Flying The Old Planes - Part 7: Fokker D.VII

[Pips 5]

Extract from "Flying The Old Planes" by Frank Tallman.

 

Our original Fokker D.VII had stayed in storage following the movie 'Hell’s Angels', and was located at the same time as our original SPAD VII – and both were found in nearly flyable condition!

 

“What a sweetheart”: This is my Number one thought every time the candy-stripped Fokker breaks ground. By any pilot’s standards it is a delightful, exciting aeroplane to fly. Although I often do not have a chance to fly it, there is always a brand new excitement each time I get airborne in it.

 

The D.VII is the greatest of Fokker’s WWI designs, and for reliability, strength and smooth, easy flight characteristics, it was arguably equalled by no other aircraft in either the Imperial German Air Service or the combined Allied air forces. It is without doubt the easiest World War One aircraft I have ever flown. It fills one with immediate confidence, and has no vices worth mentioning.

 

The D.VII was one of some twenty odd Fokker designs made in Germany and under licence in Austria and Hungary in WWI. But because of his financially large aircraft and gun contracts and his Dutch nationality, Fokker was looked upon with ill-disguised jealousy by other German aircraft manufacturers. Background machinations and politics, the failure of the DR.1 to win large production contracts as well as the growth of such firms as Roland, Pfalz, Albatross and others had reduced Fokker by 1918 almost to the role of a subcontractor. When the Johannisthal fighter trials came up in January 1918 the D.VII, which was in its early developmental stage, was flown to the base by Fokker himself. On the trip to Johannisthal he found directional control poor, and against every military and trial regulation he hired outside welders and spliced in several more feet of fuselage the night before the trials began. The D.VII was an instant success. It led every flight category and was put immediately into quantity production. Now the German firms that had given Fokker such a hard time suddenly found the roles reversed, with their factories being pushed into producing the D.VII instead of their own aircraft.

 

Unfortunately, in our D.VII we had a 180-hp Hispano Suiza for power instead of the regulation Mercedes. The change goes back many years to “Men with Wings”; a picture Paul Mantz did using the Fokker D.VII. By that year (1937) the WWI Mercedes was beginning to show definite signs of age, and because Hisso’s were readily available, one was used with no basic structural changes to the aircraft.

 

As you walk out to the D,VII it impresses you as being larger than it actually is. Possibly that’s due to it’s coffin like nose and because of the thick high-lift wings. The pre-flight inspection is simpler by far with the D.VII than with any other Allied or German aircraft because of the lack of bracing wires. Both wings are fully cantilevered, and the outer N struts were added only as a sop to the German pilots, for these struts serve no structural purpose.

 

Apart from the engine, the gear will stand a look. Tightness of the streamlined landing gear is important, as is the condition of the shock cord. The trailing edges of the wings, because they are of wire, sometimes work through the fabric. This must be checked, as well as the integrity of tail bolts and the structure of the tail.

 

Like all German aircraft the first step up is along one. Once settled in the cockpit with a couple of Spandaus six inches from your moustache, you realise this is a war plane, and in case of accident and no shoulder straps, you might very easily, and permanently, shift your appearance.

 

In taking off, the tail comes up immediately, with complete rudder control. We were airborne in 383 feet. What a completely responsive aeroplane! The ailerons are sheer delight, and the climb is a revelation after flying other Allied and German aircraft of WWI vintage.

 

Levelling out at 3,000 feet, the D.VII indicates 110 mph, and trues out at 118mph. Stalls are straightforward and hang on until 49 mph on the clock and then fall straight ahead. Loops cover about 800 feet of sky, and when started at 120 mph carry through beautifully, with no tendency to fall out at the top. Strangely, to the vertical point, the ailerons of the D.VII are all anyone could ask for. Following through the inverted phase, the roll slows down. A full slow roll is on the order of nine seconds. But make no mistake; this aircraft is not a slouch. If you want to hustle through rolls it will whip from side to side faster than almost any other WWI aircraft. Changes of direction, either vertically or horizontally, as performed with ease.

 

Spins of one turn are smooth and precise in either direction. And yes, the Fokker will hang vertically on its prop for several seconds before a gentle tail slide initiates. Once that occurs a light tap of rudder and the Fokker flips over to direction you want without the slightest hiccup. Wingovers are a real joy, as are vertical banks. This aircraft is solid as a rock in all manoeuvres.

 

Landings with the D.VII as with many other aircraft of that period, are much different than with their WWII counterparts. As you come in on your grass or dirt strip, you’ll find the D.VII moving quite a bit faster than you anticipated and touching three points hot and skittish at about 55 mph. The only directional control is throttle, and a real blast over the rudder is necessary to stop any turning on landing.

 

It’s said that the Fokker D.VII can make the most mediocre pilot look good, and a good pilot great. Given it is such a vice-free aeroplane to fly it’s easily understandable why it was so well thought of by the Germans, and feared so much by the Allies.

 

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STATS: From "German Aircraft Of The First World War" by Peter Gray and Owen Thetford; and "Fighter Aircraft Of The 1914 - 1918 War" by W.M. Lamberton and E.F. Cheesman.

 

 

Engine: 180 hp Mercedes D III

Empty Weight: 700kg (1,540 lb)

Loaded Weight: kg (1,936 lb)

Max Speed:

186 km/h (116 mph) @ 1,000m (3,280 feet)

182 km/h (114 mph) @ 2,000m (6,560 Feet)

175 km/h (109 mph) @ 3,000m (9,843 feet)

165 km/h (103 mph) @ 4,000m (13,124 feet)

152 km/h (95 mph) @ 5,000m (16,405 feet)

Climb:

3.30 minutes to 1,000m (3,280 feet)

6.48 minutes to 2,000m (6,560 Feet)

12.0 minutes to 3,000m (9,843 feet)

18.30 minutes to 4,000m (13,124 feet)

31.30 minutes to 5,000m (16,405 feet)

Ceiling: 5,974m (19,600 feet)

Endurance: 2 hours

Armament: Two 7.92mm Spandau LMG 08/15

No’s Built: Approximately 1,700

 

 

Engine: 185 hp B.M.W. III

Empty Weight: 700kg (1,540 lb)

Loaded Weight: kg (1,993 lb)

Max Speed:

193 km/h (120 mph) @ 1,000m (3,280 feet)

188 km/h (117 mph) @ 2,000m (6,560 Feet)

183 km/h (114 mph) @ 3,000m (9,843 feet)

175 km/h (109 mph) @ 4,000m (13,124 feet)

168km/h (105 mph) @ 5,000m (16,405 feet)

Climb:

2.50 minutes to 1,000m (3,280 Feet)

8.30 minutes to 3,000m (9,843 feet)

11.40 minutes to 4,000m (13,124 feet)

16.0 minutes to 5,000m (16,405 feet)

21.15 minutes to 6,000m (19,685 feet)

Ceiling: 6,979m (22,900 feet)

Endurance: 2 hours

Armament: Two 7.92mm Spandau LMG 08/15

No’s Built: Approximately 1,700

 

Speed wise the BMW powered DVII has a slight advantage at all altitudes. But the big difference is in climb rate. Here the BMW engine has a significant advantage over the Mercedes.

[Hauksbee 103]

It seems that no matter how many accounts you read about the D.VII, nobody had a bad word to say about it.

[CaptSopwith 22]

It seems that no matter how many accounts you read about the D.VII, nobody had a bad word to say about it.

 

I agree. It seems like it was an aircraft with little to no faults that possessed beautiful handling characteristics. It was well armed, and a stable gun platform. You can't really ask for much more than that in a WWI craft. Imagine what the Germans could have done with it had the D7 been produced in large quantities and a year earlier.