Julius von Berg's Triplane Attempt
I have been busy working on profiles and decided to tackle an Aviatik of different type. I think by now my readers know my opinion on triplanes. I think they look great, but for the most part were a waste of time and material. I know there were exceptions to the rule, however when it comes to the number of wings on an airplane I believe less is more. Very few triplane designs were equal to the designer's initial expectations. All in all chasing the dream of ab effective triplane was a fool's errand. However drawing them is too much fun to pass up an opportunity to bring them to life.
The Aviatik 30.24 (this designation indicating that it was the 24th experimental aircraft produced by O-UF Aviatik) single-seat fighter triplane designed by von Berg in May 1917. The Aviatik 30.24 employed a similar structure to that of the D.I and the fuselage similar. Based on a contract with Aviatik for four experimental fighter planes powered by 185/200 hp Daimler engines in Sept 1917. Flight testing of 30.24 on Oct 1917, the 185 hp powered 30.24 had inferior performance compared with a similar engined Aviatik D.I. The 200 hp Daimler also shows little improvement. The Triplane was referred to FLEK (FLiegerErsatzKompanie) 6 in Wiener Neustadt, where a variety of experimental radiators were installed to improve the pilots forward view on Aviatik fighters. 30.24 was accepted by LFT inspectors in Sep 1918. The remaining three prototypes (designations unknown), completed but disassembled, were accepted at the end of Oct 1918. The 30.24 was offered for sale to the Czechoslovakian government in April 1920.
References
- Aviatik (Berg) 30.24 The Virtual Aircraft Museum retrieved from http://www.aviastar.org/air/austria/aviatik_30-24.php
2 comments:
I suppose the triplane is iconic of the air war but less is always better, well nearly always.
I totally agree. WE have the benefit of hindsight and over 100 years of aviation development to use. Back then they were still "writing the book"
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