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Halberstadt D.II
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The Halberstadt D.II was a biplane fighter aircraft of the Imperial German Army Air Service that served through the period of Allied air superiority in early 1916, but had begun to be superseded in the Jagdstaffeln by the superior Albatros fighters by the autumn of that year.
D.II was the production version of the experimental D.I. Lightened to improve performance, it also featured staggered wings, and a more powerful 120 hp Mercedes D.II engine.
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Encyclopedia
The Halberstadt D.II was a biplane fighter aircraft of the Imperial German Army Air Service that served through the period of Allied air superiority in early 1916, but had begun to be superseded in the Jagdstaffeln by the superior Albatros fighters by the autumn of that year.
Design and development
The D.II was the production version of the experimental D.I. Lightened to improve performance, it also featured staggered wings, and a more powerful 120 hp Mercedes D.II engine. The side and frontal radiators that had been tried in the D.I were replaced by a wing mounted radiator similar to that later used by the Albatros D.III and D.V. The two bay wings were very strongly braced, and the cockpit was raised in relation to where it had been on the D.I. This required a turtledeck to be built up on the rear fuselage to fair the cockpit into the lines of the fuselage. The wing trailing edge was a wooden member, as opposed to the wire common on contemporary German aircraft. Lateral control was by ailerons, but there were no fixed tail surfaces, and over-sensitive Morane style balanced elevators similar to those employed by the Fokker Eindecker were retained. Although it must have shared the typical "Morane" elevator sensitivity, and the controls cannot have been well harmonised, it was very manoeuvrable in skilled hands, and could be dived safely at high speed. A single synchronised lMG 08/15 Spandau machinegun fired through the propeller arc.
If the only performance figures available for the type are accurate, the Halberstadt fighter’s speed and climb were little better than the Eindecker’s, and inferior to such Allied contemporaries as the Nieuport 11 and the D.H.2, but it earned the respect of Allied fighter pilots, and was the preferred mount of the pilots of the early Jagdstaffeln, until the Albatros D.I became available.
Operational history
Like other early German fighter types, the D.II was at first supplied in ones and twos to the ordinary reconnaissance units or Fliegertruppe of the Luftstreitkräfte, then gathered into small specialised fighter units – the Kampfeinsitzerkommandos. When the first true fighter squadrons (Jagdstaffeln) were formed in mid-1916, the Halberstadt was initially the best fighter available, and was used by Oswald Boelcke to demonstrate his famous pioneering air fighting tactics (the Dicta Boelcke) to the new units. His Halberstadt was painted bright blue overall – probably the first instance of the gaudy personal finishes applied by German fighter pilots to their mounts for the remainder of the war.
As the new Albatros fighters came into service the Halberstadts were quickly replaced, although a few survived into early 1917. Manfred von Richthofen flew a red Halberstadt D.II for a few weeks in March 1917, after the spar of his Albatros D.III cracked in combat.
Variants
The D.III and D.V differed from the D.II mainly in having slightly enlarged, balanced ailerons, and were powered by the 120 hp Argus and 150 hp Benz engines respectively. The D.IV of 1917 was designed specifically to compete with the Albatros, and had a streamlined nose with a small spinner.None of these later types were built in large numbers, as they were notably inferior in most respects to the new Albatros types.
Operators
Specifications (D.II)
See also
Bibliography
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