Fokker CI

Fokker CI
Type:	Reconnaissance , training and passenger aircraft
Design country:	German Empire / Netherlands
Manufacturer:	Fokker
First flight:	1918
Commissioning:	1919
Production time:	1918–?
Number of pieces:	about 250

The Fokker CI was a German reconnaissance aircraft that was developed at the end of the First World War and was only used after it had ended. As was the case with some military aircraft types of this time, a civilian variant for the transport of people was derived from it.

development

The aircraft was created due to a demand by Idflieg for a so-called C-plane, i.e. a two-seater armed with machine guns, which was to be used as a reconnaissance aircraft. Fokker's chief designer Reinhold Platz based the design on the single-seat D.VII and developed an enlarged version with an additional observer's cabin. The construction of the prototype designated as V 38 was carried out in the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke Schwerin-Görries and completed in 1918. The tests were successfully completed in the same year and the type was then transferred into series production as a CI , but by the end of the fighting not a single copy was available for delivery to the air force.

How many aircraft were built up to and beyond the armistice can no longer be precisely traced, because in the following months Fokker, like other German manufacturers, used a tactic of concealing the actual aircraft due to the aircraft construction ban stipulated by the victorious powers in the Versailles Treaty Number of aircraft types built. Even before the regulations came into force, he signed a contract with the Dutch company Trompenburg for the delivery of 98 D.VII and 118 CI, which, when the company soon ceased production of aircraft, was signed by the Dutch government on April 27, 1920 was converted into a direct order for 20 D.VII and 60 CI. In this way, Fokker was able to withdraw many of the military aircraft that were still in existence from the Allies and by finally relocating his company to Amsterdam bypass the construction ban. Nevertheless, CI was still illegally produced in Schwerin for a while, which was then shipped to the Netherlands and given new serial numbers there. 42 of them were acquired by Soviet Russia and some of them were flown with ski equipment. In the Netherlands, the LVA took over a total of 62 CI, which were handed over to the school units after their service time and also served as blind flight trainers there. In 1929, 21 of them received a more powerful Lynx engine with 200 hp (147 kW) and were used as C.Ia well into the 1930s. The Marine Luchtvaartdienst also received 16 CI, the last of which was not retired until 1938. Fokker delivered two aircraft to Denmark, and three more were built under license. The last of these CI was flown as a trainer aircraft in 1940.

Fokker C.II with attached cabin behind the open pilot's seat

In 1919, Fokker developed the civilian "passenger limousine" C.II by converting the observer cabin into a passenger cabin for two people with a closed hood in a CI. At least one CI was modernized in this way in Schwerin, a handful of other copies with different cabin variants were built in 1919/1920 in the Amsterdam plant and were delivered to Canada, South America and the USA; some of them received a Puma engine with 230 HP (169 kW). Furthermore, in the summer of 1919, based on the CI, the unrealized project of the PI passenger aircraft with a rounded fuselage and a closed passenger cabin was created.

In August 1920, through the ILÜK , Fokker received the approval for civil use for the Schwerin industrial plants for two CI with the serial numbers 3972 and 3974. The former was equipped with a float landing gear in the same month and thus flew for the first time as a CI-W in September. Further test flights took place on October 6th and 11th of that year over Lake Schwerin . What happened to this CI afterwards is not known.

The last variant was the advanced trainer C.III for the Ejército del Aire, equipped with an HS-8B drive of 220 PS (162 kW) .

Altogether more than 250 pieces of the different versions of the CI are said to have been built, but more precise details are not possible for the reasons mentioned.

construction

The wing of a CI

The CI and its further developments are cantilevered , staggered biplane in mixed construction having a body frame of welded and be crossed with wire steel pipes, which is covered in the region of the engine with sheet metal and otherwise covered with fabric. The wings are made of wood, have two box spars, plywood ribs and are also covered with fabric except for the plywood leading edges. Ailerons are only in the upper wing. The tail unit is again made of tubular steel, with the horizontal stabilizer being supported by struts towards the fuselage. The struts of the non-retractable main landing gear are made of steel profile tubes, the wheels are connected by an axle that is enclosed by an aerodynamic fairing that contains the fuel tank. A grinding spur is attached to the stern.

Technical specifications

In this photo of a C.II, the typical voluminous axle fairing that houses the fuel tank is clearly visible

Spanish C.III

Parameter	Data
crew	2
span	10.50 m
length	7.23 m
height	2.87 m
Wing area	26.25 m²
Empty mass	830 kg
Takeoff mass	normal 1180 kg maximum 1255 kg
drive	water-cooled six - cylinder four-stroke in - line engine
Type	BMW IIIa
rated capacity	185 hp (136 kW) at 1400 rpm
Top speed	175 km / h
Rise time	14.3 min at 3000 m altitude 27 min at 5000 m altitude
Service ceiling	4000 m
Range	620 km
Flight duration	4 h
Armament	one fixed 7.7 mm machine gun one movable 7.7 mm machine gun four 12.5 kg bombs at lower wing stations

literature

• Peter M. Grosz, Volker Koos: Fokker Aircraft Works in Germany 1912–1921 . Heel, Königswinter 2004, ISBN 3-89880-355-4 .
• Peter All-Fernandez (ed.): Aircraft from A to Z . tape 2 . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-5905-0 , p. 250 .
• de Agostini (Ed.): Aircraft – The new encyclopedia of aviation . No. 100 . Topic, Munich-Karlsfeld 1994, p. 2798 .

Web links

Commons : Fokker CI  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Fokker C.II  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Fokker C.III  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lennart Anderson: The strongest survived. Dornier, Fokker and Junkers . In: Fliegerrevue Extra . No. 22 . Möller Book and Journals, September 2008, ISSN  0941-889X , p. 60 ff .