Pfalz E.I

Palatinate E. I History

Pfalz Flugzeugwerke (PFW) was commissioned in 1913 to manufacture aircraft for the Bavarian Air Service. In 1914, the German Empire was embroiled in a world war across Europe and relied on these companies to store its inventory of aviation services.

Some of the group's most notable contributions during the conflict were the Pfalz D.III and D.XII models, which were completed as combat biplanes in 1917 and 1918, respectively.

Prior to the war of 1914, the company obtained local production licenses for the French Morane-Saulnier H and L monoplanes, the latter a variant of the former. Over time, the company worked on its own E.I, E.II, E.V and E.VI monoplane products, which were influenced by French designs but with increasingly powerful local engines.

The E.I was the beginning of the series and was largely based on the original French product - the German branch that served in the First World War (1914-1918) in late October 1915 and was the first of the company to deploy a machine gun weapon.

The new aircraft is powered by an 80 hp Oberursel U0 rotary engine, also based on the French Gnome rotor series. The engines are traditionally mounted on the nose of the aircraft, with the pilot's open-air cockpit sitting directly behind. The monoplane wings are mounted along the shoulders of the fuselage on the plate side. The fixed wheeled landing gear is located under the front mass of the aircraft and the tail is pulled upwards.

The tail uses a single vertical tail and a low-mounted horizontal plane. A network of cables connects the main wing aircraft to the dorsal and ventral regions of the aircraft fuselage. The structure is mainly made of wood, except for parts of the engine compartment, which also has a circular hood.

As a potential combatant, E.I carries a 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine gun. The gun is fired synchronously (via a "breaker" gear) via the rotating propeller blades. Some of the forms needed for high-speed reconnaissance operations have stripped the guns for weight reasons.

The E.I received type certification in September 1915, and a pair of these aircraft were formed in the German fleet the following month. By the end of April 1916, the strength of the fleet had reached about 27 samples, which were active participants in armed escorts, along with slower observation platforms used on the ground to gain an advantage over enemy actions.

In addition to serving on European battlefields, E.I saw combat action in the Middle East during the Battle of Sinai (1916).

Palatinate E. I Norm

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