DFW T.28 Floh (English: Flea)
German biplane fighter prototype designed by Hermann Dorner, the designer of the successful Hannover CL.II two-seat fighter of 1917, and built by Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke.
Designed in 1915 as high-speed fighter, the Floh had a small 6.20 m (20.3 ft) wingspan and a rather ungainly tall and thin fuselage. With a fixed conventional landing gear the Floh was powered by a 100 hp (75 kW) Mercedes D.I inline piston engine, and on its first flight in December 1915 reached 180 km/h, quite fast for the time.
The aircraft suffered from very poor forward visibility and was difficult to land due to its narrow landing gear.
The prototype crashed during the flight testing programme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Floh
You are correct sir. The book I saw this in is DFW Aircraft of WW I by AERONAUT. The book cost a bit but it is well worth it for me. This is a great book. Expensive but worth it.
Yet another example of "If it looks bad, it is a bad plane".
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
What was the purpose of the wonky fuselage shape?
"what were they thinking" comes to mind.
From Windsock Datafile 18 (page 2) :
Hermann Dorner, chief engineer of DFW, perceiving that Fokker E types were too slow and sluggish to maintain their edge, proposed the DFW Floh as a high speed fighter, to be achieved by reducing weight and aerodynamic drag to a bare minimum.
The high fuselage, non-white generally dubbed Walfisch, design made the drag producing centre section struts unnecessary and permitted the machine gun and engine to be fully buried to achieve maximum drag.
Bizarre to say the least... interesting though. Thank you
Never Knowingly Undergunned !!
Amusing typo there, Monse-yes, I acknowledge it was in the original, I wonder if they actually proof-read their own work.Originally Posted by monse
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Art imitating life...Wondered where the idea came from !
"He is wise who watches"
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