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Rumpler B.I

1914 WORLD WAR 1

History

While discussions of WWI (1914-1918) aircraft inevitably turned to Fokkers, SPADs, and Sopwiths, it turns out that Rumpler's focus was on several aircraft types involved in WWI The same great manufacturer of . Founded in 1909 in Berlin, Germany, by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler, the Rumpler Flugzeugwerke began by replicating the Etrich Taube, a bird-shaped monoplane introduced in 1910 and designed by Igo Etrich. The genre served various roles prior to World War I, but was quickly replaced by the advanced technology available at the time. Soon Rumpler turned his attention to the design and production of in-house aircraft, and the outbreak of World War II left its mark on aviation history.

The company later produced the Rumpler 6B, Rumpler B.I, Rumpler C series, Rumpler D.I and Rumpler G.I.

The Rumpler B.I first flew in 1914 and was subsequently adopted by the German Reich Air Force (air force) and the German Navy (seaplane). In total, around 224-225 prototypes of this type will be produced - 198 for the Luftwaffe and 26 for the Navy.

Some examples were shipped in storage for the Allied Ottoman Air Force trying to control them in the Middle East.

There are two main variants of the B.I series - the land-based B.I "4A" and the B.I "4B" seaplane with pontoon landing gear. The 4A was equipped with a liquid-cooled piston engine from the Mercedes D.I range with an output of 100 hp. The 4A13 is a slightly modified design with revised rudder and tail fins.

The 4A14 is another 4A production model, but now with a Benz Bz. Series III water-cooled 6-cylinder in-line piston engine with 150 hp. The 4B seaplane variant was also developed in a similar fashion, mainly with a different engine arrangement. This was spearheaded by the 4B1 with the standard Mercedes D.I powerplant and led to the 4B2 with the Benz Bz. Series III engines.

4B11 is equipped with Mercedes-Benz Bz. The I-Motor and 4B12 are followed by the Benz Bz. III engine.

In practice, Rumpler B.I served as an unarmed reconnaissance mission, providing observers with stunning views of the rural battlefield from a height. The aircraft has proven useful for marking enemy positions for incoming attacks and artillery fire, or to learn more about enemy movements. One of the earlier wartime aircraft designs, the B.I typically flew unarmed. The crew consisted of two people - a pilot and his observer.

Structurally, the aircraft had a wingspan of 42 feet 8 inches, a barrel length of 27 feet 7 inches, and an altitude of 10 feet at rest. Performance specs include a top speed of 90 mph - on par with pre-war offerings of similar range and capabilities.

Externally, the aircraft has a traditional biplane design with upper and lower wing sections (unequal spans) connected by parallel struts and a continuous cable network. The struts also determine the design of the wing as a "dual cabin" of two visible sections created along the span, when viewed from the front or rear profile. The landing gear is movable and fixed to the bottom of the fuselage by means of stiffening struts. The engine, partially exposed at the front of the fuselage, drove a two-bladed wooden propeller. The tail has a "teardrop" tail and a simplified tail (the latter helps with tail landing).

The two crew members sit side by side in two separate open-air cockpits.

Denmark took over some Rumpler B.Is after the war, although no other foreign operator took over the aircraft from there. Like the famous British Sopwith concerned, Rempler tried to survive in a post-war world (military contracts were harder to get) and forayed into the civilian market by developing the Rempler "crane" car (Sopway tried to make civilian aircraft, then motorcycles).

History has shown that efforts by both companies failed, and both went down in history as liquidation.