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Rumpler 6B

1916 WORLD WAR 1

History

When it comes to WWI aircraft, Rumpler's focus has become a largely forgotten aircraft manufacturer when alongside the Albatross and Fokker. Rumpler Flugzeugwerke was founded in 1909 in Berlin, Germany by Austrian-born engineer Edmund Rumpler (Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

Edmund Rumpler was introduced to manned aviation by the Wright brothers themselves and founded Germany's first airline under his surname. The focus began operations with the "Etrich Taube" produced in 1910, a two-seater general-purpose monoplane with fixed bird-like wings, static wheeled landing gear, and a dovetail.

The aircraft is powered by an 86 hp Mercedes E4F type water-cooled engine.

Armed with this experience, Rumpler began designing and selling his own creations centered on biplane configurations for the military marketone of which became his 1915 two-seat Scout "Rumpler C.I". The advent of the European Open War (World War I) in the summer of 1914 meant many lucrative defense contracts in the following months, so Rumpler developed the single-seat biplane seaplane - "Rumpler 6B" - according to German Navy requirements for aircraft based on the Rumpler C.I. above.

In all respects, the 6B is basically a C.I without the landing gear, second observer cockpit, and parallel struts (hence parallel wings).

As a seaplane, the 6B will be responsible for long-range aerial reconnaissance of enemy positions, as well as other maritime missions such as mine clearance/mine clearance. The aircraft has an endurance of 4 hours and is powered by a 160 hp Mercedes D. III series water-cooled 6-cylinder in-line piston engine. The design was conventional at the time, with a tapered fuselage, a staggered wing layout with parallel struts and matching wiring, a fixed landing gear for controlling the seaplane, and a rounded vertical tail. The pilot sat directly behind the engine, which was housed in a metal-lined front compartment. The rest of the building is made of wood and canvas.

Seaplanes replaced wheeled landing gear and allowed water landings on relatively calm surfaces. Overall fuselage length is 30 feet 10 inches, with a wingspan of 39 feet 6 inches. The maximum takeoff weight is specified at 2,500 lbs. With the Mercedes engine option, the 6B has a top speed of 95 mph and service is capped at 16,400 feet. Armament is limited to a single 7.92mm LMG 08/15 series machine gun offset to the left of the engine mount, although this gun is equipped with a "breaker" gearbox that allows it to shoot the spinning propeller blades by spinning.

The pilot sits in an open-air cockpit behind a small windshield, with a view limited only by the structure of the aircraft itself. In the absence of a second crew member, the pilot acts as his own observer, increasing workload and reducing efficiency to a certain extent.

The first flight of the 6B prototype took place in 1916, and production was quickly ordered under the designation "6B-1", with introductions beginning the same year. The first batch of about 39 were delivered to the Imperial German Navy and operated from seaplane bases against Allied offensives on two fronts - east against Russia and west against Britain, France, Italy, Belgium and others nation. By May 1917, the first batch was almost in full circulation, at which time a second revised design was under development - the "6B-2".

The 6B-2 was based on another existing Rumpler design, the 1917 two-seat Scout C.IV. The 6B-2 itself entered service in the autumn of 1917 (October), although the Mercedes D.III powerplant was retained. Desperate German Navy ordered 49 Rumpler aircraft of the new seaplane design.

Deliveries began in the fall of 1917 and early 1918, eventually bringing the total between batches to 88. The Bulgarian Navy received a pair of 6B-1 units in June 1918 and kept them after the armistice in November, but eventually destroyed them in 1920 under the terms of an agreed post-war peace.

Like Germany and Bulgaria, both Finland and the Netherlands operate the 6B series in limited form, but the history of the 6B series is almost written at this point. Despite the achievements of the wartime economy, Lampler's aviation business did not grow effectively with the depression of the postwar world and ceased operations in 1920.

Only one 6B seaplane has stood the test of time and is currently stored in the back room of the Hallinportti Aviation Museum in Finland.