machine stood on end and broke the propeller. He was ready for the worst and unstrapped himself ready to hop out lively.

This profile is taken from a photo which appears in Windsock Datafile No.70 of Martinsyde 7488. Although the Datafile only mentions 7488 serving with 14 Sqn RFC, the aircraft also served with 1 Sqn Australian Flying Corps from January to October of 1917. This profile depicts the aircraft in it's later scheme of all over Clear Doped Linen. It appears from photos that in the latter part of 1917, 1 Sqn AFC, 14 Sqn RFC and X Aircraft Park standardized the doping for the Martinsyde G.100's as CDL.