Fokker Eindecker
Encyclopedia
The Fokker Eindecker was a German World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
single-seat fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
designed by Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
engineer Anthony Fokker
Anthony Fokker
Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer and an aircraft manufacturer. He is most famous for the fighter aircraft he produced in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Fokker Triplane the and the Fokker D.VII, but after the collapse of...
. Developed in April 1915, the Eindecker ("Monoplane") was the first purpose-built German fighter aircraft and the first aircraft to be fitted with synchronizer gear, enabling the pilot to fire a machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
through the arc of the propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
without striking the blades. The Eindecker granted the German Air Service a degree of air superiority from July 1915 until early 1916. This period was known as the "Fokker Scourge
Fokker Scourge
The Fokker Scourge was a term coined by the British press in the summer of 1915 to describe the then-current ascendancy of the Fokker Eindecker monoplane fighters of the German Fliegertruppen over the poorly-armed Allied reconnaissance types of the period....
," during which Allied aviators regarded their poorly armed aircraft as "Fokker Fodder".
Design and development
The Eindecker was based on Fokker's unarmed A.III scoutScout (aircraft)
The term scout, as a description of a class of military aircraft, came into use shortly before the First World War, and referred to a light reconnaissance aircraft, initially unarmed. "Scout" types were generally adaptations of pre-war racing aircraft – although at least one was specifically...
, itself following very closely the design of the French Morane-Saulnier H
Morane-Saulnier H
-References:...
shoulder-wing monoplane but using chrome-moly steel
41xx steel
41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers . Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often referred to as chromoly steel or CRMO...
tubing for the basic fuselage structure instead of wooden components, which was fitted with a synchronizer mechanism controlling a single Parabellum MG14
Parabellum MG14
The Parabellum MG14 was a 7.9 mm caliber World War I machine gun built by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. It was an adaptation of their Maschinengewehr 08 gun intended for use on aircraft and zeppelins. The MG08's belt-style ammunition feed was enclosed in a drum, the recoil casing was...
machine gun. Anthony Fokker personally demonstrated the system on 23 May 1915, having towed the prototype aircraft behind his touring car to a military airfield near Berlin.
The history of what ended up being the "prototype" Eindecker aircraft, which bore Fokker factory serial number 216, is closely associated with Leutnant Otto Parschau
Otto Parschau
Leutnant Otto Parschau was a German World War I Flying Ace and recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, and Iron Cross, First Class. He was noted as one of the pre-eminent aces on the Fokker Eindecker...
, who was given the "No.216" Fokker A-series monoplane at the beginning of World War I, which bore the Idflieg
Idflieg
The Idflieg was the bureau of the German War Office that oversaw German military aviation prior to and during World War I....
military serial number A.16/15. This initially unarmed monoplane had belonged to one Oberleutnant von Buttlar, and had been painted a shade of green, the color of von Buttlar's Marburg-based Jäger regiment. Parschau eventually spent most of his first year's time in the war with this aircraft, which was marked with the words "Lt. Parschau" on the right upper side of the fuselage behind the cockpit, flying it on both fronts that the German Empire was involved in combat. A short time before the beginning of June 1915, while based at Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
with Feldflieger Abteilung
Feldflieger Abteilung
Feldflieger Abteilung or Field Flying Companies were the pioneering field aviation units of the Luftstreitkräfte in World War I.-Composition:...
62, the Fokker factory outfitted Parschau's aircraft with the Fokker Stangensteuerung synchronizer and a Parabellum MG14
Parabellum MG14
The Parabellum MG14 was a 7.9 mm caliber World War I machine gun built by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. It was an adaptation of their Maschinengewehr 08 gun intended for use on aircraft and zeppelins. The MG08's belt-style ammunition feed was enclosed in a drum, the recoil casing was...
light machine gun for its armament, with which Parschau had tried some initial attempts in aerial combat with during June 1915, with the Parabellum gun constantly jamming in action. Parschau's aircraft also had an aft-cockpit-located main fuel tank. The aircraft would later be taken back by Fokker for factory armament installation trials, which also allowed the wing location to be lowered to mid-fuselage, a position that would become standard for all regular production Eindeckers. The initial batch of five M.5K/MG production prototypes were completed by the Fokker factory with the shoulder-mount wing mounting location that the original M.5s had used.
All Eindeckers used a gravity fuel tank which had to be constantly filled by hand-pumping from the main fuel tank, which starting with the Fokker E.II
Fokker E.II
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Boyne, Walter J. The Smithsonian Book of Flight for Young People. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. ISBN 0-689-31422-1....
was mounted behind the pilot; this task had to be performed up to eight times an hour. Both the rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
and elevator
Elevator (aircraft)
Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's orientation by changing the pitch of the aircraft, and so also the angle of attack of the wing. In simplified terms, they make the aircraft nose-up or nose-down...
were aerodynamically balanced, and the type had no fixed tail surfaces. This combination rendered the Eindecker very responsive to pitch and yaw. For an inexperienced pilot, the extreme sensitivity of the elevators made level flight difficult; German ace
Flying ace
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...
Leutnant Kurt Wintgens
Kurt Wintgens
Leutnant Kurt Wintgens was a German World War I fighter ace. He was the first military fighter pilot to score a victory over an opposing aircraft in an aircraft armed with a synchronized machine gun. Wintgens was the recipient of the Iron Cross and the Blue Max.-Background:Wintgens was born into a...
, who along with Leutnant Parschau were the primary Luftstreitkräfte pilots responsible for bringing the first armed Fokker monoplanes into active service during the spring and summer of 1915, once stated "lightning is a straight line compared with the barogram of the first solo". The roll response of the Eindecker, on the other hand, was poor. This is often blamed on the use of wing-warping rather than aileron
Aileron
Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector...
s - although monoplanes of the time, even when fitted with ailerons, often had unpredictable or unresponsive roll control due to the flexibility of their wings.
The main difference between the E.I and E.II was the engine, the former having the seven-cylinder 60 kW (80 hp) Oberursel U.0
Motorenfabrik Oberursel
Motorenfabrik Oberursel A.G. was a German manufacturer of automobile, locomotive and aircraft engines situated in Oberursel , near Frankfurt , Germany. During World War I it supplied a major 100 hp-class rotary engine that was used in a number of early-war fighter aircraft designs...
rotary engine
Rotary engine
The rotary engine was an early type of internal-combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration, in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the entire cylinder block rotated around it...
which was essentially a direct copy of the French-made 60 kW (80 hp) Gnome Lambda
Gnome Lambda
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Lumsden, Alec. British Piston Engines and their Aircraft. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-85310-294-6....
seven-cylinder rotary engine, while the latter had the nine-cylinder 75 kW (100 hp) Oberursel U I, a direct copy of the 75 kW (100 hp) Gnome Monosoupape
Gnome Monosoupape
The Monosoupape , was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company...
rotary. Both the E.I and E.II versions used the M.5's original 1.88 meter (74 inch) wing chord dimension. Production of the types therefore depended on engine availability and the two variants were built in parallel. Many E.IIs were either completed as E.IIIs or upgraded to E.III standard when returned for repair.
Fokker E.III
|-See also:...
, which used a slightly narrower-chord (1.80 meter, or 71 inch) wing than earlier versions. Boelcke's Feldflieger Abteilung
Feldflieger Abteilung
Feldflieger Abteilung or Field Flying Companies were the pioneering field aviation units of the Luftstreitkräfte in World War I.-Composition:...
62 began operating the E.III towards the end of 1915. A few E.IIIs were experimentally armed with two of the same 7.92 mm (.312 in) calibre lMG 08 "Spandau" machine guns that the production E.I through E.III Eindecker models used only one gun of the same model. The final variant was the Fokker E.IV
Fokker E.IV
|-See also:...
which received a 119 kW (160 hp) Oberursel U.III, 14 cylinder twin-row rotary engine (a copy of the Gnome Double Lambda rotary) and was fitted with twin machine guns as standard, after a failure of an experimental triple-gun installation, meant to be standard for the E.IV, kept failing.
Total production for the entire Fokker E.I through E.IV series was 416 aircraft (one aircraft's type is unknown).
Operational history
Feldflieger Abteilung
Feldflieger Abteilung or Field Flying Companies were the pioneering field aviation units of the Luftstreitkräfte in World War I.-Composition:...
- initially to provide escort protection for their usual quantity of six two-seat reconnaissance biplanes per unit.
Three days after his "unconfirmed" victory, Wintgens would down another "Morane Parasol" with the same E.5/15 aircraft, and a full fortnight after his initial engagement, on 15 July 1915, he became the first Eindecker pilot to be credited with such an official victory.
The two most famous Eindecker pilots were Oswald Boelcke
Oswald Boelcke
Oswald Boelcke was a German flying ace of the First World War and one of the most influential patrol leaders and tacticians of the early years of air combat. Boelcke is considered the father of the German fighter air force, as well as the "Father of Air Fighting Tactics"; he was the first to...
(initially flying M.5K/MG aircraft E.3/15) and Max Immelmann
Max Immelmann
Max Immelmann was the first German World War I flying ace. He was a great pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the first aerial victory using a synchronized gun...
, both of Feldflieger Abteilung 62, who scored their first kills in E.Is in August 1915. Leutnant Otto Parschau
Otto Parschau
Leutnant Otto Parschau was a German World War I Flying Ace and recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, and Iron Cross, First Class. He was noted as one of the pre-eminent aces on the Fokker Eindecker...
, who was instrumental in the introduction of the Eindecker from the very start, flew the M.5K/MG aircraft numbered E.1/15, after the Fokker factory took back his worn-out A.16/15 aircraft.
Boelcke scored the most Eindecker victories; 19 out of his final tally of 40, his last coming on 27 June 1916. Immelmann had the second-highest Eindecker score, having achieved all his 15 victories in the type before being killed when his E.III broke up in June 1916. 11 pilots scored five or more victories in the Eindecker. Boelcke, Immelmann and Wintgens all received Germany's highest military decoration, the Pour le Mérite
Pour le Mérite
The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
or "Blue Max", while flying the Eindecker, after each pilot passed the then-required eight victory total for each aviator.
The arrival in early 1916 of the Airco DH.2
Airco DH.2
|-DH.2 aces:Distinguished pilots of the DH.2 included Victoria Cross winner Lanoe Hawker , who was the first commander of No 24 Squadron and ace Alan Wilkinson. The commander of No. 32 Squadron, Lionel Rees won the Victoria Cross flying the D.H.2 for single handedly attacking a formation of 10...
and Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2
The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 was a two-seat pusher biplane that was operated as a day and night bomber and as a fighter aircraft by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War...
pusher aircraft, along with the Nieuport 11
Nieuport 11
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Angelucci, Enzio, ed. The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft. New York: The Military Press, 1983. ISBN 0-517-41021-4....
, brought the dominance of the Eindecker to an end, and with it, the "Fokker Scourge".
Variants
The Eindecker went through five variants:- Fokker M.5K/MG (A.III)Fokker M.5The Fokker M.5 was an unarmed single-seat monoplane aircraft designed and built by Anthony Fokker in 1913. It served as a light reconnaissance aircraft with the German army at the outbreak of World War I and was the basis for the first successful fighter aircraft in German service, the Fokker...
- 5 built - Fokker E.IFokker E.I|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Boyne, Walter J. The Smithsonian Book of Flight for Young People. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. ISBN 0-689-31422-1....
- 68 built - Fokker E.IIFokker E.II|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Boyne, Walter J. The Smithsonian Book of Flight for Young People. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. ISBN 0-689-31422-1....
- 49 built - Fokker E.IIIFokker E.III|-See also:...
- 249 built - Fokker E.IVFokker E.IV|-See also:...
- 49 built
Survivors
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
with a new E.III (IdFlieg
Idflieg
The Idflieg was the bureau of the German War Office that oversaw German military aviation prior to and during World War I....
serial number 210/16) bound for Wasquehal
Wasquehal
Wasquehal is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The town originally had a Flemish name; it was written as Waskenhal in the 11th century.The third stage of the 2004 Tour de France finished in Wasquehal...
but became lost in haze and landed at a British aerodrome east of St. Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
. He was forced to surrender before he realised his error and could destroy the aircraft. The E.III was test-flown against the Morane-Saulnier N and other Allied types at St. Omer before going to Upavon
Upavon
Upavon is a rural village in the English County of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portions of the River Avon which runs from the north to the south through the village. It is situated about south of Pewsey, about southeast of the market town of Devizes, and about ...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
for evaluation and finally going on museum display. It now resides at the Science Museum
Science Museum (London)
The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
in London. Immelmann's original E.I, with IdFlieg-issued serial E.13/15, also survived the war and went on display in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
where it was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Specifications (Fokker E.III)
See also
- Fokker Fodder
- Fokker ScourgeFokker ScourgeThe Fokker Scourge was a term coined by the British press in the summer of 1915 to describe the then-current ascendancy of the Fokker Eindecker monoplane fighters of the German Fliegertruppen over the poorly-armed Allied reconnaissance types of the period....
- Interrupter gearInterrupter gearAn interrupter gear is a device used on military aircraft and warships in order to allow them to target opponents without damaging themselves....
- Oswald BoelckeOswald BoelckeOswald Boelcke was a German flying ace of the First World War and one of the most influential patrol leaders and tacticians of the early years of air combat. Boelcke is considered the father of the German fighter air force, as well as the "Father of Air Fighting Tactics"; he was the first to...
- Max ImmelmannMax ImmelmannMax Immelmann was the first German World War I flying ace. He was a great pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the first aerial victory using a synchronized gun...
- Otto ParschauOtto ParschauLeutnant Otto Parschau was a German World War I Flying Ace and recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, and Iron Cross, First Class. He was noted as one of the pre-eminent aces on the Fokker Eindecker...
- Kurt WintgensKurt WintgensLeutnant Kurt Wintgens was a German World War I fighter ace. He was the first military fighter pilot to score a victory over an opposing aircraft in an aircraft armed with a synchronized machine gun. Wintgens was the recipient of the Iron Cross and the Blue Max.-Background:Wintgens was born into a...
External links
- Science Museum: History of Flight - Fokker E.III 210/16
- Model of Fokker Eindecker, c.1916 NSW Migration Heritage Centre - Statement of Significance