Backgrounds - The Aerofile

These were the contestors at the first D-type competition of Januari 1918

Albatros D.Va

Aviatik D.III

Fokker V.11

Fokker V.13/I

Fokker V.13/II

Fokker V.17

Fokker V.18

Fokker Dr.I

Pfalz D.IIIa

Pfalz D.VI

Pfalz D.VII

Roland D.VI

Roland D.IX

Rumpler D

Schutte-Lanz D.III

Siemens-Schuckert D.III

Probably because drawings from the Fokker factory were not available, and the Albatros factories had to work with a pattern aircraft, differences existed between the D.VII’s build by Fokker, Albatros and Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke. From which factory a D.VII originates, can be determined by the serial, or by the type of engine cowling.

Basically, there are four different cowling layouts of D.VII’s. First, there’s the original V.11 and early Fokker built production aircraft, with the twin exhaust pipes on the right side of the 160 hp Mercedes engine. This type of cowling can also be seen on D.VII(Alb.) 527/18, the first Albatros production aircraft. Later Fokker D.VII(F) aircraft had a different exhaust pipe for the 175 hp Mercedes or 185 hp BMW engine, and the cowling had more cooling louvres.

D.VII’s built by Albatros had also more cooling louvres, in a different layout.

The O.A.W. built D.VII’s can be easily identified, since they have cowlings with 20 round shaped cooling openings on both sides. Some sources state that only O.A.W. painted the cowlings in a lozenge camouflage pattern.

During World War I, the Germans were looking for a way to effectively camouflage their aircraft. This resulted in the so called Lozenge pattern. This was made up of irregular painted polygons. Because this painting was very time consuming, and the paint added considerably to the weight of the aircraft, it was decided to print the pattern on the fabric. This pre-printed fabric was used from 1916 onwards, in various forms and colours.

There where two types: four and five colour lozenge fabric, the latter one being the final development. Besides this, two colour patterns were used :

a dark version for the upper surfaces

and a light version for the lower surfaces

This fabric was applied to all surfaces that had to be covered, sometimes straight, and sometimes diagonal  from the wings’ leading to its trailing edge.