Fokker Dr.I
In spring 1917, the British Royal Flying Corps introduced the Sopwith Triplane, a three-winged version of the earlier Sopwith Pup fighter. The “Tripe” was only built in limited numbers, but it was issued to elite pilots, such as the famous “Black Flight” of the Royal Naval Air Service—commanded by ace Raymond Collishaw, the Black Flight’s five Triplanes shot down 87 German aircraft in three months.
The German Luftstreitskrafte reacted with shock. To this point, the Germans had usually enjoyed a qualitative advantage over the Allies in the air with their Albatros D.IIIs The Triplane could operate higher and was faster than German fighters, which gave their British and Canadian adversaries the advantage in a dogfight. Germany embarked on a crash program to field their own triplanes, with 37 manufacturers all producing prototypes. The best by far, however, was Fokker’s Dreidekker I, abbreviated Dr.I. After a short period of testing of prototypes, two pre-production aircraft were built and sent to the Western Front for evaluation.
Both were given to exceptional pilots—Manfred von Richthofen and Werner Voss. Richthofen, testing the Dr.I in combat for the first time in September 1917, promptly shot down two aircraft and proclaimed the Dr.I a superb aircraft, if tricky to fly. If there was any doubt of its lethality, it was removed on 23 September, when Voss engaged nine British SE.5s of 56 Squadron, not one of which was flown by a pilot with less than ten victories. Though Voss was killed, his skill and the Dr.I’s maneuverability held off nine British aces for ten minutes. Fokker immediately received a production order for 300 Dr.Is.
In combat, the Dr.I was not as fast as the Albatros, but it had a higher rate of climb and phenomenal maneuverability—the design was slightly unstable, but an experienced pilot could use its high lift, light controls, and the torque of the engine to make snap rolls to the right almost within the length of the aircraft. It required an experienced pilot, especially on landing, where the torque of the engine and the wings also had a tendency to ground-loop the aircraft. This could be fatal, because the position of the two Spandau machine guns extending into the cockpit could cause a crashlanding pilot to hurtle forward into the gun butts, face-first. The Oberursel engine had a tendency to fall off in power at higher altitudes due to poor lubrication.
By far, however, the worst drawback of the Dr.I was its tendency towards wing failures, which were initially believed due to poor workmanship by Fokker. It would be not until after the war that it was learned that the very triple-winged design of the Dreidekker was the problem: the top wing exerted more lift than the bottom two, with the result that the top wing would literally lift itself away from the rest of the aircraft. While it was possible to still fly with the missing top wing, the Dr.I would not fly for long and the pilot would have to make a high-speed landing in an aircraft notorious for groundlooping and killing its occupant.
Though the Dr.I was issued to two Jasta wings, including von Richthofen’s, in 1917-1918, it was never very popular with the majority of German pilots, and the production of the superb Fokker D.VII, which started about the same time, meant that the Luftstreitskrafte already had a fighter that was faster and more durable than the Dr.I, if not quite as maneuverable. A few German aces still preferred the Dr.I, namely von Richthofen—because of the Dreidekker was good at something, it was attacking from ambush. A skilled ace could quickly gain altitude over an unsuspecting enemy, dive down, attack, and then use the kinetic energy built in the dive to zoom back to position, or maneuver out of trouble with a quick right roll. Von Richthofen would score his last 20 (out of 80) kills in the Dr.I.
Following the end of World War I, nearly all of Germany’s fighters were purposely burned, either by their own pilots or by the Allies. By World War II, only one Dr.I was known to exist, one of von Richthofen’s aircraft, preserved in a museum in Berlin; the museum was flattened in an Allied bombing raid in 1944. Today, only scattered pieces of original Dr.Is exist. However, the simple manufacturing process of World War I fighters meant that reproductions could easily be built, and several dozen Dr.I replicas continue to fly today.
This reproduction Dr.I was built over nearly two decades as a flyable aircraft by a New York City dentist. It was nearly destroyed in a landing accident, but was purchased by famous warbird collector Douglas Champlin. Like the rest of Champlin's fighter collection, it was donated to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. It is painted overall black, likely to represent one of German ace Josef Jacobs' Dr.Is while he was with Jasta 22. Jacobs survived the war with 48 kills, making him the fourth-ranked German World War I ace; he died in 1978, the last living recipient of the Blue Max, Germany's highest award in the Great War.
Fokker Dr.I
In spring 1917, the British Royal Flying Corps introduced the Sopwith Triplane, a three-winged version of the earlier Sopwith Pup fighter. The “Tripe” was only built in limited numbers, but it was issued to elite pilots, such as the famous “Black Flight” of the Royal Naval Air Service—commanded by ace Raymond Collishaw, the Black Flight’s five Triplanes shot down 87 German aircraft in three months.
The German Luftstreitskrafte reacted with shock. To this point, the Germans had usually enjoyed a qualitative advantage over the Allies in the air with their Albatros D.IIIs The Triplane could operate higher and was faster than German fighters, which gave their British and Canadian adversaries the advantage in a dogfight. Germany embarked on a crash program to field their own triplanes, with 37 manufacturers all producing prototypes. The best by far, however, was Fokker’s Dreidekker I, abbreviated Dr.I. After a short period of testing of prototypes, two pre-production aircraft were built and sent to the Western Front for evaluation.
Both were given to exceptional pilots—Manfred von Richthofen and Werner Voss. Richthofen, testing the Dr.I in combat for the first time in September 1917, promptly shot down two aircraft and proclaimed the Dr.I a superb aircraft, if tricky to fly. If there was any doubt of its lethality, it was removed on 23 September, when Voss engaged nine British SE.5s of 56 Squadron, not one of which was flown by a pilot with less than ten victories. Though Voss was killed, his skill and the Dr.I’s maneuverability held off nine British aces for ten minutes. Fokker immediately received a production order for 300 Dr.Is.
In combat, the Dr.I was not as fast as the Albatros, but it had a higher rate of climb and phenomenal maneuverability—the design was slightly unstable, but an experienced pilot could use its high lift, light controls, and the torque of the engine to make snap rolls to the right almost within the length of the aircraft. It required an experienced pilot, especially on landing, where the torque of the engine and the wings also had a tendency to ground-loop the aircraft. This could be fatal, because the position of the two Spandau machine guns extending into the cockpit could cause a crashlanding pilot to hurtle forward into the gun butts, face-first. The Oberursel engine had a tendency to fall off in power at higher altitudes due to poor lubrication.
By far, however, the worst drawback of the Dr.I was its tendency towards wing failures, which were initially believed due to poor workmanship by Fokker. It would be not until after the war that it was learned that the very triple-winged design of the Dreidekker was the problem: the top wing exerted more lift than the bottom two, with the result that the top wing would literally lift itself away from the rest of the aircraft. While it was possible to still fly with the missing top wing, the Dr.I would not fly for long and the pilot would have to make a high-speed landing in an aircraft notorious for groundlooping and killing its occupant.
Though the Dr.I was issued to two Jasta wings, including von Richthofen’s, in 1917-1918, it was never very popular with the majority of German pilots, and the production of the superb Fokker D.VII, which started about the same time, meant that the Luftstreitskrafte already had a fighter that was faster and more durable than the Dr.I, if not quite as maneuverable. A few German aces still preferred the Dr.I, namely von Richthofen—because of the Dreidekker was good at something, it was attacking from ambush. A skilled ace could quickly gain altitude over an unsuspecting enemy, dive down, attack, and then use the kinetic energy built in the dive to zoom back to position, or maneuver out of trouble with a quick right roll. Von Richthofen would score his last 20 (out of 80) kills in the Dr.I.
Following the end of World War I, nearly all of Germany’s fighters were purposely burned, either by their own pilots or by the Allies. By World War II, only one Dr.I was known to exist, one of von Richthofen’s aircraft, preserved in a museum in Berlin; the museum was flattened in an Allied bombing raid in 1944. Today, only scattered pieces of original Dr.Is exist. However, the simple manufacturing process of World War I fighters meant that reproductions could easily be built, and several dozen Dr.I replicas continue to fly today.
This reproduction Dr.I was built over nearly two decades as a flyable aircraft by a New York City dentist. It was nearly destroyed in a landing accident, but was purchased by famous warbird collector Douglas Champlin. Like the rest of Champlin's fighter collection, it was donated to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. It is painted overall black, likely to represent one of German ace Josef Jacobs' Dr.Is while he was with Jasta 22. Jacobs survived the war with 48 kills, making him the fourth-ranked German World War I ace; he died in 1978, the last living recipient of the Blue Max, Germany's highest award in the Great War.