title: Machinery's Handbook Collector's Edition: 1914 First Edition Replica
author: Erik Oberg
description: <DIV>Erik&#160;Valdemar&#160;Oberg, born 1881, died 1951.</DIV>
zlib_text: _Against the Lafayette_
  
  _Escadrille_
  
  _by Gene Wolfe_
  
  I have built a perfect replica of a Fokker triplane, except for the flammable
  dope. It is five meters, seventy-seven centimeters long and has a wing span of
  seven meters, nineteen centimeters, just like the original. The engine is an
  authentic copy of an Oberursel UR II. I have a lathe and a milling machine and
  I made most of the parts for the engine myself, but some had to be farmed out
  to a company in Cleveland, and most of the electrical parts were done in
  Louisville, Kentucky.
  
  In the beginning I had hoped to get an original engine, and I wrote my first
  letters to Germany with that in mind, but it just wasn't possible; there are
  only a very few left, and as nearly as I could find out none in private hands.
  The Oberursel Worke is no longer in existence. I was able to secure plans
  though, through the cooperation of some German hobbyists. I redrew them myself
  translating the German when they had to be sent to Cleveland. A man fro