The Fieseler F2 Tiger was a German single-seat aerobatic

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

which was flown to victory in the 1934

World Aerobatics Competition In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

(WAC) by its designer/builder

Gerhard Fieseler Gerhard Fieseler (15 April 1896 – 1 September 1987) was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer. From birth to the 1918 armistice Born in Glesch (near Cologne), Fieseler joined the Air S ...

Design and development

started his own company in 1930 in the former Segelflugzeugbau company at Kassel, Germany. Fieseler was a World War I German

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

with almost 20 kills to his credit, and became a world class competition aerobatic pilot. To compete in International competitions Fieseler designed and built the Fieseler F2 Tiger single-seat biplane, powered by a Walter Pollux II air-cooled 9-cylinder radial. The 1934

, held in Paris, was the first of its kind, and, despite the deaths of two pilots and a few crashes, the competition continued and Fieseler won, although he went over the time limit due to a loose harness, beating his nearest competitor, Michel Detroyat of France (who flew an M.S.225), by 23 points (645.2 to 622.9). Fieseler retired from the sport with his victory. The F2 Tiger itself would form the basis for later aircraft, including the Fieseler F5. It was built by Fieseler's own aircraft company, Fieseler Flugzeugbau (later, Gerhard Fieseler Werke). The F2 served as both an important forerunner of later German aircraft which would go on to fight for the Third Reich in WWII, and as a famous piece of inter-war aircraft design, as well as being the winning aircraft of the first WAC.

Design and development

Specifications

See also