The picture above is of a British world war 1 plane known as the Breguet Br M5. It is rear prop driven. It's an early reconnaissance plane where the gunner would take pictures of enemy fortifications and troop movements. This is similar to what I have in mind for the Sparrows.
The difference being that the rear cockpit would be the engine deck(boiler, compressor, and exhaust) and the front part where the turret machine gun is mounted would be a static front mounted cylinder gun which would require maneuvering the plane to fire from that point. In Misthaven planes can't fire through the propellers like the later world war 1 or 2 planes can, instead having to be mounted on the upper wings(decreasing accuracy) or mounted in front of a propeller. The cockpit would be mounted far forward to give better visibility as the upper and lower wings would remove a lot. The goal for a Sparrow really isn't to be an air superiority dogfight aircraft it's to be more of early warning aircraft and scout. They still can be deadly though as accuracy goes up with the added visibility and they are fast moving from being light, but cannot maneuver as sharply as newer sturdier designs.
The plane is constructed predominantly of wood and the wings are made of sturdy canvas much like sails. It is a bi-plane which in Misthaven are usually referred to as Twin-sails or a Double Deck design. Wire is strung to add light reinforcement to the frame. A latticework of wood and steel hold the aeroplane together.
The engine is steam driven. The motor works similar to a locomotive in that it is propelled by compressed steam. Heat is created in the furnace which stimulates the boiler creating steam which is pumped into a compression tank where the pressure builds up. Releasing the throttle opens the valve which turns the turbine of the propeller. If the fire needs to burn the hottest prior to lift off and an amount of pressure is required before the propeller will turn fast enough to lift the ship off. Excess pressure builds up and needs to be released using a blow off otherwise the boiler will explode scalding to death anyone within a couple meters of the engine.
The cockpit consists of a meager pilots seat and a short glass wind screen. It has only three gauges: RPM gauge this determines the revolutions per minute of the prop as it is not an internal combustion engine. The Prop will have to rotate to keep flight. The higher the faster the plane will fly. The second is the pressure gauge for the boiler to determine the amount of power the plane has so that it can reach higher RPMs. The last gauge is the temperature gauge for the furnace. When the temperature gets below 250 degrees the boiler won't be hot enough to produce steam and the pressure gauge will lower. This is pretty much the fuel monitor gauge. When the temperature gets low a coal brick is thrown into the furnace and the temperature will rise. The bricks burning for about 30 minutes and having enough compression for about an hour of normal flight at a combat speeds it's halved. Aeroplanes typically carry four or five bricks behind the pilots seat. The seat is on a swivel and a throttle lock is applied to the plane(like an autopilot) and the seat spins around to work the furnace and then back to flight.
The cylinder gun is mounted forward of the cockpit and the firing mechanism is similar to one of those cheap little pull back and release plastic cars. A metal handle hand crank is attached to the side and is turned from about 3 o clock to about 9 o clock clockwise toward the pilot and a spring mechanism builds up pressure and is released by pressing down on a trigger to the left of the gun. When the trigger is pressed the spring is released slowly turning a metal cog in the ammunition of the cylinder drum and also working the hammer which strikes the preloaded primer and fires the rounds. The shot is lead ball which when fired expands into the rifling and fires out of the gun. A "Tracer" type of round is fired where a lead ball is hollowed out and filled with phosphorous and magnesium which when ignited cause the shot to burn bright and illuminate the trajectory. Dwarves have experimented with different powders to "Dye" the tracer rounds so red, green, and blue are common in most Aero circles. Lark has assembled a collection of different types as getting the same dye is hard when traveling between cities.
The cylinder gun has a drum like a donut that is filled with rounds sorta similar to a ferris wheel. It has spokes running to the center which converge on a small circle which is the aim point for the gun. The firing barrel is like the bottom of the ferris wheel where people load and off load that rounds circle around and are fired at the bottom after each round is fired the mechanism will keep feeding as long as the trigger is pressed and the hand crack works its way back from 9 to 3 o clock. When the drum is empty it's detached and placed in the cockpit and another whole donut is attached.
Starting of an Aeroship mounted aeroplane requires the placing of a "Hot Brick" a mixture of phosphorous and coal into the furnace and ignited with an internal flint strike mechanism. The hot brick burns quick and fast and will create a large amount of heat and cause the boiler to kick in. The process takes about 45 seconds for the prop to be at flight speed. The sparrows are mounted facing in two different directions one facing fore and one aft. So one will fly from the front and one from the rear. Dwarven technology is again used as the launch skiff is an elongated ballista like catapult. A release mechanism is attached so that the pilot can self release from the aero and the catapult will propel the aeroplane from the ship so that it doesn't require a runway. Landing is harder but because an Aeroship can fly at a constant speed and heading the planes land and are caught similar to a modern aircraft carrier with a catch hook. Planes must land one at a time from different directions. So typically the one with the least amount of fuel lands first.
There is no wireless radio type devices that exist so pilots must use hand and arm signals and flight gestures such as tipping wings or flying up and then down to communicate with crew or other pilots.
BTW. I can go on and on all day. I really like WW1 air combat....
