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Fokker Dr.1 Triplane

Comments:

This commission was undertaken for the National Geographic. I am grateful to quite a few people to helping me obtain accurate dimensional information.

History

While the Dr.1 remains one of - if not - the most famous airplane of World War One, only 320 of the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane were ever built (compared to thousands of Spads, Nieuports, Albatroses, and Sopwith Camels).

It was inspired by the devastating performance of the Sopwith Triplane, Anthony Fokker designed and built the Dr.I Dreidecker, and delivered the first triplanes to Manfred von Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader I in late August 1917. After a brief familiarization flight, the "Red Baron" took aircraft number 102/17 up on September 1, and promptly shot down a British R.E.8 of No. 6 Sqn, whose crew probably thought the three-winged craft was a friendly Sopwith.

Fokker's new triplane was not an outright copy of the Sopwith. It featured cantilever wings, supported by single interplane struts. Only the upper wing had ailerons. The initial order of twenty aircraft were numbered Dr.I 101/17 - 120/17. 300 later Dreideckers were numbered Dr I 121/17 - 220/17 and 400/17 - 599/17. Its twin, synchronized 8mm Spandau machine guns were standard firepower for the era.