Apparently and according both to the Complete book of fighters and wikipedia (which uses the first as source), the D.VI was a twin boom single-seat pusher fighter which was powered by a 180hp Daimler D.IIIa engine built in August 1917 but, due to the lack of a suitable radiator, it wasn't until February 1918 that was completed and when the prototype was flown for the first time.
It seems that it was armed with a single 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine gun and, maybe the most interesting feature together with the pusher configuration, it was armed with a 20mm Becker Type M2 cannon.
It seems that, when the prototype was tested, the undercarriage was seriously damaged on landing and the project was abandoned, but in September 1918 Albatros proposed to the Idflieg to reactivate the project named as the "special cannon fighter".
Taking into account the characteristics of the fighter, like the pusher configuration, the single machine-gun and the installation of the cannon, we think it's safe to assume that it was going to be a multi-role ground-attack airplane with aerial defence capabilities, probably inspired by other successful identical airplanes like the Halberstadt CL.II. But then, why the Idflieg assigned the D letter, assigned to pure fighters without dedicated ground-attack capabilities and didn't assign the CL letters reserved for those fighter-sized airplanes with dedicated ground-attack equipment?
Considering that there aren't no known photos, there isn't any scale or line drawings so we couldn't draw it.
The technical data for this airplane is as follows:
- Crew: 1
- Length: 7.75m
- Wingspan: 9.8m
- Empty weight: 638Kg.
- Gross weight: 880Kg.
- Powerplant: 1x 180hp Daimler D.IIIa engine
- Armament: 1x fixed 20mm Becker type M2 Cannon plus 1x fixed 7.92mm LMG 08/15
Sources:
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
3. Windsock Datafiles Specials - Albatros Experimentals - Forgotten Fighters 1
No comments:
Post a Comment