The Albatros D.I was a German

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

used during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Although its operational career was short, it was the first of the Albatros D types which equipped the bulk of the German and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n fighter squadrons (''

Jagdstaffeln A ''Jagdstaffel'' (plural ''Jagdstaffeln'', abbreviated to Jasta) was a fighter aircraft, fighter ''Staffel'' (squadron) of the Empire of Germany, German Imperial ''Luftstreitkräfte'' during World War I. Background Before April 1916, Luftstr ...

'') for the last two years of the war.

Design and development

The D.I was designed by Robert Thelen, R. Schubert and Gnädig, as an answer to the latest

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

fighters, such as the

Nieuport 11 The Nieuport 11 (or Nieuport XI C.1 in contemporary sources), nicknamed the ''Bébé'', was a French World War I single seat sesquiplane fighter aircraft, designed by Gustave Delage. It was the primary aircraft that ended the Fokker Scourge in ...

''Bébé'' and the

Airco D.H.2 The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat pusher biplane fighter aircraft which operated during the First World War. It was the second pusher design by aeronautical engineer Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, based on his earlier DH.1 two-seater. The d ...

, which had proved superior to the Fokker ''Eindecker'' and other early German fighters, and established a general Allied

air superiority Aerial supremacy (also air superiority) is the degree to which a side in a conflict holds control of air power over opposing forces. There are levels of control of the air in aerial warfare. Control of the air is the aerial equivalent of c ...

. It was ordered in June 1916 and introduced into squadron service that August.Cheesman 1960, p. 108. The D.I 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 ot ...

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

, consisting of a single-layered outer shell, supported by a minimal internal structure. This was lighter and stronger than the fabric-skinned box-type fuselage then in common use, as well being easier to give an aerodynamically clean shape. At the same time its panelled-plywood skinning, done with mostly four-sided panels of thin plywood over the entire minimal fuselage structure, was less labour-intensive (and therefore less costly to manufacture) than a "true"

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

structure.Gray and Thetford 1970, p. 39. The Albatros D.I was powered by either a

Benz Bz.III The Benz Bz.III was a six-cylinder, water-cooled, inline engine developed in Germany for use in aircraft in 1914. Developing 112 kW (150 hp) at 1,400 rpm from 14.3 L (875 cu in),Smith 1981, p.53. it powered many German military aircraft ...

or a

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 ...

six-cylinder water cooled inline engine. The additional power of the Mercedes (Daimler) engine enabled twin fixed ''Spandau'' machine-guns to be fitted without any loss in performance. The D.I had a relatively high

wing loading In aerodynamics, wing loading is the total mass of an aircraft or flying animal divided by the area of its wing. The stalling speed of an aircraft in straight, level flight is partly determined by its wing loading. An aircraft or animal with a ...

for its time, and was not particularly manoeuvrable. This was compensated by its superior speed and firepower and it quickly proved the best all-round fighter available.

Operational history

A total of 50 pre-series and series D.I aircraft were in service by November 1916, replacing the early

Fokker Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

and

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...

D types, giving real "teeth" to the

Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Force)—known before October 1916 as (Flyer Troops)—was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-language sources it is usually referred to as the Imperial German Air Service, alt ...

's new ''

'' (fighter squadrons). Further production of D.Is was not undertaken, however; instead, a reduction in the gap between the upper and lower wing in order to improve the pilot's forward and upward vision resulted in the otherwise identical

Albatros D.II The Albatros D.II was a German fighter aircraft used during World War I. After a successful combat career in the early '' Jagdstaffeln'', it was gradually superseded by the Albatros D.III. Design and development Albatros designers Robert Thelen ...

, which became Albatros' first major production fighter.

Operators

; *''

Specifications (D.I with Benz engine)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Cheesman, E.F. ''Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War''. London: Harleyford Publications, 1960. * Gray, Peter and Owen Thetford. ''German Aircraft of the First World War'' (2nd ed.). London: Putnam, 1970. . * Grosz, Peter M. "The Agile & Aggressive Albatros". ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', No. 1, n.d., pp. 36–51. * Munson, Kenneth. ''Fighters, Attack and Training Aircraft 1914-1919 War''. London: Blandford Press, 1968. * Taylor, John W.R. ''Combat Aircraft of the World from 1909 to the Present''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. . * Wagner, Ray and Heinz J. Nowarra. ''German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971. {{Authority control Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft 1910s German fighter aircraft Military aircraft of World War I D.01 Aircraft first flown in 1916