Arado SD.I

Good morning, we are back in Germany, in order to cover this early German fighter, and we're going to stay in that country for quite some time.

The Arado SD.I was the first biplane fighter developed by the Arado Flugzeugwerke in Warnemünde. It was designed by the engineer Walter Rethel, who owed much experience gained with Fokker.

The SD.I was a relatively small mixed-construction sesquiplane. The fuselage was of welded steel tubing with light alloy skinning to the cockpit firewall and fabric aft. Wings were made out of wood with plywood skinning and the ailerons were placed in the upper wings only. It had V-type struts and lacked conventional flying wires, which apparently was something very typical from Fokker.

It was powered by a 425hp nine-cylinder Gnome-Rhône Jupiter air-cooled radial engine and was armed with two synchronised 7,92mm 08/15 machine guns.
It was the first fighter to be object of a contract from the Reichswehrministerium (ministry of war) and its' development was totally clandestine. The first two prototypes were tested in Lipetsk, USSR on 11th October 1927 and the performance prooved to be poor specially at low speeds. Given those poor characteristics, the development was halted in order to favour a complete new design, the Arado SD.II

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_SD_I
2. Salamander Books - The complete book of fighters