Hansa-Brandenburg D.I

D.I
Role	Fighter
Manufacturer	Hansa-Brandenburg
Designer	Ernst Heinkel
First flight	1916
Introduction	1916
Primary users	Austria-Hungary Austria
Number built	122
Variants	Hansa-Brandenburg KDW Phönix D.I

The Hansa-Brandenburg D.I, also known as the KD (Kampf Doppeldecker) was a German fighter aircraft of World War I. Despite poor handling, it was built for Austria-Hungary, some aircraft serving to the end of the war.

Ernst Heinkel chief designer of the Hansa und Brandenburgische Flugzeug-Werke developed the KD in 1916 to meet the requirements of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force (Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen or K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen). It was a single seat, single engined biplane, of wooden construction, with plywood fuselage skinning and fabric wing skins. The wings featured an unusual "Star-Strutter" arrangement of interplane struts, where four Vee struts joined in the centre of the wing bay to result in a "star" arrangement. The interplane struts themselves were steel tubes.

The KD had a deep fuselage, which gave a poor forward view for the pilot and tended to blanket the small rudder, giving poor lateral stability and making recovery from spins extremely difficult. Armament was a single Schwarzlose machine gun, which owing to difficulties in synchronising the Schwarzlose, was fitted in a fairing on the upper wing, firing over the propeller.

Despite these handling problems, the aircraft was ordered by Austro-Hungary as the D.I. A total of 122 D.Is were built, with 50 built by Hansa-Brandenburg in Germany - powered by 110 kW (150 hp) Austro-Daimler engines - while a further 72 were built under license by Phönix in Vienna, powered by 138 kW (185 hp) Austro-Daimler engines. While it was intended that the D.I also be built by Ufag, none were delivered. The KD also formed the basis for the Hansa-Brandenburg KDW floatplane fighter.

...
Wikipedia