Albatros D.Va
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Albatros D.Va
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Albatros D.Va WWI biplane. Germany, 1917.
The Albatros D.V was a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke and used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatros fighter to see operational service. Despite its well-known shortcomings and general obsolescence, approximately 900 D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production halted in April 1918. The D.Va continued in operational service until the end of the war.
The D.V entered service in May 1917 and structural failures of the lower wing immediately occurred. The D.V’s sesquiplane wing layout was even more vulnerable than that of its predecessor. The outboard sections of the D.V upper wing also suffered failures, requiring additional wire bracing and the fuselage sometimes cracked during rough landings. Against these problems, the D.V offered very little improvement in performance. Front line pilots were considerably dismayed and many preferred the older D.III; Manfred von Richthofen was critical of the new aircraft. In a July 1917 letter, he described the D.V as "so obsolete and so ridiculously inferior to the English that one can't do anything with this aircraft". British tests of a captured D.V revealed that the aircraft was slow to manoeuvre, heavy on the controls and tiring to fly.
Albatros responded with the D.Va, which featured stronger wing spars, heavier wing ribs and a reinforced fuselage but the structural problems were not entirely cured.
With no alternative to the D.Va until the Fokker D.VII entered service in mid-1918, fewer than 400 Albatros fighters of all types remained at the front and continued in service until the Armistice.
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Weston Westmoreland
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November 4th, 2022
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