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Pfalz D.XV

1918 WORLD WAR 1

History

Pfalz Flugzeugwerke managed a small number of fighter jets for the German Empire in World War I (1914-1918). Its main claim to fame was the Pfalz D.III (detailed elsewhere on this page), but this fighter design never achieved the quality and performance of contemporary fighters offered by the Albatross and Fokker.

Other products include D.VI, D.VII, D.VIII, D.XII, D.XV and Dr. 1 (triplane). In D. XV, the company delivered a single-seat biplane in the last week of the war (November 1918), but no more than a few were delivered, and none were known to have served in combat.

D. XV marked the last fighter action in the Palatinate War. The aircraft relies on the proven parallel-strut (N-type) biplane wing layout in a single-cabin format. The main aircraft has an uneven wingspan, and the lower components also have a smaller area, with the ailerons mounted on the upper wing elements.

The pilot sits in the stern of the open-air cockpit and under the main upper-wing aircraft. As usual, the engine was front-mounted, driving a two-bladed wooden propeller. The tail rests on a large, rounded vertical fin with a low level. The landing gear of the trailing variant retains the two front main legs below the central mass of the fuselage and a simple tail fin at the rear.

Weapons are 2 x 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine guns located forward of the cockpit.

Power comes from a single 185 hp BMW IIIa 6-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. Performance includes a top speed of 126 mph and a mission duration window of about an hour and a half to two hours for airborne. The climb rate is 1,640 feet per minute and the advertised service is capped at 22,965 feet.

The beginning of the Allied advance in early and mid-1918 heralded the end of the German Empire's role in the Great War. That summer, design work was done on the Pfalz D. XV and two shapes were produced - the D. XVf with aerodynamically unbalanced ailerons and the D. XV (special) with overhanging balanced ailerons.

The aircraft was assessed before the war and found it to be fast and maneuverable - although pilots noted a difficult landing and a somewhat stubborn tail.

The design was finally approved for mass production on November 4, 1918, but it proved too late - an armistice was signed on November 11 to end the war.

At least two D. XV aircraft are believed to be fully completed, while more than 70 airframes are awaiting completion of work. After the war, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke had to file for bankruptcy and no longer existed as an aircraft manufacturer.

The French entered and took over the production capacity of the Palatinate to ensure that no war material would be available to the German Empire in the postwar years.