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AFRIBORIAN AIR POWER.
The Afriborian Campaign is situated in an imaginary world that resembles our own planet and its history (roughly 1874-1914), but events and developments that took place in our world might be set at different dates or in different places in the Afriborian world, thus making any resemblance between Afriboria and real history, -people, -events and -places purely a matter of imagination.

The aircraft shown below are as much the result of being constantly on the lookout for suitable toys, models or bits and pieces to turn into Afriborian flying machines as of building or converting the actual models themselves. Some of my aircraft are based on commercial models , but many have costed next to nothing (being made of stuff that otherwise woud end up in the wastebin), apart from little extra's like the wheel and other small items.

Lucas Steeple-Sath (the son of a British diplomat and a German beerbrewer's daughter) was born and raised in Belgium. After his father was reposted to the far east Lucas stayed in Belgium, graduating as a civil engineer at the Brussels university. His keen interest in all things flying (be it empty bottles or pink elephants...) resulted in him founding a company for the development of airship technology. After several attempts, he now has built the "75 CL" (Croiseur Dirigéable - Luchtschipkruiser") class of airships. King Leopold immediately recognized the opportunities of this brilliant design for his greater Afriborian scheme. Four ships have been built now: "De Coninck", "La Chouffe", "Duvel" and "Mort Subite".The pictures show King Leopold aboard "De Coninck" during the airship's maiden trip.The 75 CL Class is propulsed by steam and armed with one gun (in turret) and two MG's. A single seater fighter is carried and can take off and be hooked on again in full flight. Two bomb racks are also carried (one on each side of the gondola). These airships are nicknamed "beer bottles" by the general public.

" ZEPPERSCHMIDT (MIL) Ausf. 1 ".
German "Punktlichkeit" (punctuality) was a big issue with the "Postverwaltung" (German Post Office). Mail had to be delivered as fast as possible across the vast German Empire. Therefor the post-office commissioned the airship constructor Zeppelin and the aircraft manufacturer Messerschmidt to design and build the "Zepperschmidt": a compact flying machine, part airship, part plane. in fact this was the very first VTOL. Since the military were also interested, a twin machinegun turret (in unbreakable mirrorglass & aluminium) was added to the nose section as well as a machinegun amidships on each side of the Zepperschmidt, thus creating a powerful bomber-gunship, performing much like a modern helicopter. The craft had a crew of four: one turret-gunner, two side-gunners/engineers and one commander/helmsman. Communication was by an early form of intercom. Although the ship looked massive and sturdy, the materials used were - apart from the engine - almost exclusively canvas, glass and aluminium. When flying low it proved to be vunerable even to small arms fire, but from a certain altitude and without other aircraft or AA-guns near, it could strafe the enemy unpunished.
(Mc Donalds "Atlantis" Happy Meal conversion).