AEG PE (Panzer Einsitzer)

History

Like fighters and bombers in World War I, special ground attack aircraft emerged during the conflict. Few famous mounts have been designed specifically for this character, and one promising mount has become a product of the German group AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaft AG) through its AEG PE ("Panzer Einsitzer").

A unique quality of this aircraft is its triplane configuration - better known as a "triplane" - when most other contemporary ground attack aircraft use a biplane configuration.

The aircraft takes a traditional form, housing the pilot in an open-air cockpit below and behind the upper wing assembly. The central wing assembly is mounted along the side of the fuselage at shoulder height, and the lower wing panel is attached to the underside of the side of the fuselage. The landing gear rolls on its two main legs and is fixed in flight, and taxis lift the tail when operating on the ground. The fins were conventional at the time, using a single vertical fin with the horizontal set low.

Weapons are 2 x 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine guns mounted on the nose and fired synchronously by rotating propeller blades. In addition, 4 small-diameter bombs can be carried. The structure of the aircraft consists of light metal skins along the fuselage and fabric skins along the wing panels.

Since the role of the ground attack was to fly at low altitudes, armor was used on the more important parts of the aircraft.

The power of the Mercedes-Benz Bz. The 192-horsepower liquid-cooled V8 piston IIIb engine achieves a top speed of 103 mph and a rate of climb of 565 ft/min.

The first flight was recorded in March 1918.

While the third wing provided good control and inherent stability, it was found to add too much drag, thus reducing the power required for fighter-to-fighter duels. This helped bring the PE project to a clean end and only one airworthy prototype was completed. AEG DJ.

I was the ground attack branch of the project, which only entered evaluation before the end of the war in November 1918.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes