__NOTOC__ The Fokker D.II was a German fighter biplane of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. It was a single-seat fighter aircraft developed before the

Fokker D.I The Fokker D.I (company designation M.18) was a development of the D.II fighter. The D.I was also flown in Austro-Hungarian service as a fighter trainer aircraft under the designation B.III. Confusing the matter further, both the D.II and D.I ar ...

. It was based on the M.17 prototype, with single-bay unstaggered wings and a larger fuselage and shorter span than production D.IIs. Using a 75 kW (100 hp) Oberursel U.I, the D.II was underpowered, though the single 7.92 mm (.312 in) lMG 08

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 ...

was normal for 1916. The German Army purchased 177.

Operational history

In service, the D.II proved to be little better than the earlier Fokker ''Eindecker'' fighters - in particular, it was outclassed by 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 ...

and 17. A few examples were used by the ''Kampfeinsitzerkommandos'' and the early '' Jagdstaffeln'' alongside the

Halberstadt D.II The Halberstadt D.II was a biplane fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by German aircraft company Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke. It was adopted by the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (Imperial German Army Air Service) and served through the peri ...

but the early Fokker biplanes were quickly discarded when the new Albatros fighters came out.

Operators

; * Luftstreitkräfte ; * Koninklijke Marine ; *

Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army an ...

Specifications (D.II)

References

* * {{World War I Aircraft of the Central Powers 1910s German fighter aircraft D 02 Rotary-engined aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1916