Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft
| Industry | Aircraft manufacture |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1908 |
| Defunct | 1933 |
| Headquarters | , |
Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft, also referred to as LFG, was a German aircraft manufacturer during
Airships
Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft formed on April 30, 1908, from the assets of an experimental airship engine company located in
Their first project was an airship design by August von Parseval, a German airship designer. This entered service as the PL.II in 1910. During World War I, four were delivered to the German Army and Navy. In total some 25 "PL" airships were built, flown and delivered to various customers. The PL-26, one of the last, crashed on landing and burnt inside hangar Luftschiffhalle 2 with no fatalities. For the rest of the war the hangars were used mostly for repairs of observation balloons.
Aeroplanes
In 1913 LFG started producing new designs under the trade name Roland to avoid confusion with the Luftverkehrsgesellschaft (L.V.G.) firm. In 1916 the company developed a floatplane version of the Albatros C.Ia as the LFG W. Some parts were built in Bitterfeld, but final assembly and checkout was carried out in new factories in Stralsund.
Their first successful design was the Roland C.II Walfisch (whale), a two-seat reconnaissance biplane. It had a semi-monocoque fuselage, skinned with two layers of long plywood strips glued at opposing diagonal angles around a mold and skinned with fabric both inside and outside. The fuselage filled the full gap between the wings, leaving the pilot and observer/gunner over the top wings with an excellent view upward. The fuselage "half-shells" were each fitted onto a supporting framework of wooden formers and longerons. The "wrapping" technique of the long plywood strips for the outer fuselage surface led to this particular technique of manufacture being described in German as the Wickelrumpf (wrapped body) style of construction, and was subsequently patented by the firm,[2] licensing the construction method to Pfalz in 1917 for construction of their own single-seat fighter designs. Although it was said to have tricky handling, the Roland C.II had excellent performance, and was also used on long-range missions as a bomber escort. A version with the 200 hp Benz Bz.IV engine and new wing struts was built as the D.III, but only one prototype was ever built, as was the case for the 160 hp Mercedes D.III-powered C.V.
The C.II was adapted to the pure
Although the Wickelrumpf style of wood-structure monocoque fuselage was extremely strong, it was also very difficult and time-consuming to build. A new method of construction was introduced that used spruce planking running the length of the aircraft in place of the formed plywood, and the D.III was adapted using this technique to produce
The next major design from Roland were
After the war all aircraft production in Germany was banned, and the company was forced to close the Bitterfeld plant and reopen in Seddin, producing airplanes, balloons and life boats. In 1933, aircraft production shut down. Three additional Parseval pattern airships were also built during this period.
Aeroplane types
This is a list of aeroplane produced, taken from Nowarra, Heinz: Flugzeuge 1914–1918, München 1959 and Emmanuel Gustin's list of German military aircraft.[5]
- C.II und C.IIa "Walfisch" biplane reconnaissance, two-seater
- C.III variant of C.II, one built – destroyed by fire when LFG plant burned, 6 September 1916[6]
- LFG Roland C.V- two-seat version of D.II, prototype only
- C.VIII – prototype only
- C.X – reconnaissance
- D.I"Haifisch" – biplane fighter with top wing mounted on fuselage
- D.II – fighter, about 230 built
- D.III – fighter, few built
- D.IV – triplane, prototype only (also known as Dr. I)
- D.V– D.III variant, only three prototypes
- D.VI– fighter, 350 built, similar to D.III, ordered as backup for D.VII
- D.VII – one prototype built
- D.VIII– one prototype built
- D.IX – three prototypes built
- D.X – projected only
- D.XI – projected only
- D.XII – projected only
- D.XIII– development abandoned when destroyed in a fire
- D.XIV– fighter, variant of D.XIII, very unreliable
- D.XV – fighter, three of a first design built, two of a second design also named D.XV
- D.XVI – fighter, prototypes only
- D.XVII – parasol-wing monoplane fighter, one built
- G.I – single engine biplane bomber, only one built
- LFG Roland ME 8 – Seaplane fighter, only projected
- LFG Roland MD 14 – reconnaissance, only projected
- LFG Roland MD 15 – reconnaissance, only projected
- V 3 Susanna – pusher flying boat
- V 8 Bärbel – pusher flying boat
- V 13 and V 130 Strela – airliner, latter mounted on floats
- V 14 - design only
- V 15 - design only
- V 16 - design only
- V 17 - design only
- V 18 Sassnitz - pusher flying boat airliner
- V 19 – single-seat submarine reconnaissance floatplane, prototype completed after 1918
- V 20 – floatplane airliner
- V 23 - design only
- V 25 - design only
- V 26 - design only
- V 27 - design only
- V 28 - design only
- V 36 - design only
- V 39
- V 40
- V 42
- V 44 – one prototype built[7]
- V 52
- V 59
- V 60
- V 61
- V 101 – floatplane airliner
- LFG Roland W – Floatplane version of Albatros C.Ia
- LFG Roland WD – Floatplane version of LFG Roland D.Irejected due to poor visibility
- LFG Roland W 1 – Seaplane, single seater fighter
- LFG Roland W 16 – Seaplane
See also
References
- ^ German Aircraft of the First World War, Gray P. & Thetford O., 1970 Putnam
- ^ Wagner, Ray & Nowarra, Heinz (1971). German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945. New York: Doubleday. pp. 75 & 76.
- ^ Aviation in Bulgaria in the Wars from 1912 to 1945, Vol I, Milano Y., 1995 Sveti Gueorgui Pobedonosetz, Sofia
- ^ Wagner, Ray & Nowarra, Heinz (1971). German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945. New York: Doubleday. p. 90.
- ^ [1], Emmanuel Gustin, 1997-07-04
- ^ Abbott, Dan S., and Grosz, Peter M. "The Benighted Rolands", Air Enthusiast Quarterly, Bromley, Kent., U.K., Volume 3, 1976, pages 39–40.
- ^ LFG V 44
Further reading
- Jahrbuch der Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft / Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft m.b.H. – company year books from 1907 to 1912 digitized (German)
