German Empire (1915)
Fighter – 1 Built

The DFW T28 Floh (Flea) was an early biplane fighter designed for use by the German Empire. To get an edge over then current monoplane fighters, the T28 was designed with aerodynamics and speed in mind. The result was an aircraft that looked straight out of a cartoon. Despite its appearance, the aircraft performed well during testing, maxing out at 112mph (180 km/h). Although its speed was good, its large body and the placement of the wings reduced visibility for the pilot, making landings with the craft difficult. This was enough for officials to decline production of the type despite its respectable top speed.

History

In times of emergent technology, it goes without saying that many new endeavors are tested out. Many of these may seem strange to us now, but something odd looking to us could have been revolutionary for the time. This was no exception for aircraft in the First World War. Many different ideas were tested in the name of advancing aerodynamics. Some of these would end in blunders while others would be influential to aircraft design. A curious case of attempted aircraft advancement was the DFW T28, a plane that pushed records for speed, while looking downright comedic.

The Deutsche Flugzeugwerke (DFW) was a German aircraft manufacturer formed in 1910 that license-built French aircraft before the war. During the early years of the First World War, they would design and produce a number of two-seater aircraft types, both armed (C-Type) and unarmed (B-Type). No work was done on a fighter aircraft by DFW at the beginning of the war. Fighter aircraft weren’t as common by this point in the war as they would soon be known, with most types in production being German Eindecker (monoplane) designs like the Fokker E.I. Very few actual biplane fighters (D-Type) had been developed at this time, aside from a prototype or two. Despite this, the Eindecker showed its effectiveness and led to a period of time in 1915 where the air was dominated by the Germans, known as the “Fokker Scourge” to the allies.

In mid 1915, a new head engineer, Dipl-Ing (Engineer) Hermann Dorner was appointed at DFW. Dorner was a German early aviation pioneer in the 1900s and 1910s, building gliders and powered aircraft alike. He had formed his own aircraft company in 1910, but due to poor business decisions on Dorner’s end, the company would be liquidated in 1913. He would go on to work as a teacher at the Adlershof flight school, as well as working for the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Research Institute for Aviation) before finally being employed by DFW during the war. After joining DFW, Dorner began working on a new fighter aircraft project. Dorner took issue with the Eindeckers in service at the time, particularly relating to their speed. Despite their effectiveness, all of the Fokker Eindeckers built (E.I-E.IV), could not attain a speed faster than around 87mph (km/h). With newer Allied machines on the horizon, this speed wouldn’t give the Eindeckers an edge forever and a replacement was needed.

Dorner had speed in mind with his fighter design. His vision had the aircraft streamlined for aerodynamic flow. Overall the aircraft would be small and light in construction to reduce weight. Work began on a prototype of Dorner’s fighter in late 1915 at DFW’s facility in Lubeck-Travemunde. This facility primarily served as a flight school for DFW, and wasn’t their main factory. The construction of the aircraft, now known as the DFW T28 Floh, was supervised by Theo Rockenfeller at the plant. The final T28 looked like it flew straight out of a cartoon, possessing a very tall fuselage with small wings. This proportional difference made the aircraft appear more like a caricature than a combat aircraft of the time period. Despite its design, the aircraft was still designed for speed, and would have a 100hp (74.5kW) Mercedes D I engine, which was completely enclosed in the fuselage. Armament would be a single machine gun mounted in front of the pilot. The T28 would take flight shortly after its construction, but the exact date is unknown. The design choices of the aircraft to make it fly faster worked well, as it was able to achieve a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h), which was extremely impressive for the time period. However, its design wasn’t perfect and the choices made to improve speed negatively affected other aspects of the aircraft, in particular, its landing characteristics. The tall profile of the craft, the location of the upper wing, and the placement of the pilot’s position, gave him a superb view above the plane but was severely restricted frontally and below. The prototype Floh would be damaged due to this reason upon landing on its first flight, due to the pilot misjudging his height, as well as having a fast landing speed. This issue also affected takeoff, as the high placement of the pilot required him to stand up during taxiing to see. The design was reworked a few times after its first flight, mainly with improving the tail surfaces. Despite achieving the speed Dorner wanted, the military officials showed little interest in the design, with some sources citing that it was just too fast for the military. Further work on the aircraft was stopped after this. Exactly what happened to the aircraft after being declined for production is unknown, whether it was simply scrapped or if it was continually used at DFW’s facilities for training and testing are possible theories. Many prototype German aircraft of the First World War would go on to serve as trainers for their various companies once production declined. The facility the T28 was built served as a flight training school for DFW after all.

Design

The DFW T28 Floh was a biplane fighter designed in 1915 to supersede then in use Eindecker fighters. It had a length of 14ft 9in (4.3 m), a wingspan of 20ft 4in (6.2 m) and a height of 7ft 6in (2.3 m). The aircraft had a tall, flat sided fuselage constructed of wood. The fuselage would be sleek and rounded in design to reduce drag. Buried in the fuselage was a 100hp (74.5kW) Mercedes D.I engine. The aircraft had a large wooden propeller, with a relatively small landing gear mounted far forward with two wheels almost at the nose of, accompanied by a landing skid at the end of the tail. The short wings were fabric covered with wooden ribs. The wings themselves were single bay, meaning only one pair of support struts between the upper and lower wing. The upper wings were placed in a way that restricted the pilot’s vision downward and forward. Behind the wings and engine in the fuselage sat the pilot. Two cutouts were made into the left side of the fuselage for the pilot to climb up into the cockpit. Toward the rear of the fuselage the tail would taper. At the end were the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. The vertical stabilizer itself acted as the rudder and was completely movable. The elevators were originally the same width as the horizontal stabilizers but these were modified later into testing to be wider to increase performance.

For armament, a single synchronized machine gun was fitted in front of the pilot.

Conclusion

The T28 Floh was a very interesting concept for a fast fighter at a time where biplanes weren’t yet used in such a role in German service. Its design choices might seem strange now, but they meshed together to create a truly fast aircraft of the time. The design however, was troubled by problems that would see it fail to enter widespread production, and eventually more conventional biplane fighter designs would enter service less than a year after the Floh was built. DFW would eventually produce several conventional biplane fighter prototypes later on in the war in 1917 and 1918, but these all performed very poorly. Aside from having structural problems and a poor field of view, the last of these, the D.II, was in fact slower than the Floh.

Dorner would continue working for DFW designing aircraft. His next project after the Floh would be the much more successful DFW R.I Reisenflugzeug (Giant Aircraft), which would first fly in 1916. Dorner, however, wouldn’t stay with the company to see the completion of this project and its success, as he would move to Hannover Waggonfabrik AG in October of 1916 as their chief designer. Here he would design several successful two-seater aircraft, the CL.I through CL.IV, which saw widespread use during the war. He would survive the war and continue working on civil air projects.

Interestingly, this wouldn’t be the only type of aircraft to share this strange design idea during the war. The Austro-Hungarian Lohner Type AA fighter of 1916 also had similar proportions, with a very tall body and small wings to increase speed. This aircraft would have poor flight performance and would be heavily reworked to resemble the more standard biplanes then entering service.

Variants

• DFW T28 Floh – The T28 was a small fighter designed to outperform Eindecker aircraft in terms of speed. 1 was built and tested.

Operators

• German Empire – The T28 Floh was designed for use by the German Empire but wasn’t adopted for service.

DFW T28 Floh Specifications
Wingspan	20 ft 4 in / 6.2 m
Length	14 ft 9 in / 4.3 m
Height	7 ft 6 in / 2.3 m
Wing Area	162 ft² / 15 m²
Engine	1x 100 hp (74.5 kW ) Mercedes D.I engine
Propeller	1x 2-blade wooden propeller
Weights	Empty 926 lb / 420 kg Loaded 1,433 lb / 650 kg
Maximum Speed	112 mph / 180 kmh
Crew	1 pilot
Armament	1x Machine Gun

Gallery

Credits

• Written by Medicman11
• Edited by  Ed J. and Henry H.
• Illustrations by Carpaticus

Sources

• Green, W. & Swanborough, G. (2002). The complete book of fighters : an illustrated encyclopedia of every fighter aircraft built and flown. London: Salamander.
• Herris, J. (2017). DFW Aircraft of WWI : a centennial perspective on Great War Airplanes. Charleston, SC: Aeronaut Books.