__NOTOC__ The Friedrichshafen G.I (factory designation FF.36 or FF.30) was a prototype heavy bomber aircraft that was built in Germany by Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen in 1915. It was

Karl Gehlen Karl Gehlen was the chief designer of the German Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH company, formed on June 17, 1912 by Diplom Ingenieur Theodor Kober Theodor Kober (born 13 February 1865 in Stuttgart; died 20 December 1930 in Friedrichshafen) was ...

's first design for the company, and although it was not produced in quantity, it provided the foundation for the later, highly successful bombers culminating in the G.III.

Design and development

The Friedrichshafen G.I first flew in 1915 and was originally conceived as a battle-plane but the design emphasis was shifted to the bomber role when the battle-plane concept proved unworkable. The G.I was a

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 ...

with a crew of three and armament of a single machine gun mounted on a gun ring in the nose of the aircraft. The front part of the fuselage was covered with

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 ...

while the rear half of the fuselage was fabric covered as were the wings and the tail surfaces. The biplane wings were braced by three pairs of interplane struts on each side of the fuselage while the tail unit was a box-shaped biplane unit with two rudders mounted between the tips of the

horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...

s. The fuselage was attached to the lower wing and the two engine

nacelles A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

were suspended between the wings by a system of struts. Each nacelle housed a six-cylinder 110 kW (150 hp) Benz Bz.III engine in a

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

Design and development

Operators

Specifications (G.I)

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading