J.Herris Friedrichshafen Aircraft of WWI (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 21)

Friedrichshafen FF34

   The Friedrichshafen FF34 was another pusher design to further evaluate the potential of this configuration for the Navy's reconnaissance floatplanes. Built to class CHFT, it was a large aircraft powered by a 240 hp Maybach. To further improve performance compared to the earlier FF31, the FF34 had streamlined booms attaching the tail instead of the complex, drag-producing struts and bracing wires of the FF31.
   Delivered to the SVK on 24 January 1916, the FF34 proved unsatisfactory. When the SVK evaluated the FF34, it determined that the new, streamlined booms were not strong enough and on 22 April the aircraft was returned to Friedrichshafen for rework. Delivered a second time on 4 May 1917, the FF34 was still determined to be insufficiently robust and it was rebuilt with conventional fuselage and tractor engine to become the prototype FF44. The FF34 was Marine Number 117, and the rebuilt FF44 retained the same Marine Number.
   Although the pusher configuration offered an unobstructed field of view and field of fire forward, pushers were too vulnerable to attack from the rear. Between its obsolete configuration and structural limitations, the FF34 remained a single prototype.


Friedrichshafen FF34 Specifications
Engine: 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV
Wing: Span Upper 18.40 m
General: Length 10.85 m
Height 4.10 m

Журнал Flight

Flight, October 16, 1919.

SOME FRIEDRICHSHAFEN "MILESTONES"

"The F.F. 34
is of the pusher type, like the 31, but it has two plywood fuselages carrying the tail instead of the open tail booms of the 31. The machine, which is shown in Figs. 15 and 16, was fitted with a 240 h.p. Maybach engine, and as the engine was placed in the rear of the nacelle, the field of fire in a forward direction was very good. It was used as a reconnaissance machine, and was equipped with wireless.