A Late War Austrian Monoplane
It is always good when you learn something new. The one thing I love about the history of Austrian aviation is finding rare aircraft which are not well known or documented. Sometimes things appear deceptively simple on the surface but as you dig deeper you find a complicated story of variations of a basic type which were built by other companies who were licensed to manufacture them. Each company left their own mark on the design. There are times when a single aircraft is produced which you only know the serial number and not the story to be told.
Today I am writing about an example of one of a kind designs. Julius von Berg shifted away fom the heavier in line engine powered designs and began experimenting on more compact light weight aircraft powered with rotary engines to reduce the overall weight. After a failed attempt at creating light weight biplane fighters von Berg took elements from the 30.27 and 30.29 and built a modrn looking parasol type monoplane. It arrived too late in the war to be more than a footnote.
The paint scheme was basically monochrome. The sharp edged sawtooth camouflage pattern was used in several late war Austrian designs. The metal forward section sports circular tooling marks over the whole surface. Even though the design was late war it carried the Iron Cross on the wings and rudder.
A parasol monoplane derivative of the Aviatik 30.27, the Aviatik 30.40 was powered by a similar 160hp Steyr Le Rhone 11-cylinder rotary engine, and only one prototype was built and flown during the summer of 1918. The Aviatik 30.40 was of wooden construction. The forward fuselage was covered by light metal panels and the remainder of the fuselage was ply covered. The wing had fabric skinning, and steel-tube bracing struts were employed
.References
- Aviatik (Berg) 30.40 1918 Retreived Sept 3. 08:45 from http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25508.htm
- Aviatik (Berg) 30.40 1918 Virtual Aircraft Museum Retreived Sept 3. 09:05 from http://www.aviastar.org/air/austria/aviatik_30-40.php
- Aviatik Berg Scout The Aerodrome Forum Retreived Sept 3. 09:15 from http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/aircraft/1997-aviatik-berg-scout.html
- Grosz,Peter M. Haddow, George. Schiemer, Peter. Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One
p.156-157. Flying Machines Press, 1993. ISBN 0963711008,
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