Without further ado I present you with another ugly duckling of early Austrian aviation development. I have that feeling of pride which is usually reserved for parents of ugly babies who are compelled to show pictures to every long-suffering stranger they meet. Awwwww see my little precious one!
The Austro-Hungarians built many bizarre aircraft, and the Lloyd 40.15 was no exception. The Lloyd 40.15 triplane fighter prototype was a rather ungainly aircraft with a lot of unique features. It had fully cantilevered wings, probably of mixed veneer and fabric construction. It appears that the wings were originally designed to be all veneered with tipperons. Then the wing construction was changed to a veneer/fabric construction. On the middle wing, rotating wingtip ailerons were fitted. The lower wing was mounted behind the undercarriage struts. The plane was powered by a 185 hp (138 kW) Daimler and was armed with twin fixed, forward-firing 0.315 in (8 mm) Schwarzlose machine guns, mounted within the pilots reach.
References
- Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, Fighter A To Z, Air International
- Grosz,Peter M. Haddow, George. Schiemer, Peter. Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One
. Flying Machines Press, 1993. ISBN 0963711008,
- WW1 Aero 71 (dec 78), available from http://www.ww1aeroplanesinc.org
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