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AEG D.I

1917 WORLD WAR 1 X-PLANE

History

Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaft AG (AEG) served the German Empire as an aircraft manufacturer during the First World War (1914-1918). One of their contributions was the short-lived AEG DI biplane, of which only three prototypes were built at the time and its maiden flight took place in May 1917.

Dr. AEG I is an offshoot of the series, which is modeled after a three-tiered fighter. Only built one example and it is no longer successful.

The D.I was the first fighter aircraft developed by the company and combined traditional biplane features - an above-wing configuration, fixed wheel landing gear (trail) and an open-air cockpit. The wings have slightly unequal spans, each has a separate nacelle, and single struts reinforce members on the outside of the fuselage. The pilot sits in the open air cockpit below and behind the upper wing assembly. The engine is housed in a streamlined housing forward of the pilot and drives a twin-bladed propeller in the nose.

The interior is a tubular steel structure with fabric skins on the wing surfaces. The proposed weapon is 2 x 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine guns, mounted on the nose and firing synchronously through rotating propeller blades.

Power comes from a 160-horsepower, liquid-cooled, 6-cylinder in-line Daimler D. IIIa engine.

The D.I has been tested with a top speed of 127 mph and a range of up to 300 miles. Service is capped at 16,000 feet, with an initial climb rate of 1,313 feet per minute.

AEG eventually completed a total of three prototypes, the first arriving in May 1917. Between August and September of that year, the fuselage of the plane was lengthened to improve stability. The radiators of the second and third prototypes were changed.

Although one prototype crashed during testing, the Luftwaffe ordered about 20 pre-production forms for positive evaluation. After the crash of the second prototype on September 5, 1917, that commitment was abandoned, and the D.I went down in history - proving unstable and limited in control.