Aircraft company
| Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft mbH (LFG) Water and Air Vehicle Company mbH |
|
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | April 30, 1908 |
| Seat | Berlin - Charlottenburg , Germany |
| management |
|
| Branch | Airship manufacturer , aircraft manufacturer , tethered balloon manufacturer , inflatable boat manufacturer |
The Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft mbH (LFG) was a German company whose operational purpose was described as "manufacture, sale and use of aircraft".
founding
The Luftfahrzeug- Gesellschaft mbH was founded on April 30, 1908 at Nollendorfplatz 3 in (Berlin-) Charlottenburg . At the registered capital of 500,000 marks were motor Airship Research Association (MStG) with 180,000 marks, the General Electric Company (AEG) and Fried. Krupp AG with 30,000 marks each and the Elektrochemische Werke Bitterfeld with 20,000 marks. The managing directors were Captain Richard von Kehler and Major August von Parseval . The chairman of the supervisory board was Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann (former state secretary in the Reichsmarineamt ), deputy chairman of the AEG founder Emil Rathenau .
The entire Bitterfeld operating facilities of the MStG became the property of the LFG. The management stayed in Berlin.
Airship construction
The first LFG airship was the Parseval airship PL 3 , which was purchased by the Prussian War Ministry in 1910 and put into service as PL II . In 1910 the LFG built a second airship hangar in Bitterfeld . It had a footprint of 80 m × 33 m and a clear height of 25 m. The LFG manufactured other airships and probably also sold licenses to build airships according to the Parseval system. During the First World War , the LFG delivered four airships to the army and navy . They were thus far behind Zeppelin (89 airships delivered) and Schütte-Lanz (16 airships delivered). The last airship built in Bitterfeld was PL 26 . It burned in 1915 in airship hangar 2. The LFG used the remaining Bitterfeld area to maintain kite balloons.
Aircraft construction
In 1913 factory halls were built on the south-east side of the Johannisthal airfield and production was relocated there. With the beginning of the First World War, the company received smaller orders to build Albatros aircraft under license . The LFG's first own design was the two-seat Roland C.II reconnaissance aircraft , the modified version of which was the Roland D.II fighter aircraft . This was because of their weak engine ( Mercedes D III the Entente with 160 hp) in speed and service ceiling fighters and even some bombers inferior. In July 1917, six D.II machines were delivered to the Bulgarian Air Force and in May 1918 a further six machines of the improved D.III design were delivered.
In 1916, the LFG's seaplane construction department in Bitterfeld started operations, building seaplanes of the “Albatros” type under license . The final assembly and the flying in took place in Stralsund . The LFG's Bitterfeld operation was closed in 1919 and relocated to the airship port of Seddin in the Pomerania province . From 1925 the company operated as Wasser- und Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft mbH and manufactured airplanes, tethered balloons and inflatable boats . From 1929 to 1932 three airships were built in Seddin according to the Parseval-Naatz system (PN 28 to PN 30). The construction of aircraft ceased in 1933.
Aircraft types
- C.II and C.IIa "whale" scouts
- C.III Recon
- CV - two-seater version of the D.II, prototype only
- C.VIII - prototype only
- CX - scouts
- W - seaplane
- W-1 - seaplane, single-seater fighter
- W-16 - seaplane
- WD - seaplane variant of the DI
- DI "Haifisch" - fighter plane
- D.II - fighter plane
- D.III - fighter plane
- D.IV - triplane, prototype only (also Dr.I)
- DV - only three prototypes
- D.VI - fighter aircraft, 350 built
- D.VII - prototype only
- D.VIII - prototype only
- D.IX - only three pre-production models
- DX - project only
- D.XI - project only
- D.XII - project only
- D.XIII - destroyed by fire during construction
- D.XIV - fighter aircraft, only small numbers built
- D.XV - two prototypes
- D.XVI - monoplane, only prototypes (also EI)
- D.XVII - monoplane, prototype only
- GI - only design, no production
- V 13 - float passenger plane, 1921
- V.19 - on-board aircraft for submarines, prototype only after 1918
- V 27 - passenger aircraft
- V 59 - float plane, 1925
- V 60 - float plane, 1926
- V 61 - float plane, 1926
- V 130 - passenger aircraft, 1924
- ME 8 - sea attack aircraft, project only
- MD 14 - Recon, only project
- MD 15 - Recon, project only
literature
- Jürgen Seifert: The airship yard and the seaplane construction department of the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft in Bitterfeld (1908–1920). (= Bitterfeld traditions as airship and free balloon city , part 1.) Self-published, Bitterfeld 1988.
- Günter Schmitt: When the classic cars flew. The history of the Johannisthal airfield . Transpress, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-344-00129-9 .
- The Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft mbH Verlagbuchhandlung Julius Springer, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1918, ISBN 978-3-662-33669-4 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ When the classic cars flew , p. 20 ff.
- ^ Jordan Milanov: Aviation and aviation in Bulgaria in the wars from 1912 to 1945. Volume I, Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense "Sweti Georgi Pobedonosetz", Sofia 1995. (Bulgarian)
- ^ Heinz Nowarra: Airplanes 1914-1918, Munich 1959
- ↑ http://users.skynet.be/Emmanuel.Gustin/faq/ger_mil.txt