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Hannover CL.V

1918 WORLD WAR 1

Hannover CL. V gradient

The last fighter aircraft of the German Hannoversche Waggonfabrik AG (Hannover) in service with German aviation during the First World War (1914-1918) became the "CL.V". This aircraft is a further development of the two-seat CL.

The III double decker, itself a further development of the first two-seat CL. 1917 II Biplane Products (both detailed elsewhere on this page).

The cl V Mark arrived in the final months of the war, so had a very limited impact on the outcome - production would only be around 120, many of which arrived after the armistice was signed in November 1918.

Also CL. II and CL. The Type III entered the German fighter squadron, and the German authorities were looking for an Allied fighter killer. In mid-1918, just months before the official end of the war, the search for a successor was under way. What was sought was a stable, high performance firing platform with a crew of two with excellent maneuverability/agility and good diving capabilities.

All in all, this mount would dwarf anything the Allies could stand up to face it in the air, and (hopefully) work to turn the tide of air combat in Germany's favor. Standard armament should consist of two forward-pointing machine guns and a trainable rear-pointing machine gun to provide optimal firepower for the aircraft.

Hermann Doner from Hannover used all the lessons he had learned from CL's previous attempts to design a new combat biplane in this direction. II and CL.

3. The aircraft was powered by a 186-horsepower BMW IIIa production engine, designated "CL.V", and was the company's last attempt at a fighter jet before the end of the war (before the war the company had a relationship with the railroad) linked together) .industry, not aircraft manufacturers).

Engineers decided on an equal-span biplane wing configuration with a single cabin and a single "I-Plane" strut. The upper wing is close to the fuselage, and part of the trailing edge is cut away at the pilot's position to improve visibility somewhat. As usual, the engine is located in the nose and is used to drive the two-bladed propeller unit. Two crew members sat side by side with the pilot in the front and the gunner in the back - the gunner's position was the same as the CL. II and CL.

The III is in front, raised again for the best firing angle. The tail unit initially includes CL. II's twin-wing configuration, but in production form a more traditional single-wing unit.

The landing gear was in the typical trailing configuration of the time, with wheels located under the front central mass and a rail under the tail.

CL. The V was compared to other similar fighter types of the time, including the famous Fokker D.VII, although it had a two-seat configuration. The authorities were so confident in the design that they ordered an initial production batch of 100 aircraft (those with a single tail) in September 1918.

However, the armistice of November 1918 came too early to gain traction, and only about 46 Chasseurs completed the mission - none destined to reach the front before the end.

Nonetheless, over the next few months Hannover continued mass production of the fighter, under the constraints of the armistice, resulting in an additional 62 fighters in the stable. In November 1919, at least one reached the world altitude record of 27,362 feet after weight reduction modifications.

Also, fourteen cl. The V-fighter biplanes were licensed in 1923 at the Kjeller Flyvemaskins factory in Halden, Norway, for service with the Norwegian Army Air Service, where they were designated Kjeller FF. 7 "Hawk" ("Eagle").

These planes flew until 1929, and some of them were equipped with skis for gliding over the snow, before being replaced by more modern, advanced types.