The Halberstadt D.II 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 ...
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 ...
developed and manufactured by
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
aircraft company
Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke
Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke or Halberstadt was a German aircraft manufacturer. It was formed on 9 April 1912 under the name ''Deutsche Bristol Werke Flugzeug-Gesellschaft mbH'' in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony.
History
The British-German jo ...
.
It was adopted by 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 ...
'' (Imperial German Army Air Service) and served through the period of 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 ...
in early 1916. As the first biplane configuration fighter aircraft to serve in combat for the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
, it had begun to be superseded in the
''Jagdstaffeln'' and other early German fighter units by the superior
Albatros fighters in the second half of the year, although small numbers of Halberstadts continued in use well into 1917.
Design and development
![Halberstadt D](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Halberstadt_D.II_drooped_lower_trailing_edge-1.jpg)
The D.II was the production version of the experimental
D.I.
Key differences between the D.I and D.II included a substantial effort to lighten the aircraft in order to improve its performance; the latter also featured staggered wings and the adoption of a more powerful 120 hp
Mercedes D.II
The Mercedes D.II was a six-cylinder, SOHC valvetrain liquid-cooled inline aircraft engine built by Daimler during the early stages of World War I. Producing about 110 to 120 hp, it was at the low-end of the power range of contemporary eng ...
engine. The side and frontal radiators that had been tried in the D.I were replaced by a wing mounted radiator, similar to the arrangement that was later used by the
Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...
and
D.V. In comparison with the D.I, the pilot sat higher in his cockpit, to improve his view over the top wing. This required a dorsal turtleback fairing over the rear fuselage, to improve its lines.
The two bay wings were very strongly braced, but the
trailing edge
The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...
was composed of a wooden member, as opposed to the wire or cable common on many of the First World War-era German single-engined aircraft. Photographic evidence indicates that many examples were rigged with
washout on the lower wings – giving the impression of a curved or twisted lower wing trailing edge. In some photos even the upper wings have a similar sort of "trailing edge droop" on the fixed section inboard of the ailerons.
![Halberstadt D](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Halberstadt_D.II_trailing_edge_droop.jpg)
Lateral control was by
aileron
An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...
s, but the Morane-style
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
(common not only to Moranes, but also to the Fokker and
Pfalz
Pfalz, Pfälzer, or Pfälzisch are German words referring to Palatinate.
They may refer to:
Places
*Pfalz, the Palatinate (region) of Germany
**Nordpfalz, the North Palatinate
**Vorderpfalz, the Anterior Palatinate
**Südpfalz, the South P ...
types of the period) was retained. The inevitable result was extreme fore-and-aft sensitivity and poor control harmonization. The D.II was nonetheless considered to be very manoeuvrable in skilled hands: in particular it could reputedly be dived safely at high speed.
[Munson 1968, p. 113.] A single
synchronised lMG 08 "Spandau" machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
fired through the propeller arc.
If the only performance figures available for the type are accurate, the Halberstadt fighter's speed and climb were little better than the Eindecker's, but it earned the respect of Allied fighter pilots and was a preferred mount of the pilots of the early ''Jagdstaffeln'', until the
Albatros D.I
The Albatros D.I was a German fighter aircraft used during World War I. Although its operational career was short, it was the first of the Albatros D types which equipped the bulk of the German and Austrian fighter squadrons ('' Jagdstaffeln'') f ...
became available. Halberstadts were actually retained, or even returned to service by some pilots during the early weeks of 1917, at a time when the structural difficulties with the
Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...
first surfaced.
[Cheesman 1960, p. 134.]
Operational history
Like other early German fighter types, the D.II was at first supplied in ones and twos to the ordinary six-aircraft reconnaissance units or ''
Feldflieger Abteilung Feldflieger Abteilung (''FFA'', Field Flying Company) was the title of the pioneering field aviation units of what became the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (German air service) by October 1916, during World War I.
Composition
The use of aircraft as a tact ...
en'' of the
German Air Service: then from February 1916 onward through the summer of that year gathered into small specialised fighter units – the ''Kampfeinsitzer-Kommandos'' or "KEK" units. When the first true fighter ''Jagdstaffeln'' were formed in mid-1916, the Halberstadt was the best fighter available
and was used by
Oswald Boelcke
Oswald Boelcke PlM (; 19 May 1891 – 28 October 1916) was a World War I German professional soldier and pioneering flying ace credited with 40 aerial victories. Boelcke is honored as the father of the German fighter air force, and of air ...
to demonstrate his famous pioneering air fighting tactics (the ''
Dicta Boelcke
The ''Dicta Boelcke'' is a list of fundamental aerial maneuvers of aerial combat formulated by First World War German flying ace Oswald Boelcke. Equipped with one of the first fighter aircraft, Boelcke became Germany's foremost flying ace durin ...
'') to the new units (although he is also recorded as flying a
Fokker D.III
The Fokker D.III (Fokker designation M.19) was a German single-seat fighter aircraft of World War I. It saw limited frontline service before being withdrawn from combat in December 1916.
Design and development
The M.19 began as an effort to impr ...
at this period). His Halberstadt was painted bright blue
– one of the first documented instances of the gaudy personal finishes applied by German fighter pilots to their mounts for the remainder of the war.
For some reason, the Halberstadt-built D-series fighters bore no marked IdFlieg-issued military serial numbers anywhere on their exteriors. The licence-built
Aviatik
Automobil und Aviatik AG was a German aircraft manufacturer during World War I. The company was established at Mülhausen (today in France) in 1909 and soon became one of the country's leading producers of aircraft. It relocated to Freiburg in ...
and
Hannover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
-constructed examples of the Halberstadt D-series fighters usually had IdFlieg-issued serial numbers on their rear fuselage sides.
[
As the new Albatros fighters came into service the Halberstadts were quickly replaced, although a few survived into early 1917. ]Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of ...
flew a red Halberstadt D.II for a few weeks in March 1917, after the spar
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...
of the lower wing of his Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...
cracked in combat. He scored 6 of his 80 victories with the type.
Armament and wireless experiments
Believed to have been first tried within the first six months of 1916, future German rocketry pioneer ''Leutnant
() is the lowest Junior officer rank in the armed forces the German (language), German-speaking of Germany (Bundeswehr), Austrian Armed Forces, and military of Switzerland.
History
The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") fro ...
'' Rudolf Nebel
Rudolf Nebel (21 March 1894 – 18 September 1978) was a spaceflight advocate active in Germany's amateur rocket group, the ''Verein für Raumschiffahrt'' (VfR – "Spaceflight Society") in the 1930s and in rebuilding German rocketry following Wor ...
, then flying as a fighter pilot with ''Jasta'' 5, one of the earliest German fighter squadrons within 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 ...
'', used a Halberstadt D.II aircraft of that unit in the first known German attempt at arming an aircraft with wing-mounted rockets as long range armament. ''Leutnant'' Nebel used a set of four improvised tubular launchers, two mounted per side on the wings, with a signal rocket being fired from each tube for the unofficial trial. According to ''Leutnant'' Nebel's apparently "undated" account, he took off on a defensive mission when 25 Allied aircraft appeared in the air near ''Jasta'' 5's base. He managed to fire his improvised rocket armament at a distance of 100 m (330 ft) from the Allied fighter formation, in a "head-on" attack at it and scared one British pilot into surrendering as the British aircraft landed safely in German territory, with ''Leutnant'' Nebel landing no more than 20 m (70 ft) away, to ensure the British pilot's capture. Just over a week later, ''Leutnant'' Nebel used his improvised rocket armament again and blew the propeller off an Allied aircraft, causing it to crash land.[
]
In mid-October 1916, another attempt was made to arm a Halberstadt D.II with rockets, this time for observation balloon attacks with a more formal method, using eight '' Le Prieur''-like rockets mounted on the outer wing struts, the way that the French 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 ...
had been armed nearly a year earlier. Problems with the ignition system on the rockets prevented the system from being experimented with any further.[
In late 1916, the Halberstadt D.II was the first known aeroplane for an official trial, with a special unit named the ''FT-Versuchsabteilung'' (Radio Telegraphy Experimental Detachment), with the "FT" possibly meaning ''Funk-Telegraphie'', of air communications using ]radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
communications (via Morse Code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
) in directing fighter aircraft. '' IdFlieg'' sanctioned the test, which resulted in the creation of a radio-telegraphy transceiver for the flight leader's aircraft, weighing 25–30 kg (55–60 lb) along with the battery, aircraft engine-driven generator and aerials. Receiving gear for the other aircraft in a combat formation was similarly devised, with the radio receiver weighing 12.5–15 kg (27.5–33 lb). By early 1917, the ''FT-Versuchsabteilung'' was making combat trials with the radio gear with Halberstadt D.III and D.V aircraft and by late September 1917 with the famous ''Jagdgeschwader'' I unit commanded by Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of ...
, especially ''Jasta'' 4. Later trials using the more advanced Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...
and Albatros D.Va fighters used the gear for the first attempts at an air-based version of ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was p ...
of Allied bomber aircraft, using visual ground spotters as the ground component by the home defence ''Kampfeinsitzerstaffel'' units.[
]
Variants
Aviatik
Automobil und Aviatik AG was a German aircraft manufacturer during World War I. The company was established at Mülhausen (today in France) in 1909 and soon became one of the country's leading producers of aircraft. It relocated to Freiburg in ...
of Germany built the D.II under licence. It was originally known as the Aviatik D.I (not to be confused with their Austrian subsidiary's independently-designed Aviatik (Berg) D.I
The Aviatik (Berg) D.I, was a single-engine, single-seater biplane fighter that was developed and manufactured by the Austro-Hungarian branch of German aircraft company Aviatik. It was also known as Berg D.I or the ''Berg Fighter'', because it ...
) but was later called the Halberstadt D.II(Av).[Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. ''The Complete Book of Fighters''. London: Salamander, 1994.]
The Halberstadt D.III primarily differed from the D.II version in its substitution of the Argus As.II 90 kW (120 hp) straight-six engine, which differed from the usual Mercedes D.II
The Mercedes D.II was a six-cylinder, SOHC valvetrain liquid-cooled inline aircraft engine built by Daimler during the early stages of World War I. Producing about 110 to 120 hp, it was at the low-end of the power range of contemporary eng ...
powerplant in having its camshaft in the engine block and using pushrods to operate the overhead valves, rather than having a camshaft running atop all of the cylinders as in a single overhead cam
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
engine. A total of 50 D.III examples were built by Halberstadt, with the first 30 ordered in July 1916 and the last 20 ordered in August 1916.[
The D.IV version, of which only three were built to an order placed in early March 1916, changed the wing bracing layout to a single bay, dispensed with the twin bracing struts for the "all moving" vertical tail rudder surface, and used a Benz Bz.III 110 kW (150 hp) straight-six engine for power, with a small conical spinner for better streamlining. Tested by ''IdFlieg'' in October 1916, this type was rejected for further evaluation due to a poor forward field of view for the pilot.][
The D.V version was a less radical departure from the earlier D.II version and mostly differed from the D.II, in having its four-member cabane strut structure supporting a central panel for the upper wing, rather than both upper wing panel's wing roots meeting along the centreline of the aircraft, for better forward pilot vision. It also used the D.III version's Argus As.II engine and changed the mounting position of the aircraft's 7.92 mm (.312 in) lMG 08 machine gun from the right to the left side of the nose. A total of 57 D.V aircraft were built, from orders placed in October 1916 and January–June 1917, with 31 of these being sent to Germany's ally in the ]Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
, the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.[
]
Operators
;
*''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 ...
''
;
*Ottoman Air Force
The Aviation Squadrons of the Ottoman Empire were military aviation units of the Ottoman Army and Navy.Edward J. Erickson, ''Ordered To Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War'', "Appendix D The Ottoman Aviation Inspectorate an ...
Specifications (D.II)
See also
References
Further reading
* Angelucci, Enzo. ''The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914–1980.'' San Diego, California: The Military Press, 1983. .
*
* Cheesman, E.F. ''Fighter Aircraft of the 1914–1918 War.'' London: Harleyford Publications, 1960.
* Grey, Peter and Owen Thetford. ''German Aircraft of the First World War.'' London: Putnam & Company, 1970, First edition 1962. .
* Grosz, Peter M. and A. E. Ferko. "Biplanes for the Fliegertruppe." ''Air Enthusiast
''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to '' Air International'' maga ...
,'' Issue Fourteen, December 1980 – March 1981, pp. 57–67. London: Fine Scroll. ISSN 0143-5450.
*
* Munson, Kenneth. ''Fighters, Attack and Training Aircraft 1914–1919 War.'' London: Blandford Press, 1968.
*
{{World War I Aircraft of the Central Powers
D.II
1910s German fighter aircraft
Military aircraft of World War I
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1915