PlaneSpottingWorld welcomes all new members! Please gives your ideas at the Terminal.

Hansa-Brandenburg W.12

From PlaneSpottingWorld, for aviation fans everywhere
W.12
Type Floatplane fighter
Manufacturer Hansa und Brandenburgische Flugzeug-Werke
Designed by Ernst Heinkel
Maiden flight Early 1917
Primary users Kaiserliche Marine
Marine-Luchtvaartdienst
Number built 181

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 was a German biplane fighter floatplane of World War I. It was a development of Ernst Heinkel's previous KDW design, adding a rear cockpit for an observer/gunner, and had an unusual inverted tailplane (which instead of standing up from the fuselage, hung below it) in order to give an uninterrupted field of fire.

The W.12's (under the Naval designation C3MG) served on the Western Front, based at the Naval air bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge. The aircraft had some success, and one shot down the British airship C.27.

In April 1918 a W.12 made an emergency landing in the neutral territory of the Netherlands, where it was interned and flight tested by the Dutch. In 1919 the government of the Netherlands bought a licence to build the aircraft. Thirty-five W.12's were subsequently manufactured by the Van Berkel company of Rotterdam as the W-A, serving with the Dutch Naval Air Service until 1933.

Variants

  • W.12 : German Navy model. 146 built.
  • W-A : Dutch licence-built W.12, with Benz engine. 35 built.

Operators

Specifications (W.12)

Data from Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft[1]

General characteristics

  • Crew: Two (pilot & observer/gunner)
  • Length: 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in)
  • Wingspan: 11.20 m (36 ft 9 in)
  • Height: 3.30 m (10 ft 10 in)
  • Wing area: 36.20 m² (389.5 ft²)
  • Empty weight: 997 kg (2,193 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 1,454 kg (3,206 lb)
  • Powerplant:Mercedes D.III 6-cylinder inline engine, 119 kW (160 hp)

Performance

Armament

  • 1 or 2 × fixed forward 7.92 (0.31 in) LMG 08/15 machine guns
  • 1 × 7.92 (0.31 in) Parabellum MG14 in rear cockpit

  • See also

    Related development

    Related lists

    References

    1. Jackson, Robert, The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Parragon, 2002. ISBN 0-75258-130-9

    External links


    de:Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 fr:Hansa-Brandenburg W.12W


    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
    It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hansa-Brandenburg W.12".