Flying The Old Planes - Part 8: Pfalz D.XII

[Pips 5]

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

 

This is the last article in this series.

 

 

The father of the Pfalz was the Pfalz D.III, an elegant-looking airplane that was certainly more graceful than it’s predecessor, the Pfalz E series. The plywood semimonocoque fuselage, with its light spruce longerons and oval formers, was both graceful and strong. The clean streamlined lines of the Pfalz were not uncommon to the German Jastas, and manufacturers such as Pfalz, Albatross and Roland made some of their slab-sided counterpart fighter aircraft on the Allied side look about as graceful as a barn door.

 

The layout of the Pfalz D.III was standard: The wings were of unequal span and cord with the radiator mounted in the upper right wing. The reliable Mercedes was the powerplant, and the D.III entered Jasta service primarily with Bavarian units, side by side with the Albatrosses, where they sometimes suffered an unfavourable comparison. The British reported a captured D.III as having excellent visibility, a slow rate of roll, outstanding dive speed, good manoeuvrability, and better all-round handling than an a captured Albatross D.V.

 

However no model of Pfalz was ever truly embraced by the German Air Force, even the D.XII. The 'E' Series, the D.III and the D.XII were always considered less capable (unfair as that may be) than their equivalents.

 

The successful birth of the Pfalz D.XII was accomplished at the Adlershof fighter trials in June of 1918, and thanks to the aircrafts basic virtues and the company’s ‘favourite son’ status, it was put into quantity production for the Bavarian Jastas.

 

My first introduction to even the name Pfalz was when I purchased the remaining two aircraft from Colonel Jarrett’s World War One collection, a SPAD VII and the Pfalz D.XII. Due to WWII storage problems both aircraft had fallen on hard times, and the plywood of the Pfalz had taken more water punishment than some of the towels in a Turkish bath. Because of the wet and dry rot, the interior of the fuselage had been braced with two-by-fours to make it displayable. The wings were badly deteriorated, though the landing gear, the distinctive M struts, and the dual bay wing struts were fortunately in good condition.

 

Once the aeroplanes were stored in a rented barn in Delaware, a period of ennui settled on yours truly as the enormity of the task of rebuilding the Pfalz finally penetrated my concrete dome.

 

Most fortunately I was able to make contact with a soft-spoken mechanical genius by the name of Robert Rust, who allowed that he would like to take on the task of rebuilding the Pfalz. He arrived with a trailer from Atlanta in the rain (I seem to have made most of my important antique aircraft acquisitions in the rain), and as he quietly walked around the Pfalz in the dimly lit hangar I edges out of his way. Figuring he was going to make a dash for his car. “Well” he said “its bad, but not hopeless”.

 

NB: The description of the rebuild has been left out owing to space – but it is fascinating! The only departure from the original was including brakes as a safety feature. Even the Mercedes was restored to its former glory.

 

Finally one November day I was airborne on my way to Atlanta to try my shaking hands on the only German aircraft of World War 1 that I ever thought I would be lucky enough to fly. Bob picked me up at the airport and drove me to an outlying airfield, where the Pfalz sat gleaming in her camouflage paint. The strange colours of the Pfalz were researched as carefully as was the rest of the reconstruction, and the information came from a scholarly series published by the English magazine ‘Flight” following WWI.

 

Unlike the Fokker DR.1 and D.VII, with their cantilever construction, the Pfalz is a maze of wires and includes double bays on each wing. The maintenance of this maze of wires was about as eagerly looked forward to by the German mechanics as a bath in a tub of live eels. Inspecting the wires and then the fittings; the gear and its ball sockets; the aileron elevators and the rudder attach points; the glass window in the Mercedes crankcase, which tells you whether you have sufficient oil; and the radiator are all part of a somewhat unfamiliar pre-flight to our derring-do aviators of today.

 

Like most German aircraft of the period, to get into the cockpit you have to have been sired by giraffes or have a ladder. Once in the nice battleship grey cockpit, your nose is assailed by the strong fuel smell until you find the tank in the floor directly under you. With incendiary ammunition aboard, what a lovely location for a sausage sizzle.

 

A little-known fact is that the German Air Force of this first global conflict actually flew instrument missions with their giant series of aircraft. They were using reliable artificial horizons as early as 1915 on night operations into Russia. The Pfalz does not suffer from an oversupply of instruments, and there is no panel as we know today. Instruments are stuck around as haphazardly as a modern artists paint strokes.

 

Along with the inverted ram’s horn on the stick, there is a radiator control shutter, a mag switch, and a fuel valve. There is no firewall in these machines, and it was a distinctly unpleasant feeling to see the rear of the Mercedes engine block. With six cylinders, each with the bore of a butter plate, a compression release is provided. The cockpit is not deep, and seated on my ever-present parachute, I felt like a penthouse dweller.

 

With my feet in the stirrup-equipped control bar, gas on, radiator shutters closed, motorcycle throttle on stick cracked, and an athlete standing on the wheel with his hand on the compression release, the Mercedes fired on the first pull and ran unevenly until the compression release was locked. The Mercedes idles a bit unevenly, with the valve springs rattling like castanets.

 

Taxiing to the takeoff point with runners on the wingtips, I got no real rudder response. I checked to clear myself and was on my way, with the intention of getting the feel of the aircraft on a straight high-speed taxi run. While the acceleration of the Mercedes seemed slow, the tail was up in just fifty feet, and the rudder response was positive and good. The only problem was a wide-open throttle I couldn’t close, the throttle being a motorcycle-type design fitted to the top of the joystick. In the space of the telling, I was up and flying. General balance and feel seemed good, so I climbed out around the field with the stuck throttle.

 

The flight was fast, and I ran away from am accompanying PT-19 as if it were moored. Windblast was severe, for the only protection was the German tachometer mounted between the twin Spandaus. Control response in the air was very precise, and fast on the elevators and rudders, but as in some of the spade-grip British aircraft, the aileron movement was restricted, and the inverted ram’s horn kept hitting my thigh.

 

Visibility was excellent, and wide-open the aircraft seemed to be doing in the vicinity of 120 mph, if other aircraft were a guide. The climb, as with many other WWI aircraft, seemed flat but was actually better than a thousand feet a minute, and I easily climbed away from most civilian aircraft. Then landing approach was flat and fast, about 65 mph, and I moved with the alacrity of a mongoose to get the tail down as it settled. Fortunately the first landing was in a good headwind and mild, for the tailskid bit before I realised how little control the Pfalz has because of the blanking out of the tail surfaces by the lower wing in landing configuration. Not all flights with the Pfalz were to be even half as easy as this first one.

 

The D.XII was shipped out to the West Coast by truck, and with the aid of Bob’s excellent plans, the aircraft was rigged and ready to go in no time for a second flight. All went well until the throttle again stuck open, the twist grip on the joystick proving to be a less than reliable design. In fact on the first seven flights I had sticking problems with this arrangement, and finally got fed up enough to replace it was a standard arm throttle set on the left side of the cockpit. It may not have been historically accurate, but it did wonders for my blood pressure. Once that was solved the Pfalz did behave itself better. Although I should say that among the many aircraft I have been lucky enough to fly, this D.XII has no peer in pure cussedness, and each landing presents enough emergencies and handling problems to make an instant trip to the local pub not only desirable but an absolute necessity.

 

The problem lies in the last 50 feet of altitude of landing, when the speed drops and the nose rises slightly, thereby the lower wing blanks out the elevators and rudder controls. At that point the Pfalz pretty well drops to the ground. The only alternative is to come in hot and land on the front wheels, cutting throttle on touching ground. Or come in on a steep glide path and flare at the very last moment. Either way its sweaty palms all round.

 

Coming, as it did, late in the war, the Pflaz stacks up reasonably well when measured against other types I have flown, and flown against. Speed is better than most, but aerobatically it is larger and clumsier than opponents such as the SE.5, SPAD and Fokker D.VII. And with a slower roll rate its hard put to match turns or reverses. It’s best features are it elevators and rudder, which are very powerful; its rate of climb and breathtaking dive. This is definitely an aircraft that wants to manoeuvre more in the vertical plane that anywhere else. Immelmann’s and wingovers are its forte.

 

Stepping into the Fokker D.VII after flying the Pflaz really drives home just how good an aircraft, let alone fighting machine, the Fokker is. Where manoeuvres in the Fokker are as effortless and graceful as a butterfly, in the Pflaz they have to be planned and forced. The Fokker is as a gentle breeze when landing, the Pfalz makes you break out in a sweat. Not the sort of aircraft to come home in after a trying day at the office. Still, the Pfalz is not a bad aeroplane, indeed it is a good as most for the period. It’s just that the Fokker is so much better.

 

===========================================================================

 

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

 

Engine: 180-hp Mercedes DIIIa

Empty Weight: 716kg (1,566 lb)

Loaded Weight: 897kg (1,952 lb)

Max Speed:

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

185 km/h (115 mph) @ 3,000m (9,843 feet)

148 km/h (92 mph) @ 5,000m (16,405 feet)

Climb:

3 minutes 25 seconds to 1,000m (3,280 feet)

7 minutes 0 seconds to 2,000m (6,560 feet)

17 minutes 30 seconds to 3,000m (9,843 feet)

29 minutes 50 seconds to 5,000m (16,405 feet)

Ceiling: 5,181 m (17,000 feet)

Endurance: 2 hour 30 minutes

Armament: two 7.92mm Spandaus

No’s Built: Approximately 800

[Hasse Wind 46]

Fascinating reading, as these are always. Thanks again for posting these!

 

It's interesting that the British tests showed the Pfalz D.III to have better handling characteristics than the Alb D.V. In OFF it's the opposite - the D.V isn't that bad, whereas the Pfalz D.III is pretty horrible in anything but boom and zoom. Maybe the flight model could be improved somewhat to make the plane a bit more responsive to stick movements?

 

I do hope the Bavarian Jastas get their Pfalz D.XII in some add-on pack. I remember it was included in RB3D. :yes:

[Duce Lewis 3]

Great read Pips

Thanks for posting this and all the others

 

I've always had the feeling that Herr Pfalz could never reconcile himself to building another manufacturer's design

Seems he always made rather loose copies that never quite performed as well

 

Not that the Pfalz series didn't have some good qualities as Tallman noted

But I wonder if Germany would have been better served if he just made EIII's, DVa's, & DVII's

[Olham 164]

A fascinating insight by someonewho has really flown the craft. Thank you!

[+Polovski 460]

Good series Pips thanks.

 

I have the book but nice to refresh.

 

The Pfalz D.III has various widely varying opinions posted from different pilots. It was often in poor condition on the field, and decayed quickly, often engines were reconditioned and under performing. This is mainly the features of the craft I modelled in OFF, the one the pilots usually flew, which was thought worse than the Albatros. However it is strong and good at diving. And still has two good guns often versus one gun or one and a half of the Se5 ;)

[Hasse Wind 46]

The Pfalz D.III has various widely varying opinions posted from different pilots. It was often in poor condition on the field, and decayed quickly, often engines were reconditioned and under performing. This is mainly the features of the craft I modelled in OFF, the one the pilots usually flew, which was thought worse than the Albatros. However it is strong and good at diving. And still has two good guns often versus one gun or one and a half of the Se5 ;)

 

Yes, makes sense. If flown with the right tactics it's certainly possible to stay alive long in the OFF Pfalz. I found the challenge very enjoyable when I had my quite long-lived Jasta 10 pilot flying the Pfalz. Now wouldn't it be great if I were able to switch from the D.III to the D.XII in some Bavarian Jasta?

[Olham 164]

Pol: ...worse than the Albatros

 

Vott? As iff zee Albatros vass bad?? I am havink ze finest hours in meine Albatros, mein Herr!

Tch! Grmmmbbbll!!!

[Johnnie.J 0]

Design and development.

 

In early 1918, the Idflieg (Inspektion der Fliegertruppen) distributed to German aircraft manufacturers a detailed engineering report on the SPAD S.VII, whose wing structure Idflieg considered to be well-designed.Pfalz accordingly produced several Pfalz D.III-derived prototypes with SPAD-type wings.These developed into the Pfalz D.XII. The new aircraft was powered by the 180 hp Mercedes D.IIIaü engine and continued Pfalz's Wickelrumpf plywood-skinned monocoque fuselage construction, introduced in the Pfalz D.III. Unlike the earlier aircraft, the D.XII used a two-bay wing cellule. Furthermore, the flush wing radiator was replaced with a car-type radiator mounted in front of the engine.The prototype D.XII first flew in March 1918, subsequently, the Idflieg issued a production order for 50 aircraft.Pfalz entered several D.XII prototypes in the second fighter competition at Adlershof in May/June 1918. Only Ernst Udet and Hans Weiss favored the D.XII over the Fokker D.VII,but Udet's opinion carried such weight that Pfalz received substantial production orders for the D.XII.The aircraft passed its Typenprüfung (official type test) on 19 June 1918.Difficulties with the radiator, which used vertical tubes rather than the more common honeycomb structure, delayed initial deliveries of the D.XII until June. The first 200 production examples could be distinguished by their rectangular fin and rudder. Subsequent aircraft featured a larger, rounded rudder profile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfalz_D.XII

Edited July 19, 2009 by Johnnie.J