Flightplan

The Fokker D-VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced about 1,700 D-VII aircraft in the summer and fall of 1918. In service, the D-VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft. When the war ended and the victors laid the groundwork for WWII, the Treaty of Versailles required the German Government to surrender all D-VII's to the Allied Armistice Commission and the aircraft surrendered saw service in the Air Services of many Allied nations in the years following the Armistice. This is the only combat aircraft to be so feared it's surrender was required as a term of a peace agreement.

Fokker's chief designer, Reinhold Platz, had been working on a series of experimental planes since 1916. These aircraft were characterized by the use of cantilever wings, first developed during Fokker's government-mandated collaboration with Hugo Junkers. Junkers had originated the idea in 1915 with the first all-metal aircraft, the Junkers J-1, nicknamed the Blechesel or Tin Donkey. The resulting wings were thick with a rounded leading edge which gave greater lift and more docile stalling characteristics than conventional thin wings. Late in 1917, Fokker built the experimental V11 biplane, fitted with the standard Mercedes D-IIIa engine.

In January 1918, Idflieg held a fighter competition at Adlershof. For the first time frontline fighter pilots were allowed to participate in the evaluation and selection of new fighters. Fokker submitted the V11 along with several other prototypes. Manfred von Richthofen flew the V11 and found it tricky, unpleasant, and directionally unstable in a dive. In response to these complaints, Reinhold Platz lengthened the fuselage by one structural bay and added a triangular fixed vertical fin in front of the rudder. Upon flying the modified V11, von Richthofen praised it as the best aircraft of the competition. It offered excellent performance from t he outdated Mercedes engine, yet it was safe and easy to fly. Richthofen's recommendation virtually decided the competition but he was not alone in recommending it. Fokker immediately received a provisional order for 400 production aircraft, which were designated D-VII by Idflieg.

Fokker's factory was not up to the task of producing all D-VII production orders so Idflieg directed Albatros and AEG to build the D-VII under license, although AEG did not ultimately produce any aircraft. Due to the Fokker factory's method of not using detailed plans as part of it's production process, Fokker simply sent a completed airframe to Albatros to copy. Albatros paid Fokker a five percent royalty for each D-VII built under license. Albatros Flugzeugwerke and it's subsidiary, Ostdeutche Albatros Werke (OAW) built the D-VII at factories in Johannisthal and Schneidemuhl.

Some parts were not interchangeable between aircraft produced at different factories, even between Albatros and OAW. The first production D-VII's were equipped with the 170-180 hp Mercedes D-IIIa engine but production rapidly shifted to the 180-200 hp Mercedes D-IIIau and some earlier versions were upgraded to the D-IIIau. By the summer of 1918, a number of D-VIIs received the “overcompressed” 185 hp BMW IIIa, BMW's first product. It followed the SOHC, straight-six arrangement of the Mercedes D-III but incorporated several improvements, including higher compression, altitude-adjusting carburetor and increased displacement. With the Mercedes D-IIIau, the D-VII was a very competitive fighter; with the BMW IIIa, it was a superlative aircraft.

The D-VIIs flew with different propeller designs from different manufacturers but there was apparently little difference in performance between manufacturers. The D-VII entered squadron service with Jasta 10 in early May, 1918 and quickly proved to have many important advantages over the Albatros and Pfalz scouts ( WWI fighters were called scouts by all belligerents). Unlike the Albatros scouts, the D-VII could dive without fear of structural failure and the D-VII was noted for it's ability to climb at high angles of attack, it's remarkably docile stall, and it's reluctance to spin. German pilots of the D-VII learned to fly underneath their victim, pull the nose up to about 45 degrees, hang on the prop and shoot their victim to pieces. These traits contrasted sharply with contemporary scouts such as the Camel and SPAD, which stalled sharply and spun vigorously.

There were problems with the D-VII, however. Several aircraft shed fabric from the upper wing and some suffered rib failures. Heat from the engine sometimes ignited phosphorus ammunition until vents were installed in the cowling, and fuel tanks sometimes broke at the seams. Nevertheless, the D-VII proved to be a remarkably successful design, leading to the familiar saying that it could turn a mediocre pilot into a good one and a good pilot into a great one. The Red Baron, who had made the suggestion for improvements that turned the V11 into the best combat aircraft of WW I did not live to fly it in combat. Many other German pilots did and became aces, including Hermann Goring and Erich Lowenhardt, who quickly racked up victories and generally lauded the design.

Hermann Goring became the commander of Richthofen's squadron on the Red Baron's death and later became the head of the Luftwaffe in WW II. Availability was limited at first, but by July there were 407 in service. Larger numbers were available by August when the D-VIIs achieved 565 victories. The D-VII eventually equipped 46 Jagdstaffeln. When the war ended on 11 November, 1918, 775 D-VIIs were in service.

As mentioned earlier, the Allies required Germany to surrender all D-VII aircraft and they were distributed among the victors. The United States received 142 captured examples and they were used in the US Army Air Service into the 1920's but when the time came to replace the WW I planes, a wing plan from the Spad XIII was chosen. France, Great Britain, and Canada also received D-VIIs after the war.

Other countries used the D-VII operationally. The Polish deployed 50 aircraft during the Polish-Soviet War, using them in the ground attack role. The Hungarian Soviet Republic used a number of D-VIIs, both built by MAG and ex-German aircraft in the Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919. Little Lithuania acquired two copies and flew at least one of them in their 1920 border war with Poland. The Dutch, Swiss and Belgian air forces operated the D-VII and it was so popular that Anthony Fokker completed and sold a large number of D-VII airframes that he had smuggled into the Netherlands after the Armistice. As late as 1929, the Alfred Comte company manufactured eight new D-VII airframes under license for the Swiss Fliegertruppe.

The widespread acquisition of the D-VII by Allied countries after the Armistice ensured the survival and preservation of several aircraft. One war prize was captured in 1918 when the pilot accidentally landed at an American airstrip near Verdun, France Donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the War Department in 1920, it is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Two other American war prizes were retained by private collectors until sold abroad in 1971 and 1981. They are now on display at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, and the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in Soesterberg, Netherlands, respectively. The latter aircraft is displayed in fictitious Royal Netherlands Air Force markings.

A former Marine Luchtvaartdienst D-VII was discovered in a German barn in 1948 and is now displayed at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. There are many replicas of the D-VII flying today and most are powered by Ranger or Gypsy Queen inline engines. These engines are meant to be mounted inverted but must be mounted upright in the replica D-VIIs to maintain the thrust line, requiring a new lubrication system. There are a few flying replicas that mount an original Mercedes D-III engine. The editor saw a 2/3 size replica at an airshow in Tulsa, OK, about twenty years ago. This replica was based in Collinsville, OK at that time.

Sixteen countries operated the Fokker D-VII either during the war or after the Armistice. Those who operated the D-VII during the war included Bulgaria,the German Empire, and Switzerland, who was not a participant in the war. Those who operated the D-VII after the Armistice included Argentina, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Sweden and the US.

Specifications for the Fokker D-VII are:

Editor's Note:

A model D-VII, while a good flyer and an interesting build, will require copius weight in the nose due to it's short nose moment. The editor's ¼ scale D-VII required 4 pounds of lead to balance it, even though equipping the plane with a Quadra 35 cc gasser! The nose moment is only 12-3/16” while the tail moment is 55”, so an ounce on the tail requires four and one-half times as much on the nose to balance it!