Germany - 1916-1918 Assorted Aircraft

Some New German Profiles

I woke this weekend with a cold. Needless to say it has slowed me down a bit. I took a break from working on interwar aircraft to work up a few new German WWI profiles.

Albatros D.III OAW Jasta 39, Oblt. Josef Loeser Italian Front, summer 1917

The candy cane paint scheme made this Albatros a must do profile.The upper wing surfaces and both sides of the tail plane are painted in white and red stripes running forward to aft. This was one of the German Jastas sent to bolster Austrian operations against Italy. The three Jastas were № 1, № 31, and № 39.

Fokker D.VII Jasta 64, Vzfw. Joseph Doerflinger October 1918

This is another controversial profile. Some sources claim the nose section is bare metal, others claim it was a dark blue. The lozenge colors I used are probably inaccurate. I expect to do a new version once my new master files are completed.

Junkers Cl.I s/n 1802/18 - 1918

I have seen sources for this Junker CL.I and liked the atypical mustard and green paint scheme. The sources I have found show a different landing gear strut arraignment for this aircraft.

Zeppelin Lindau Do-I (Doriner D.I) s/n D.1905/18 - 1918

This is a highly conjectural profile based on elements seen in other sources. It depicts one of the approximately finished Zeppelin Lindau Do-I reputed to be hidden by Germany after the Armistice.

Germany - 1918 Junkers CL.I

A Life of Controlled Chaos

Things have been hectic in the studio recently. The Polish Project is moving along with new additions to the galleries. New master files are in work and new references have been found. In addition to this I have started a collaboration with a writer like and respect on an upcoming project. I will give more details on the project when I can. All I will say at the moment is it will be a very interesting read.

Long term readers know my opinion on the question of what makes a forward thinking airplane design during the First World War. It is no secret that I think designs with more than a single set of wings was a paradigm which needed to be cast aside. In most cases triplanes were a waste of time and material. Successful triplanes were light weight and small. Ironically this type of airframe was what made the Fokker E.V-D.VIII a great plane.

Junkers's Dream Machine

Hugo Junker was an inspired visionary who did the groundwork for modern aviation. He championed the idea of metal skinned monoplane aircraft in spite of what some saw as common wisdom, but was just another manifestation of lack of vision. Junker went beyond the envelope and saw the shape of things to come. His ideas were picked up by Anthony Fokker, who was always quick to assimilate the work of others, during their joint venture producing the J.10 late in the war.

Junkers Cl.I - 1918

This is an example of the long body version of the CL.I (J.8 or J.10) painted in a relatively common camouflage scheme.

Junkers CLS.I - 1918

As with many aircraft a seaplane version was tested for feasibility. This example has an unpainted body and struts with a streaked camouflage on the floats. The rudder on the J.11 was altered as well as the exhaust system.

Overview of the Junkers CL.I

The Junkers CL.I was a ground-attack monoplane aircraft developed in Germany during World War I. Its construction was undertaken by Junkers under the designation J 8. as proof of Hugo Junkers' belief in the monoplane, after his firm had been required by the Idflieg to submit a biplane (the J 4) as its entry in a competition to select a ground-attack aircraft.

The J 8 design took the J 7 fighter as its starting point, but had a longer fuselage to accommodate a tail gunner, and larger wings. The prototype flew in late 1917 and was followed over the next few months by three more development aircraft.

The Idflieg was sufficiently impressed to want to order the type, but had misgivings about Junkers' ability to manufacture the aircraft in quantity and considered asking Linke-Hoffmann to produce the type under license. Finally, however, Junkers was allowed to undertake the manufacture as part of a joint venture with Fokker, producing a slightly modified version of the J 8 design as the J 10. Like the other Junkers designs of the period, the aircraft featured a metal framework that was skinned with corrugated duralumin sheets. 47 examples were delivered before the Armistice, including three built as float planes under the designation CLS.I (factory designation J 11). After the war, one or two CL.Is were converted for commercial service by enclosing the rear cockpit under a canopy.

References

1. From Wikipedia Junkers CL.I "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_CL.I"
2. Green, W; Swanborough, G (1994). "The Complete Book of Fighters. New York: Smithmark. ISBN 0-8317-3939-8.
3. Gray, Peter; Thetford, Owen (1962). German Aircraft of the First World War". London: Putnam.
4. Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). "Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation". London: Studio Editions. pp. 536.
5. "World Aircraft Information Files". London: Bright Star Publishing. pp. File 897 Sheet 01.

Germany - 1917 J Class Aircraft

German Armored Ground Attack Craft Revisited Part 2

Germany lead the way in development of armored ground attack aircraft. My last post covered the Albatros J.I. Today I decided to some of the other J class aircraft flown by Germany during World War One.

Albatros Ground Attack Planes

Albatros J.I - 1917

Albatros J.II - 1917

The Albatros J.II was a German single-engine, single-seat, biplane ground-attack aircraft of World War I.

The J.2 armored reconnaissance biplane was an improvement on the J.1 with the armor plate extending to the nose to protect the more powerful 220 hp Benz IVa engine. The J.II dispensed with the propeller spinner of the earlier aircraft. Per A. Imrie, twenty machines were at the front in August 1918. The plane originally had two downward firing machine guns exiting through the fuselage floor between the undercarriage legs. This arrangement was abandoned since low altitude operations made sighting very difficult.

Junkers Ground Attack Planes

Junkers J.I - 1917

In late 1916, the demand for a durable observation aircraft capable of performing ground attack missions led to the introduction of the Junkers J.I. Developed in early 1917, it was the world's first all-metal aircraft produced in quantity. Eliminating the need for external bracing wires, the fuselage, wings and tail were constructed of Duralumin while the engine and two-man crew were protected by a nose-capsule of 5-mm chrome-nickel sheet-steel. Although this unique design resulted in a strong and durable aircraft capable of surviving the effects of enemy ground fire, the Junkers J.I was heavy, cumbersome and took forever to get off the ground.

Other Subjects:

Cleaning Up After the Crash

During the Friday the 13th cock-up I ended up with some missing comments and weirdness in tags for my posts. I cleaned up the tags, however the comments seem to be gone.

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