The Friedrichshafen FF.29 was a German lightweight two-seat

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

of the 1910s produced by

Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH was a German aircraft manufacturing company. Overview The company was founded in 1912 in Friedrichshafen, Germany by Theodor Kober who had previously worked for the Zeppelin company. The town, which is located by ...

Development and design

The FF.29 was designed as a lightweight floatplane, 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 ...

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 ...

inline piston engine. Five FF.29s were built at the '' Orlogsværftet Flyvemaskineværksted'' in Denmark, designated Orlogsværftet HB.I

Operational history

The FF.29 entered service with the

German Imperial Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaiser ...

in November 1914, it was used for coastal patrol and

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

and had the ability to carry a small load of bombs. On 24 December 1914 an FF.29 was the first aircraft to drop a bomb on British soil, a single bomb landed in the garden of a house in Leyburn Road, Dover. There were no injuries and little damage beyond a crater in the lawn and smashed windows. On 15 January 1915 a FF.29 was the first plane to be launched from a submarine, the .

Variants

;FF.29 :Production aircraft. ;FF.29A :A similar aircraft with improved floats and tail surfaces.

Operators

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Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy ( da, Søværnet) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Isla ...

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Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

Specifications (FF.29)

References

Bibliography

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