AirArchive Book 1 - WWI German.pdf - AirArchive - korjik

Book

AirArchive No.1

WWI GERMAN

FOKKER EINDECKER

Type history

Flying colours – service colour schemes

Scale drawings 1:40

PFALZ E.I – E.IV

Type history

Scale drawings 1:40

HABERSTADT D.V

Type history

Flying colours – service colour schemes

Scale drawings 1:40

ALBATROS D.II

Type history

Flying colours – service colour schemes

Scale drawings 1:40

FOKKER D.VII

Type history

Fokker Warpaint

In detail – close-up

Flying colours – service colour schemes

Scale drawings 1:40

FOKKER D.VIII & E.V

Type history

In detail – close-up pictures

Flying colours – service colour schemes

Scale drawings 1:40

Fokker

Eindecker

With photos from the ALEXIMRIE Collection

AirArchive Series

TYPE HISTORY

Fokker Eindecker

Germany’s first true fighter aircraft. Aviation historian Alex Imrie

traces the development of this famous line of aircraft and the

impact it had on WW1

D uring the first months of World

craft. Another approach to the problem

was the construction of twin-engined air-

craft, since the observer/gunner in the nose

of this type of machine did not have any

airscrew avoidance problem. Various meth-

ods were tried by both sides and one of

these used by the French, where a machine

gun was free-fired through the area of the

rotating airscrew, provided a practical, if

somewhat dangerous solution.

Metal deflector wedges were bolted to

the wooden airscrew in a line with the

muzzle of the machine gun and this pre-

vented damage to the blades from the few

rounds that would otherwise have struck

them. This device, known as the ‘Saulnier

Armoured Propeller’ was fitted to several

Morane Type L Parasols and used opera-

tionally. One of the most successful pilots

to use this set-up was the famous pre-war

pilot Roland Garros, who managed to

shoot down a number of German aircraft

in a few short weeks before he in turn was

shot down behind German lines, to be cap-

tured in April 1915.

Garros managed to destroy his downed

War One, the introduction and

development of aircraft arma-

ment had high priority. At the

start of hostilities, Germany did

not have a suitable lightweight machine

gun for use in aircraft, but modified

infantry weapons were soon in use from a

variety of makeshift gun mountings

It was appreciated that a machine gun

firing forward in the direction of flight

would be the best solution and this gave

rise to the appearance of armed pusher air-

Leutnant Diemer poses in the cockpit of his Fokker E.III 420/15. Some of the undercarriage is usefully revealed here.

Unteroffizier Knieste with E.I. The upper surface brac-

ing mast, LMG 08 machine gun installation and for-

ward fuselage detail are well shown.

AirArchive Series

Man and machine

.... Unteroffizier

Dietrich of

Feldflieger

Abteilung 24 with

his personal

Fokker E.I. Note

the hawk

(Habitch) motif on

the rear fuselage

side which must

have been one of

the earliest exam-

ples of personal

identification art

on a WW1 fighter

aircraft.

FARLEFT:

Although it is still

in German nation-

al markings, this

captured E.III is

caught in the act

of being tested by

an Allied pilot for

evaluation.

LEFT: The installa-

tion of the nine-

cylinder Oberursel

U.1 100 hp rotary

engine in a Fokker

E.III.

aircraft before capture, but the remains included the pro-

peller with its armoured deflector wedges, sufficiently

intact to reveal the principle of the ‘System-Garros’ to

German technicians.

Investigations into how best to utilise this rather crude

device revealed the surprise to Germany authorities, that

Anthony Fokker had previously conducted experiments

in this direction and that he already had a mechanical

synchronised gun that worked.

Fokker was immediately asked to fit his interrupter

system to an aircraft and he installed it into one of his

Fokker M5K single-seat scouting aircraft that he was

already supplying to the Imperial German Air Service.

The new, armed single-seat Fokker M5K/MG aircraft pro-

totype was then taken to the Front and demonstrated to

selected units. Pilots with experience of rotary-engined

aircraft were given the chance to fly the new machine

and gave it an enthusiastic endorsement.

Redesignated E.1, the 80 hp, seven cylinder rotary

powered aircraft, with wing warping for lateral control,

went into production, with 15 examples operational by

the end of July 1915.

Success was immediate. Initially, one example was

allocated to each two-seater unit on the active parts of

the battlefront and in the hands of aggressive pilots was

soon shooting down the slower, less manoeuvrable

Allied aircraft. The long months of the ‘Fokker Scourge’

had begun.

It was soon realised that a more effective means of

maximising the new machine’s superiority was by oper-

ating the single-seaters in groups, resulting in non-per-

manent formations known as Kampfeinsitzer-

Kommandos, which were formed and dissolved as the

tactical situation required. It was soon appreciated that

fighting in single-seaters was a specialist job and while

many of the early Fokkers were flown by two-seater

pilots who did this work in addition to their normal two-

seater duties, the dedicated single-seater fighter pilot

new emerged.

Some of these pilots began to amass considerable vic-

tory scores and their names became household words in

Germany as news of their achievements and decorations

became known.

Such air superiority could not be left unchallenged

LEFT: A brand

new Fokker E.III.

The undercarriage

struts are also vis-

ible here, together

with the V-strut

anchor for rthe

wing warping

mechanism.

FAR LEFT: The

man himself,

Anthony Fokker

looks well pleased

with himself in

front of this E.III.

Machine gun is

offset to star-

board.

AirArchive Series

AirArchive Book 1 - WWI German.pdf

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