Friedrichshafen Aircraft of World War OneFlugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH was a German aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1912 in Friedrichshafen, Germany by Theodor Kober who had previously worked for the Zeppelin company. The town, which was located by the Bodensee, was already famous in aviation circles as the place where Zeppelin airships were built. During the First World War, Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen mainly built seaplanes for the German Navy, and a highly successful series of land based medium bombers for the Imperial Air Service under the aegis of head designer Karl Gehlen.
After the Armistice, the company took over the old Zeppelin shed at Manzell. They would also start production in Weingarten and Warnemünde. When the company failed in 1923, their production facilities were taken over by Dornier Flugzeugwerke.
The Friedrichshafen FF.33 was a German single-engined amphibious reconnaissance biplane designed by Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen in 1914.
The initial production version was powered by a Mercedes D.II engine inline water-cooled engine, six examples of this variant were built. The basic design was refined and improved. The FF.33e main production reconnaissance variant was powered by a Benz B.III inline engine. This version had longer twin floats, and the under tail central float was eliminated. A radio transmitter replaced its armament, aproximately 180 examples of the FF.33e variant were built.
[Read more]
The FF.33l was the main production armed scout/fighter version. The design underwent aerodynamic improvements, including a reduction in length and wingspan, about 135 of this version built.
The FF.33 served in both the German and Austrio-Hungarian navies. Several other nations purchased the Friedrichshafen FF.33e during the first world war, including: Bulgaria, Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden. The Finnish Air Force purchased two FF.33Es from Germany in February 1918. The first one arrived on April 20, 1918 to Vaasa and the other one in the summer of 1918.
In front-line service with the Luftstreitkräfte, the G.III series equipped a large portion of the bomber force until the end of the war. The G.III series bombers served mainly on the Western Front where they were used to great effect, mostly in nocturnal attacks, on both tactical targets behind the Allied front-lines as well as for strategic air raids on major urban centers such as Paris. As far as is known no Friedrichshafen bombers of any type ever participated in strategic air raids on Britain because they lacked the range needed. The attacks on Britain were conducted exclusively by Gotha G.IV and G.V medium bombers, Zeppelin Staaken R.IV heavy bombers and Zeppelin airships. The G.III was generally well liked by its military crews for its superior load carrying capability, reliability, robustness and relatively low accident rate.
[Read more]
The Friedrichshafen G.III (factory designation FF.45) was a medium bomber was designed and manufactured by Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen. They were used by the German Imperial Air Service (the Luftstreitkräfte) during World War I for tactical and limited strategic bombing operations. After the end of the war a number of Friedrichshafen bombers were converted into transport aircraft while a small number also saw service as dedicated airliners.
The success of the G.II paved the way for the larger and more powerful G.III, which entered service in early 1917. While it looked somewhat similar to the G.II, the G.III was longer and had a greater wingspan which caused its designers to increase the number of interplane struts to three pairs on each side of the fuselage. Operational experience with the G.II had revealed a tendency for the aircraft to "nose over" during landings with deadly consequences for the nose gunner and possibly also the pilot. Friedrichshafen engineers solved this problem by equipping the G.III with an auxiliary wheel mounted under the nose gunner's position. The G.III also used the more powerful six-cylinder 190 kW (260 hp) Mercedes D.IVa engines. The extra power increased the bomb carrying capability enabling the aircraft to carry a bomb load of up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), though this severely reduced operational range. In practice, the heaviest bomb load rarely exceeded 600 kg (1,320 lb). Some of the bomb load could be carried internally but most of it was carried on removable external bomb-racks and usually consisted of streamlined P.u.W bombs but specialized munitions such as air-mines could also be carried. As production continued further modifications were made to the G.III series that resulted in two sub-variants:
This sub-variant reintroduced a box-shaped biplane unit which improved the aircraft's control response when it was being flown on one engine. Another modification was the installation of a third 7.92 mm (.312 in) machine gun to combat British night fighters, which often attacked German bombers from below where they were hard to spot but the bomber's silhouette was easy to see against the night sky. This gun was mounted on a tubular, sliding mounting bolted to the floor of the rear gunner's position and was fired downward through a small sloping gun-tunnel cut into the bottom of the rear fuselage. By the last year of the war, the G.IIIa had replaced the G.III in production.
Towards the end of the war, the G.IIIa was further modified by re-designing the rear gunner's position, which was connected to the pilot's cockpit by an open passageway.
[Close]
The Friedrichshafen FF.43 was a German single-seat floatplane fighter of the 1910s produced by Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen.
Designed for defence of the floatplane bases, the FF.43 was a biplane powered by a Mercedes D.III inline piston engine driving a tractor propeller. It was armed with two 7.92 mm (0.312 in) LMG 08/15 forward-firing machine guns. Only one aircraft was built.
The Friedrichshafen FF.41 was a large, German-built, three-seat, twin-engine amphibious reconnaissance aircraft designed by Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen in 1917.
The aircraft was mainly used as a reconnaissance aircraft, but also as a bomber and as a mine-laying aircraft. A torpedo-carrying version, the FF.41AT, was also developed. It had a modified fuselage and a single vertical fin (in comparison to the basic model's three). Only five FF.41AT aircraft were manufactured.
[Read more]
The Friedrichshafen FF.41 was based on the Friedrichshafen FF.35. The major difference between them was a change from pusher plane stlye propulsion to a tractor configuration
The Finnish Air Force purchased one FF.41AT aircraft from the Germans in Estonia on 26 November 1918, at the end of World War I. It was flown to Sortavala where it was repaired. In 1922, the torpedo-carrying fuselage was changed and the capability to carry torpedoes was removed. This aircraft was in use between 1918-23.
[Close]
