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Lohner B.VII

1915 WORLD WAR 1

History

The Lohner B.VII were two reconnaissance aircraft built by and for Austria-Hungary during the First World War. Although the B.VII was essentially a pre-war military design, it became the final combat-ready version of the series and entered service for some time from August 1915.

From there the aircraft was modified into more powerful (eventually armed) forms like the Lohner C.I. Both Lohner designs showed healthy range but were eventually overtaken by the latest generation of fighters in 1917 into the airstream.

The design of the original Lohner B.I series began before the outbreak of hostilities in Europe during the First World War, by Jakob Lohner AG. The B.I is an unarmed reconnaissance platform with two seats, swept wings and a 90 hp Austro-Daimler engine. Not entirely satisfied with the performance of the B.I, Jakob Lohner and his team managed to develop a more advanced and powerful form of the B.I, leading to the B.II, B.III, B.IV, B.V, and eventually the B.I became the B.VI.

Only with the development of the final B.VII did this Lohner family of aircraft finally take shape.

Lohner B. VII takes the form of a clear plan. Like previous Lohner designs, the B.VII featured a swept biplane wing with double cabins and parallel struts. They are staggered and mounted above and in front of the pilot, with the lower wing layout showing a dihedron (upward angle). A large liquid-cooled engine obscures part of the forward view and drives a two-bladed propeller.

The spotter/gunner sits in the divided rear of the open cockpit (two crew members sit side by side) and is a trained lookout who doubles as the gunner when the aircraft is equipped with machine guns. The fuselage, with its straight sides, tapers to a conventional fin with a broad horizontal plane (also with a rear arrow) and a single vertical fin.

The landing gear at the time was conventional, with two main landing gear on a support strut below the front of the fuselage, connected to a simple empennage at the rear end of the fin. Interestingly, the Lohner aircraft can carry an internal bomb payload of up to 180 pounds.

Lohner produced two versions of this reconnaissance plane - the B.VII and the C.I. The B.VIIs were (usually) unarmed models, with 150 or 160 hp Austro-Daimler engines, of which 73 were built as Types (although some B.VIIs were classified as unarmed, a rear cockpit-mounted training machine guns).

The C.I represents the "official" armed version, containing a machine gun on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit for observer/gunner use. The C.I was assigned an Austro-Daimler 160 hp liquid-cooled inline 6-cylinder engine under the hood (the B.VII had an exposed engine, no hood), and about 40 examples were built.

The wingspan of the B.VII was 50 feet 6 inches. Endurance in the air is 6 hours while being able to climb at 350 feet per minute. The B.VII entered service in 1915. As the B.VII generally showed excellent endurance against WWI aircraft, this meant good long-range service and proved adept at scanning Italian fronts.

Its bomb load allows the aircraft to conduct occasional strike missions when needed, including against ground structures and naval ships in the area. Later in 1916, the armed C.I entered service with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By 1917, both Lohner reconnaissance models had been withdrawn from front-line service, and their production lines had been re-evaluated. All planes were made by Lohner of Austria-Hungary for k.u (some C.I were also made by Ufag). Air Force produced.