Help with Hansa-Brandenburg CI

[+ojcar 157]

Hello, friends! As Stephen1918 said time ago, He's making a Hansa-Brandenburg CI. One of the most important planes of the war. And one of the most difficult to have data...

 

So I need some help for the FM. Searching for info, there is a lot of different batches with different engines ranging from 160 to 230 Hp. No problem with that, but I don't know what series came first of after (in Austro-Hungarian planes, sometimes you have underpowered planes coming after powerful ones because poor engine availability), nor what series are very limited or used only as a trainers.

 

Any info would be useful. Thank you in advance!

[33LIMA 972]

All I can find are the following from 'Warbirds - Military Aircraft of the First World War in Colour', which together might help.

 

First a list of variants, which you may have already, but linked with photo captions and drawings, this helps piece the story together

 

Phoenix production Series:

23, 160 hp Daimler

26, 160 hp Austro-Daimler

27, 185 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

29, 210 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

29.5, 200 hp Hiero (Fiat)

429, 230 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

UFAG production Series:

61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 160 hp austro-Daimler

63, 160 hp Mercedes DIII

69, 200 hp Hiero (Matra)

169, 220 hp Benz BzIVa

269, 200 hp Austro-Daimler

369, 230 hp Hiero

 

A pic of the UFAG-built CI 61.57 forced down by Baracca on 7 Apr 1916 (says it's got a 160 hp Daimler), so that places the Series 61 to being in service in Spring 1916.

 

A colour 5-view of CI 429.29 says that series was built in 1818. It has the Maltese cross not the Greek cross so early 1918, if the Austrians also adopted the latter marking when the Germans did.

 

A pic of a Phoenix-built machine captured in May 1917 says it's serial number 29.70 and had a Hiero 200 hp, which places that Series in Spring-summer 1917.

 

Hope this helps. The key thing is finding pics with both dates and serial numbers, which can be cross-referred to the list of Series and their engines, quoted above.

 

PS for 160 hp planes this book gives weight loaded/empty as 1310/770 kg, max speed 140 Km/h, climb to 1000m n/k, to 5000m 6min55sec,(!!!), endurance 3hrs. For 200hp, it's 1310/800Kg, 155Kph, 55 seconds (!!!), 4min30sec(!!!). For 220hp it's 1320/820Kg, 158Kph, 55 sec(!!!), 4min (!!!). For 230hp its 1350/830Kg, 160Kph, 50(!!!)sec and 4 min.(!!!). Unless the C1 was the Me163 of WW1, the climbrate figures are wildly wrong, they would be way too high for 1000 and 5000 FEET, never mind metres.

Edited November 12, 2011 by 33LIMA

[+ojcar 157]

Thank you! some data can be useful.