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Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft, also referred to as LFG, was a German aircraft manufacturer during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. They are best known for their various "Roland" designs, notably the Roland C.II ''Walfisch'' (whale),
Roland D.II The LFG Roland D.II was a German single-seat fighter of World War I. The type was manufactured by Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft, and also by Pfalz Flugzeugwerke under license. Design and development The D.II used a plywood monocoque fuselage. Two la ...
''haifisch'' (Shark) and Roland D.VI, although they also produced a number of
airships An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding ai ...
and many experimental designs.


Airships

Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft formed on April 30, 1908, from the assets of an experimental airship engine company located in
Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Hall ...
, Motorluftschiff Studiengesellscaft (MStG). Additional funding for the new enterprise was provided primarily by
Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
,
AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to: Common meanings * AEG (German company) ; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...
, and a local chemical company. The company's offices were located in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
along with the factory at
Adlershof Adlershof (, literally "Eagle's Court") is a locality (') in the Boroughs of Berlin, borough (') Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. Adlershof is home to the new City of Science, Technology and Media (WISTA), located on the southwestern edge of ...
. Manufacture was transferred to
Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
following a fire on 6 September 1916, allegedly caused by the
British Secret Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...
. Their first project was an airship design by
August von Parseval August von Parseval (5 February 1861, in Frankenthal (Pfalz) – 22 February 1942, in Berlin) was a German airship designer. His designs for an amphibian flying boat, balanced by two wing-floats, achieved liftoff in April 1910. This marked the b ...
, a German airship designer. This entered service as the PL.II in 1910. During
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, four were delivered to the German Army and Navy. In total some 25 "PL" airships were built, flown and delivered to various customers. The PL-26, one of the last, crashed on landing and burnt inside hangar ''Luftschiffhalle 2'' with no fatalities. For the rest of the war the
hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
s were used mostly for repairs of
observation balloon An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for gathering intelligence and spotting artillery. The use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World ...
s.


Aeroplanes

In 1913 LFG started producing new designs under the
trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...
Roland to avoid confusion with the Luftverkehrsgesellschaft (L.V.G.) firm. In 1916 the company developed a
floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...
version of the Albatros C.Ia as the LFG W. Some parts were built in
Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Hall ...
, but final assembly and checkout was carried out in new factories in
Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...
. Their first successful design was the Roland C.II ''Walfisch'' (whale), a two-seat
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
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 ...
. It had a
semi-monocoque The term semi-monocoque or semimonocoque refers to a stressed shell structure that is similar to a true monocoque, but which derives at least some of its strength from conventional reinforcement. Semi-monocoque construction is used for, among o ...
fuselage, skinned with two layers of long
plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...
strips glued at opposing diagonal angles around a mold and skinned with fabric both inside and outside. The fuselage filled the full gap between the wings, leaving the pilot and observer/gunner over the top wings with an excellent view upward. The fuselage "half-shells" were each fitted onto a supporting framework of wooden
former A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of the ...
s and
longeron In engineering, a longeron or stringer is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural fram ...
s. The "wrapping" technique of the long plywood strips for the outer fuselage surface led to this particular technique of manufacture being described in German as the ''Wickelrumpf'' (wrapped body) style of construction, and was subsequently patented by the firm, licensing the construction method to
Pfalz Pfalz, Pfälzer, or Pfälzisch are German words referring to Palatinate (disambiguation), Palatinate. They may refer to: Places *Pfalz, the Palatinate (region) of Germany **Nordpfalz, the North Palatinate **Vorderpfalz, the Anterior Palatinat ...
in 1917 for construction of their own single-seat fighter designs. Although it was said to have tricky handling, the Roland C.II had excellent performance, and was also used on long-range missions as a bomber escort. A version with the 200 hp Benz Bz.IV engine and new wing struts was built as the D.III, but only one prototype was ever built, as was the case for the 160 hp
Mercedes D.III The Mercedes D.III, or F1466 as it was known internally, was a six-cylinder SOHC valvetrain liquid-cooled inline aircraft engine built by Daimler and used on a wide variety of German aircraft during World War I. The initial versions were introd ...
-powered C.V. The C.II was adapted to the pure fighter role as the
Roland D.I The LFG Roland D.I was a fighter aircraft produced in Germany during World War I.Taylor 1989, 576 It was a single-seat aircraft based originally on the Roland C.II two-seat reconnaissance type. It shared its predecessor's unusual design feature ...
, but in this role the poor forward view proved to be a problem. A fire at the factory severely constrained production, and only 20 were built. A newer version with a more conventional layout, the
Roland D.II The LFG Roland D.II was a German single-seat fighter of World War I. The type was manufactured by Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft, and also by Pfalz Flugzeugwerke under license. Design and development The D.II used a plywood monocoque fuselage. Two la ...
, followed, whose fuselage was reduced in height to leave a gap with the upper wing but was otherwise similar overall. The competing
Albatros D.I The Albatros D.I was an early fighter aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Albatros Flugzeugwerke. It was the first of the Albatros D types which equipped the majority of the German and Austrian fighter squadrons ( ...
was preferred, and only about 230 examples were built, which were then mostly used on the eastern front and in Macedonia. The fuselage to wing gap was further increased in the D.III, but the temperamental 180 hp Argus As.III limited production to only a handful. Six D.IIs were delivered in July 1917 to the Bulgarian Air Force, and six D.IIIs were delivered in May 1918. Although the ''Wickelrumpf'' style of wood-structure monocoque fuselage was extremely strong, it was also very difficult and time-consuming to build. A new method of construction was introduced that used spruce planking running the length of the aircraft in place of the formed plywood, and the D.III was adapted using this technique to produce D.IV
triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard (aeronautics), canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The trip ...
and D.V biplane, both powered by the D.III's 160 hp Mercedes. The fuselage shell's construction technique for these aircraft resembled a clinker-planked boat hull in appearance when finished, and was named ''Klinkerrumpf'' (clinker body) construction, and was also patented by the firm. A further adaptation of the D.IV with the 185 hp Benz Bz. III resulted in the Roland D.VI, which was entered in the First Fighter Competition trials at
Adlershof Adlershof (, literally "Eagle's Court") is a locality (') in the Boroughs of Berlin, borough (') Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. Adlershof is home to the new City of Science, Technology and Media (WISTA), located on the southwestern edge of ...
in early 1918. Although the
Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII is a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the '' Fokker-Flugzeugwerke''. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII ...
won that contest, the D.VI was also ordered into production as it used a different engine, and by the end of the war about 350 had been delivered. A large number of different versions using various engines were built as prototypes without entering production, as well as a
triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard (aeronautics), canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The trip ...
adaptation as the D.VI (also known as the Dr.I). The next major design from Roland were
parasol monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...
designs, the D.XVI with the
Siemens-Halske Sh.III The Siemens-Halske Sh.III was an 11-cylinder, air-cooled counter rotary engine developed in Germany during World War I. The engine was a development of the earlier 9-cylinder Siemens-Halske Sh.I. Design The Siemens-Halske Sh.III was an 11-cyli ...
or 170 hp
Goebel Goe.III Goebel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Brad Goebel (born 1969), professional American football player * Ed Goebel (1898–1959), Major League Baseball player * Evandro Goebel (born 1986), Brazilian footballer * Florian Goe ...
a
rotary piston engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...
s, and the otherwise similar D.XVII with the inline 185 hp
BMW III BMW IIIa was an inline six-cylinder SOHC valvetrain, water-cooled aircraft engine, the first-ever engine produced by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, who, at the time, were exclusively an aircraft engine manufacturer. Its success laid the foundati ...
a. Both were entered into the Second Fighter Competition at Adlershof, but lost to the
Fokker D.VIII The Fokker E.V was a German parasol wing, parasol-monoplane fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz and built by Fokker, Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The E.V was the last Fokker design to become operational with the ''Luftstreitkräfte,'' entering s ...
. After the war all aircraft production in Germany was banned, and the company was forced to close the Bitterfeld plant and reopen in Seddin, producing airplanes, balloons and life boats. In 1933, aircraft production shut down. Three additional Parseval pattern airships were also built during this period.


Aeroplane types

This is a list of aeroplane produced, taken from Nowarra, Heinz: Flugzeuge 1914–1918, München 1959 and Emmanuel Gustin's list of German military aircraft. * C.II und C.IIa "Walfisch" biplane
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
, two-seater * C.III variant of C.II, one built – destroyed by fire when LFG plant burned, 6 September 1916Abbott, Dan S., and Grosz, Peter M. "''The Benighted Rolands''", Air Enthusiast Quarterly, Bromley, Kent., U.K., Volume 3, 1976, pages 39–40. * LFG Roland C.V- two-seat version of D.II, prototype only * C.VIII – prototype only * C.X – reconnaissance * D.I "Haifisch" – biplane fighter with top wing mounted on fuselage * D.II – fighter, about 230 built * D.III – fighter, few built * D.IV
triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard (aeronautics), canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The trip ...
, prototype only (also known as Dr. I) * D.V – D.III variant, only three prototypes * D.VI – fighter, 350 built, similar to D.III, ordered as backup for D.VII * D.VII – one prototype built * D.VIII – one prototype built * D.IX – three prototypes built * D.X – projected only * D.XI – projected only * D.XII – projected only * D.XIII – development abandoned when destroyed in a fire * D.XIV – fighter, variant of D.XIII, very unreliable * D.XV – fighter, three of a first design built, two of a second design also named D.XV * D.XVI – fighter, prototypes only * D.XVIIparasol-wing monoplane fighter, one built *
G.I G.I. is an informal term that refers to "a soldier in the United States armed forces, especially the army". It is most deeply associated with World War II, but continues to see use. It was originally an initialism used in U.S. Army paperwork ...
– single engine biplane bomber, only one built *
LFG Roland ME 8 LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for group ...
– Seaplane fighter, only projected *
LFG Roland MD 14 LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for group ...
– reconnaissance, only projected *
LFG Roland MD 15 LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for group ...
– reconnaissance, only projected * V 3 Susanna – pusher flying boat * V 8 Bärbel – pusher flying boat * V 13 and V 130 ''Strela'' – airliner, latter mounted on floats * V 14 - design only * V 15 - design only * V 16 - design only * V 17 - design only * V 18 Sassnitz - pusher flying boat airliner * V 19 – single-seat submarine reconnaissance floatplane, prototype completed in 1918 * V 20 – floatplane airliner * V 23 - design only * V 25 - design only * V 26 - design only * V 27 - design only * V 28 - design only * V 36 - design only * V 39 * V 40 * V 42 * V 44 – one prototype builtLFG V 44
/ref> * V 52 * V 59 * V 60 * V 61 * V 101 – floatplane airliner *
LFG Roland W The LFG Roland D.I was a fighter aircraft produced in Germany during World War I.Taylor 1989, 576 It was a single-seat aircraft based originally on the Roland C.II two-seat reconnaissance type. It shared its predecessor's unusual design feature ...
– Floatplane version of Albatros C.Ia *
LFG Roland WD The LFG Roland D.I was a fighter aircraft produced in Germany during World War I.Taylor 1989, 576 It was a single-seat aircraft based originally on the Roland C.II two-seat reconnaissance type. It shared its predecessor's unusual design feature ...
– Floatplane version of LFG Roland D.I rejected due to poor visibility *
LFG Roland W 1 LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for group ...
– Seaplane, single seater fighter *
LFG Roland W 16 LFG may refer to: * Landfill gas, a waste gas containing methane and other gases emitted by landfills * Lexical functional grammar, a theory of syntax * Lagged Fibonacci generator, an example of a pseudorandom number generator * "Looking for group ...
– Seaplane


See also

*
List of aircraft manufacturers This is a list of aircraft manufacturers sorted alphabetically by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)/common name. It contains the ICAO/common name, manufacturers name(s), country and other data, with the known years of operation in pa ...


References


Further reading


Jahrbuch der Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft / Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft m.b.H.
– company year books from 1907 to 1912 digitized (German) {{Authority control Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany