Being blessed with hindsight I know it it was a doomed airplane. However the Albatros Dr.II had great lines, and was a rare warbird. Needless to say I had to draw one of my own. When I said that some planes looked "right" in a previous post I did not mean that looking right meant it was a guarantee for a successful design.
The Triplane craze which swept up all nations producing military aircraft in a often unsuccessful line of research. Some of the new crop of triplanes were new purpose built designs; However, most of the effort went into an attempt to add another wing to existing aircraft. For the most part the exercise wasted time, money and production resources better spent elsewhere.
After the success both the Sopwith Triplane and the Fokker Dr.1, many manufacturers in Germany turned their eye towards the design their own version of the triplane format. These experiments were an attempt to improve climb performance. Albatros Flugzeugwerke failed in their first attempt in September of 1917, when they designed the flawed Albatros Dr.1 which was built on the DVa airframe and power plant. The Albatros Dr.II was their last attempt to create a viable triplane.
The Albatros Dr.II was a German prototype single-seat fighter triplane, the sole example of which flew in the spring of 1918. It was similar in many respects to the D.X biplane, employing amongst other features the same 145 kW (195 hp) Benz Bz.IIIbo V-8 liquid cooled piston engine and twin 0.312 in (7.92 mm) machine guns.
References
- From Wikipedia Albatros Dr.II, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_Dr.II"
- Gray, Peter and Thetford, Owen. "German Aircraft of the First World War
". London:Putnam, 1962, p.240.
- Green, W. & Swanborough, G. (1994). "The Complete Book of Fighters
". London: Salamander Books. ISBN 1-85833-777-1
2 comments:
Looking at the landing gear and the angle, it must of been hard to see when landing.
@Jon many planes suffered from this. it was a matter of find a line and hold on tight. You can see where phrases like "on a wing and a prayer" came from. Compared to some experimental designs such as the DFW T28 Floh (Flea), it was a walk in the park.
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