Hansa-Brandenburg D.I (Type KD)

History of Hansa-Brandenburg D. I (Type KD)

The D.I was another aircraft designed by Ernst Heinkel during the First World War for the Hansa-Brandenburg company (previously known as Hansa und Brandenburgische Flugzeug-Werke). Classified as a fighter, the single-seater first flew in 1916 and entered service with Austro-Hungarian pilots in the autumn of that year.

While not without some notable (rather bad) in-flight handling issues, this type remained in service in some numbers until the conflict ended, and has been known to turn some pilots into trump cards.

From the outside, the D.I is definitely a unique aircraft design, even compared to its contemporaries. The body is deep but straight and aerodynamic.

The fuselage made the cockpit visibility somewhat poor, and the damage was only increased by the use of a biplane wing arrangement and a large forward engine bay. The fuselage has a raised spine that extends to the tail, which itself has some interestingly designed tails - notably the rather small vertical tail. The pilot sits directly in the forward midship, behind and below the upper wing assembly.

The equal-span wings are interconnected by upper and lower wing assemblies, and the fuselage is arranged through a complex cross-strut arrangement that adds to the aircraft's unique appearance. The wings are staggered, with the upper assembly in front of the lower assembly. The landing gear consisted of a pair of main wheels attached to the struts, which were attached to the bottom of the fuselage, and a simple tail skid attached to the bottom of the rear.

The engine drives a two-bladed wooden propeller mounted low in the forward fuselage.

The D.I was armed with only one 8mm Schwarzlose machine gun, which was mounted in a chunky fairing in the upper wing assembly. That's because the complexity of needing to synchronize the Schwarzlose with the launch through the propeller proved to be a significant mechanical task. Mounting the gun in the chosen fairing arrangement proved to be a disadvantage, as the machine gun was well beyond the pilot's reach if the pilot needed to release the gun. Instead, it allows unimpeded launch on any rotating propellerin a way, it becomes a simple solution to a complex problem.

Several early British mounts followed the same design line until synchronized firing was introduced in the West.

The output of a single 185-horsepower Austro-Daimler air-cooled inline-six engine results in a top speed of 116 mph, a service ceiling of up to 16,400 feet, and a 2.5-hour range. The German-built Hansa-Brandenburg D.Is is powered by a 150 hp Austro-Daimler engine (the 185 hp D.Is is built in Vienna).

Hansa-Brandenburg took over production of 50 D.Is, while Phonix in Vienna produced a further 72 such prototypes under license.

In practice, D.I was limited from the start. Handling is a challenge for any pilot, as the deep fuselage interferes with the small vertical stabilizer, limiting the lateral stability of the fuselage and causing poor rotational recovery.

These properties are undoubtedly a limiting factor for D. I is produced in a fairly small number of 122 examples.

Hansa-Brandenburg D.I may also be called "KD" (short for "Kampf-Biplane") in some publications, and nicknamed "Spider" and "Coffin". The former signifies biplane wing support, while the latter is seen as a derogatory terma name befitting of the dangerous nature of machine flight. D.I further developed into Benz Bz.

The III-powered KDW seaplane - also in 1916 - eventually produced around 60 of them.

Specification

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