The Fokker M.7 was a German observation aircraft of

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 ...

, used by the armed forces of both

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Austro-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Design and development

Twenty aircraft, powered by Oberursel U.0

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

s, were built, some of which were used by

Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title 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 wa ...

(Imperial German Navy) shore stations.Gray 1970 p. 339. It was a

single-bay 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 a ...

sesquiplane ( biplane) of conventional configuration, with slightly staggered wings using

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite direc ...

for

roll Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation) ...

control,

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

open cockpits and Fokker's distinctive comma-shaped

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

. The ''W.3'' / ''W.4'' was a floatplane version of the M.7.Taylor 1989 p. 402.

Operational history

The aircraft was operated by the Austro-Hungarian forces under the designation Type ''B.I'', following the German Empire's lettered prefixes from the

Idflieg aircraft designation system The '' Idflieg'' (''Inspekteur der Flieger'') designation system was used to classify German heavier-than-air military (as opposed to naval) aircraft from the early days of the ''Fliegertruppe/Luftstreitkräfte'' to the end of World War I. The sys ...

Variants

* M.7 : Two-seat reconnaissance aircraft version. * W.3 : Possible misidentification of the W.4 * W.4 : Two-seat reconnaissance floatplane version. = *

Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops The Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops or Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops (german: Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen or , hu, Császári és Királyi Légjárócsapatok) were the air force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the e ...

Specifications (M.7)

Notes

References