Siemens-Schuckert D.II
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Siemens-Schuckert D.IV was a late-
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 ...
fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...
from
Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...
(SSW). It reached service too late and was produced in too few numbers to have any effect on the war effort.


Earlier designs

Siemens-Schuckert's first production fighter aircraft was the Siemens-Schuckert D.I, which was based closely on the French
Nieuport 17 The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) is a French sesquiplane fighter aircraft, fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little large ...
. Apart from the use of the Siemens-Halske Sh.I, a geared rotary engine in which the crankshaft and the propeller rotated in opposite directions, the D.I was in fact a fairly close copy of the Nieuport. By the time production D.Is appeared in 1917 however, the design was no longer competitive and after 95 had been built, production was cancelled, with the type serving mainly as an advanced trainer. Development work on the Siemens-Halske Sh.I culminated in 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 ...
, which developed . The new engine was fitted to a series of original prototype designs from the SSW works, the D.II, D.IIa and D.IIb. These featured a short, round section fuselage designed to fit a larger engine, leading to a rather stubby-looking aircraft which pilots later referred to as ''the flying beer barrel''. Flight tests started in June 1917, and while the aircraft did not have a very high top speed, they showed outstanding rates of climb. The only serious concern was the extremely long landing gear needed to keep the huge 2-bladed prop clear of the ground.


D.III

Three more prototypes were ordered, one D.IIe, with the original sized wings, and two D.IIc's, fitted with shorter and longer span wings. After completion in October 1917, the design proved promising and in December an order for twenty long-span D.IIc's was placed with a smaller 4-bladed propeller that allowed for shorter landing gear legs. Deliveries of these aircraft, now known as D.III, began in January and were followed by an additional order for thirty in February. All fifty were delivered to front-line units in May, where they proved popular but after only 10 hours of service the engines started showing serious problems, overheating and seizing. Siemens blamed the problem on the Voltol-based oil that was used to replace scarce
castor oil Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans, the seeds of the plant ''Ricinus communis''. The seeds are 40 to 60 percent oil. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its den ...
for lubricating the engine but the type was withdrawn from service and replaced by
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 ...
s. When they were removed,
Rudolf Berthold Oskar Gustav Rudolf Berthold (24 March 1891 – 15 March 1920) was a German flying ace of World War I. Between 1916 and 1918, he shot down 44 enemy planes—16 of them while flying one-handed. In postwar Germany, Berthold organized a ''Freikor ...
, commander of JG.II, noted that he wished "the Siemens fighter be made available again for front-line use as quickly as possible for, after elimination of the present faults, it is likely to become one of our most useful fighter aircraft". A version of the Sh.III passed a 40-hour endurance test in June and the aircraft were cleared to return to service in July. In the meantime they had been upgraded with the addition of a new rudder, balanced ailerons and had the cowling cut-away for improved cooling. Some sources also claim that the original engines were replaced with the improved Sh.IIIa engines. Another thirty new aircraft with these features were built and all eighty of the improved design entered service in home defense units where their climb rate made them excellent
interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Interceptor'', a British drama series on BBC One * Interceptor (game show), ''Interceptor'' (game show), a British television game show that ran during 1989 * Interc ...
s.


D.IV

The short-span D.IIc prototype had been further refined and with a narrower chord upper and lower wing, using the Göttingen 180 airfoil. One wing was slightly longer than the other to counter the
P-factor Pfactor, also known as asymmetric blade effect and asymmetric disc effect, is an aerodynamic phenomenon experienced by a moving propeller (aircraft), propeller,) wherein the propeller's center of thrust moves off-center when the aircraft is at ...
of its huge four-blade propeller. The port panels outboard of the struts were in length, while those on the starboard side were long. The performance improved noticeably in top speed and in climb rate over the D.III. An order for this model, now known as the D.IV, was placed in March 1918 and additional orders were placed as the qualities of the design became known. Aircraft started reaching operational units in August but of the 280 ordered only 123 were completed by the end of the war, about half of those reaching operational units. Although the short landing gear and limited prop clearance led to tricky landing, the plane was otherwise easy to fly. It had a very short take-off run and at heights above was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Mercedes-powered
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 ...
. Its most notable feature was its phenomenal rate of climb and extremely high service ceiling—it could reach in under 14 minutes. In 36 minutes it could reach , about higher than the ceiling of the Fokker. Production of the D.IV continued after the cease-fire, while one example escaped to
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
where it operated from 1918 to 1922, and another was acquired by the Lithuanians, however it never flew in their service. One examples was used by the Belgians, being marked with the race number 22. With the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
aircraft production in Germany was outlawed and the aircraft division of SSW disappeared. Siemens-Halske later reorganized into
Bramo Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...
.


D.V

In May/June 1918 a sesquiplane, two bay derivative, the D.V participated in the Adlershof trials. Three were built.


Operators

; *
Belgian Air Force The Belgian Air and Space Component (, ) is the Air force, air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force (; ). It was founded in 1909 and is one of the world's oldest air services. ...
- operated 1 ex-Luftstreitkräfte D.IV from 1919 to 1921 ; *''
Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Combat Forces)known before October 1916 as (The Imperial German Air Service, lit. "The flying troops of the German Kaiser’s Reich")was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-langu ...
'' *''
Kaiserliche Marine The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term was used partic ...
'' ; *
Lithuanian Air Force The Lithuanian Air Force or LAF (, abbreviated as ''LK KOP'') is the military aviation branch of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. It is formed from professional military servicemen and non-military personnel. Units are located at Zokniai Air Base ne ...
- received 1 D.IV (No. 6177); however, it never flew in Lithuanian service.G. Ramoška, Pirmieji karo aviacijos lėktuvai 1919-23 m., http://www.plienosparnai.lt/page.php?81 ; *
Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (; ; ; ) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914, three days after the outbreak of World War I, as a part of the Swiss Army, army and in October 1936 as an independent service. In peaceti ...
- operated 1 ex-Luftstreitkräfte D.III from 1918 to 1922.


Specifications (D.IV)


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Gray, Peter, and Thetford, Owen. ''German Aircraft of the First World War''. London:Putnam, 1962. * Munson, Kenneth. ''Aircraft of World War I''. London: Ian Allan, 1967. . *


External links

* Contemporary technical description with photographs and drawings, translated from the German aviation journal ''Flugsport''. {{Authority control 1910s German fighter aircraft D.IV Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1918 Rotary-engined aircraft ja:ジーメンス・シュッケルト D.III