Roland C.II

LFG Roland C.II "Whale"
Type:	Reconnaissance plane
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft mbH (Roland), City of Charlottenburg (Berlin)
First flight:	October 1915
Commissioning:	March 1916 - spring 1917
Production time:	1915-1916
Number of pieces:	300

The LFG Roland C.II was in World War I employed German two-seat reconnaissance aircraft . The aircraft was first tested in a wind tunnel and was named whale because of its aerodynamic shape .

Development and production

The plane was the smallest German two-seater of the war. It was characterized by its successful streamlined shape . This was the result of the first wind tunnel tests carried out for the first time at the Aerodynamic Research Institute in Göttingen under Professor Ludwig Prandtl . The was driven by Dipl.-Ing. In 1915, Tantzen built a double-decker with a half-shell construction using a Mercedes D III engine with 160 hp. As armament the observer served a mounted on a ring Parabellum MG 14 , while for the pilot until the second production batch (C.999-1023 / 16) one-firing through the propeller arc 7.92 mm 8.15 Spandau-MG was available . In addition to LFG, which produced around 200 aircraft of this type, the Pfalz and Linke-Hofmann Werke manufactured the C.II under license, so that a total of around 300 aircraft left the factory.

There was a modification: in the prototype of the more conventional Roland C.III, eight struts between the upper and lower wing and a 200 hp Benz Bz IV engine were used instead of the two large I-legs of the C.II. This machine was destroyed in a fire at the factory in Adlershof . After the loss of the Adlershof location, LFG's aircraft production was relocated to Berlin-Charlottenburg .

variants

• Roland C.IIa: variant with forward firing LMG 08/15, reinforced wing tips and angular roll bar
• Roland C.III: variant with eight wing struts and Benz Bz IV engine (1 copy)

commitment

Due to its elaborate construction, the Roland C.II reached the front late and in too few numbers, but was urgently needed there by the field aviation departments equipped with a colorful variety of outdated aircraft and for the establishment of the new combat squadron ( Kagohl = combat squadron of the Supreme Army Command ), who had to defend themselves against the growing Allied air superiority at the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme without adequate hunting protection.

Due to its construction, the aircraft was particularly stable in use, but it was difficult to land due to the poor forward visibility of the pilot. The aircraft was used on the Western Front from March 1916 and, thanks to its good aerodynamics, was able to keep up with Allied fighters in terms of speed. The initially missing machine gun for the pilot, which was only installed from the second production series, was replaced by the troops in some cases with an improvised, built-in captured machine gun that fired over the propeller. All in all, the Roland CII can be seen as the forerunner of the later introduced CL-Class (two-seater hunting). The flight performance was only slightly below that of the top single-seaters at the time (e.g. Albatros D.II ). The British fighter pilot ace James McCudden considered the C.II to be the best German fighter plane in 1916.

Particularly well-known pilots of the Roland C.II were Hermann Köhl , highly decorated squadron leader in Kampfgeschwaders 4 and later Atlantic flyer , and Eduard von Schleich , who decorated his "whale" with eyes and mouth and thus emphasized the resemblance of the machine to a whale.

From the first half of 1917, the remaining Roland C. II were slowly withdrawn from the front lines and transferred to flight schools.

The Roland C.II in a performance comparison (around spring 1916)

Surname	country	Motor power	Top speed	Takeoff mass	Armament	Summit height
Roland C.II	German Empire	160 hp	165 km / h	1309 kg	1-2	4000 m
Aviation C.III	German Empire	160 hp	160 km / h	1340 kg	2	4500 m
Nieuport 12	France	110 hp	144 km / h	875 kg	2 MG	4300 m
Morane-Saulnier P.	France	110 hp	163 km / h	760 kg	2 MG, bombs	4800 m
Morane-Saulnier L	France	80 hp	123 km / h	480 kg	1 MG	4700 m
RAFFE2	United Kingdom	160 hp	147 km / h	935 kg	1	3353 m
RAFBE2e	United Kingdom	90 hp	145 km / h	959 kg	2 MG	3500 m

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data
crew	2
length	7.70 m
span	10.33 m
Wingspan (tail unit)	2.08 m
height	2.90 m
Wing spacing	1.32 m
Wing area	27.06 m²
Empty mass	789 kg
Takeoff mass	1309 kg
drive	a water-cooled six - cylinder in - line engine Mercedes D III ; 160 PS (118 kW)
Top speed	165 km / h
Rise time	at 1000 m: 7 min at 2000 m: 14 min at 3000 m: 26 min
Service ceiling	4000 m
Flight duration	4 h
Armament	a Parabellum MG 14 (observer) an 08/15 LMG (pilot) four 12.5 kg bombs

See also

• List of aircraft types
• Classification of German military aircraft in the First World War

literature

• Lamberton / Cheesman / Russell: Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War , Harleyford Publ. Ltd., Letchworth 1964, ISBN 0-8306-8350-X , pp. 148/149.
• Flying Review , May 1965.
• Profile Publications No. 163, The Roland C.II 1967.
• Scale Models , June 1974.
• Karl Rudolf Pawlas: German aircraft 1914–1918 , Nuremberg 1976, ISBN 3-88088-209-6 , p. 248.
• Kenneth Munson: Bomber 1914-1919 . Orell Füssli Verlag, 2nd edition, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-280-00907-3 , pp. 45, 123/124.
• Airfix Magazine , Vol. 26, No. October 2, 1984.
• Gray P. & Thetford O .: German Aircraft of the First World War , Putnam 1962, 3rd edition 1987, ISBN 0-85177-809-7 , pp. 158-161.
• PM Grosz: LFG Roland C.II , Windsock Datafile 49, Albatros Productions Ltd. 1995, ISBN 0-948414-66-9 .

Web links

Commons : LFG Roland C.II  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photo series at picsearch
• Technical data of the Roland C.II
• Color profiles , accessed January 20, 2013.
• Short report, profile and photo , accessed on January 20, 2013.
• Use of Roland C.II in the KAGOHL 1916 , accessed on January 20, 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - accessed on January 12, 2013 
2. ↑ Kenneth Munson: Bomber 1914-1919 . Orell Füssli Verlag, 2nd edition, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-280-00907-3 , pp. 45, 123/124; other source: 764 kg
3. ↑ Kenneth Munson: Bomber 1914-1919 . Orell Füssli Verlag, 2nd edition, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-280-00907-3 , pp. 45, 123/124; other source: 1284 kg