UNOFFICIAL PLANE Roland DII

**Pooh** · 10-22-2011 20:05

I've always liked the unusual look of these aircraft and now that 1 is available through Shapeways, I'm going to pick 1 up. All I need is the WoG stats.

Roland DII
Crew 1 pilot
Length............. 6.93m (22' 9")
Wingspan......... 8.94m (29'4")
Wing Area ........22.8 sq m (245.4 sq ft)
Take off wt......795 kg (1754 lb)
Engine............1x Mercedes DIII inline engine 160 hp

Performance
Maximum Speed....163 km/hr (105 mph)
Endurance...........2 hours
Ceiling................5,000m (16,000 ft)
Climb ?

Armament
2 Forward firing mg.

This aircraft had uninspiring performance and was tricky to take off and land.
It looks like another candidate for the "J" deck with "A" guns. No idea on damage climb etc.

Pooh

**Max Headroom** · 10-23-2011 00:58

I've got several cards for this plane in my album...

The other posts on this craft all came to the conclusion it was a 'G' deck I believe.
Correct me if I'm wrong and I can do a color scheme to match anyone's custom.

**Jager** · 10-23-2011 02:07

I'm kind of torn on this one: I would vote for the J deck, same speed range as the Albatross DIII and Pfalz DIIIa, but the books I have say it's heavy at the controls, and inferior in performance to the DIII. I thought of the K deck (like the CII) but that's just a J without an Immelmann. Within the constrants of the game system, I'd have to go with a J deck. And I'd have to go with 16 points damage (tough as a Plalz).
Karl

**Pooh** · 10-23-2011 08:57

The speed for this aircraft is faster than other aircraft in the "G" range band. It falls about in the middle of the "K" speed ranges. I believe it's faster than the Dr1 which is in that range band. If we could come up with a "J-" deck to reflect its poorer performance compared to the aircraft that use that deck, I'm all for it.

BTW: If this has been discussed previously, I apologize for rehashing old ground. I did look for a previous discussion but didn't see it.

Pooh

**greenalfonzo** · 10-23-2011 09:04

How many Rolands were produced? Wasn't about a total of 50?

**Ravenlord** · 10-23-2011 11:23

I would rate the Roland D.II in J or B-deck (speed about 180kph), because of it´s poor handling performance I would prefere the J-deck.
Climbrate was slowlier than those of the Albatros D.III, therefor I would give her a climbrate of 5.

The Roland D.I was build in small numbers at Roland, when the production begins a fire destroyed the Roland factory in Adlershof. The production was delayed for a month.
To keep the Pfalz-factory in production Pfalz received a license-production contract as Pfalz D.I, D.II and DIIa (later Roland D.I(Pfal.) and so on).

The Roland D.I, D.II and D.IIa where not easy to fly they had a bad stability because of the big forward fuselage and the small vertical stabilizer.
Another problem of the plane where aerodynamic interferences between the broad wings wich where mounted to near to each other.
The Roland D.IIa with it´s Argus As.III had a bad climb over 3000 metres and lost power extensivly over that height.

Production:

Roland:
D.I 830-889/16 60
D.I not identified 40 (possibly changed to D.II)
D.II 2800-2829/16 30
D.IIa 3671-3740/16 40
D.IIa 150-199/17 50
D.IIa 450-499/17 50
D.III not identified 100?

Pfalz:
D.I 1680-1699/16 20
D.II 2830-2929/16 60
D.II not identified 40
D.IIa 300-399/17 100
D.III(Pfal.) not id. 30

Prod. Roland D.I - D.III altogether:

D.I 80-120
D.II 130-170
D.IIa 200
D.III 130?

all: 580

source: Windsock Datafiles 47- Grosz; Die Entwicklung der deutschen Jagdflugzeuge - Kosin

Matthias

**Kaiser** · 10-23-2011 16:17

Ich would use the J-Deck but would give the third left and third right turn a Stall symbol. Same with the third left and third right side-sweep. This would represent well the heavy handling.