"Das Erste und Letzte"; the first and last types to serve with the Deutsche Luftstreitkräf
The two latest additions to the site are Great War luminaries the Etrich Taube and Fokker E V, both flying reproductions. As the title of this post suggests, the aeroplanes were in service at the beginning of the Great War and at the end, the Etrich Taube was the first military aeroplane mass produced in Germany and the E V, also known as the D VIII entered service in mid 1918 as the last Fokker fighter to serve with the Luftstreitkräfte. The Taube (Dove) was a pre-war design conceived by Austrian Ego Etrich and followed gliders that he had built with a similar wing planform, that of the alsomitra macrocarpa (also known as zanonia macrocarpa, this latter designation superceded by the former) seed that is capable of drifting in the wind over long distances. This particular example of the widely produced design, owing to the fact that there was no licence required for its manufacture, is a reproduction built between 1999 and 2000 by a team led by early German aircraft builder/craftsman Heinz Linner at Fürstenwalde, near Berlin and is of the Typ NM Taube of 1913. It is fitted with the Bleriot type framed undercarriage and has the extensive underwing bracing that characterised the early Taubes. Powered by a six-cylinder 160 hp Walter Minor engine, the Taube registered D-ETRI first flew at the hands of Heiner Neumann with a less powerful four cylinder engine, but this was replaced with owing to its sluggish performance. After demonstration at the ILA Berlin airshows in 2000 and 2002, it was bought by film producer Sir Peter Jackson and is now on display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre's "Knights Of The Skies" exhibition, wearing military markings and engaged in combat with R.A.F. B.E.2cs. Click on the image to go to the Taube's page:
Developed from the V 26 Versuchs prototype that competed at the second single-seat fighter competition at Johannisthal, in April 1918, the E V, nicknamed the Flying Razor by Allied airmen was placed into production immediately, entering service with Jasta 6 in July. Structural failure of its aerodynamically clean parasol wing initially caused delivery delays and concern over the type's viability as a service machine, and even once it was realised that the issue had been caused by shoddy manufacture at one particular workshop and that its wing design was in fact quite safe, the sleek design was stuck with the stigma of its previous wing failures. After deliveries had resumed in October, the designation D VIII was officially approved and the use of E V was discontinued. As with the prototype V 26, production variants were powered by the 110 hp Oberusel UR II nine cylinder rotary radial; some 381 were built, with only 76 reaching the frontline before the Armistice. This particular example is a reproduction built by The Vintage Aviator Ltd in 2011 and is powered by a locally built reproduction Oberusel rotary. Registered ZK-FEV, the Fokker is depicted as 156/18, of the third highest scoring German ace of the Great War Oberleutnant Erich Lowenhardt and was photographed at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton, New Zealand. Click on the image to go to the walkaround page:
