J.Herris German Aircraft of Minor Manufacturers in WW1. Vol II (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 50)

Schwade

   Engineer Otto Schwade began working in 1880 and was interested in the technique of flight. He built the large glider that Otto Lilienthal flew but in which he crashed and was killed. Schwade's son, Hans James, learned to fly in 1910 in a Farman biplane at Mourmelon, France, and in June he gained his German Licence No. 9a. Around this time Schwade built his first aircraft, a Farman copy with a Schwade motor of 50 hp. This machine proved quite successful, the younger Schwade flying it in the Flugwoche at Berlin-Johannisthal, the 1912 Nordmarkflug, and in the Prinz Heinrich Wettbewerb.
   After the National Flugspende the firm opened a flying school and on 23 March 1914, Henning remained aloft for 8 hours 10 minutes in a Schwade school biplane. This was a duration record for rotary engine aircraft. During the war the Schwade company repaired Albatros and Rumpler biplanes. They also built compressors for aviation engines (e.g. Mercedes 200 hp and for rotary engines). They also manufactured copies of the 50 and 100 hp Gnome rotary (Oberursel?); 75 engines of this type were delivered to the Government after the armistice. Two fighter aircraft were developed during the war but did not enter production. About 700 were employed at the factory in 1918.
   When the IAACC visited the Erfurt factory of Otto Schwade on 22 February 1920, it found 45 aircraft and 36 engines. Since 1919 the Schwade factory resumed its pre-war manufacturing of automatic pumps and all models of centrifugal pumps. By June 1920 the workforce had dropped to 20 workers.