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Hannover CL.II

1917 WORLD WAR 1

Hannover CL. Two stories

Beginning in the summer of 1914, as World War I raged around the world for years, German authorities attempted to gain air superiority with a new type of light, maneuverable, two-seat, patrol-oriented biplane fighter. The request was specified in the autumn of 1916, and several German manufacturers responded. These included Hannoversche Waggonfabrik AG (Hannover), which prior to the war focused mainly on products for the railway industry.

Like other new players in the aviation industry, Hannover began to build aircraft from other companies under license, and then developed its own product portfolio in the final years of the war.

Hannover is one of the players that has secured an order for the development of three airworthy prototypes to meet the requirements of the Luftwaffe. Hermann Dorner's design was enforced, consisting of a unequal span biplane wing arrangement with single cabin and parallel struts, tandem seats for two crew members, and the usual position of the nose 's engine. A key physical feature of the aircraft is the use of a biplane wing assembly in the tail, which reportedly provides a larger fire field for the tail gunner, a smaller vertical tail, and a higher gunner position.

The pilot's position is at the rear end of the upper wing panel, and a cutout in the panel provides the pilot with good visibility and keeps the panel under the fuselage. The hull itself is of plywood construction, relatively compact and streamlined.

The landing gear has a two-wheeled main unit under the front center mass with a fixed tail skid.

The engine of choice becomes Argus As. 180 hp Series III water cooling to drive a two-blade wooden nose propeller.

As part of the aircraft's armament, the weapon consists of two machine guns: a 7.92mm Spandau LMG 08/15 machine gun controlled by the pilot, mounted on a fixed forward-firing mount, which fires the propeller blades synchronously by rotating, while A 7.92mm Parabellum MG14 machine gun is mounted on a trainable mount in the rear cockpit. Suffice to say, the aircraft can engage targets in the front and rear, allowing the system to provide broad coverage of targets as well as potential trailing attackers.

This aircraft was born in 1916 under the designation "C. II", but was revised to "CL. II" in the summer of 1917. The design was approved on July 21 of that year, followed by a series production order in September for a total of 500 units. Commissioning started fairly quickly - back in October 1917.

Despite such a short development time, this aircraft has already proven itself in action. Mobility and performance are considered reliable, and its standard armament makes it an inherently versatile platform - the aircraft will eventually take on duties beyond fighter interception and escort bomber swarms, attacking ground targets and providing low-altitude reconnaissance when needed.

The platform was resistant to any conventional single-seater combat mount of the day, and its rear gunner position provided a painful surprise for unsuspecting trailing opponents. Such was the versatility that some of the lots were used for advanced flight training courses until the end of the war.

Aircraft manufacturer Roland built at least 200 CLs. The II fighter was licensed "CL. II (ROL)" in 1918 for that role only.

In February 1918, the last year of the war, the Luftwaffe could count to 295 CL. IIs are in inventory for frontline battles. However, Hannover has begun work on a more refined form, the "CL. III" (detailed elsewhere on this page) and its improved variant "CL. IIIa", the stroke of the CL.

The II series suffered during the final months of the war. Part of the stock originally ordered by CL. The II fighter is actually done to CL. IIIa standard.

LFG also achieved CL. II was authorized as "CL. IIa" during the war years. The first locally built Polish aircraft was the CL. II, 1919 reproduced as CWL SK-1 "Slowik".