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.

M.Dusing German Aviation Industry in WWI. Volume 2 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 85)

Otto Schwade & Co., Erfurt

Foundation:

  The engineer Otto Schwade, born on September 25, 1857, founded a company for technical products and pumps in Erfurt in 1888. By exploiting a patent of his colleague Dr. Scholz, Otto Schwade gained a large market share from 1910 onwards with the production of a flywheel-less duplex cylinder pump without external control (duplex pumps are double cylinder pumps), which was used in particular in mines and on ships. When Otto Schwade died in 1911, the company was taken over by his son Hans-James Schwade, keeping the original name.
  In 1910, while Otto Schwade was still alive, an aircraft department was established at the plant and the company's own personnel were sent to France to study aircraft construction there. This also included training at well-known engine manufacturers such as the Societe des Moteurs Gnome of the Seguin brothers.
  The new business fields were now also reflected in the name of the company, which from 1910 was given the addition: "Aeroplan- und Motorenbau". In addition to a number of aircraft, the company mainly manufactured its own "Stahlherz" aircraft engines until the outbreak of war. The company continued to develop its own engines until 1916.


Aircraft Development:

  The aircraft developed by Otto Schwade himself between 1911 and 1916 were not used in the German armed forces.
  However, the development work on compressors for increasing the power of aircraft engines at high altitudes is worth mentioning.
  Otto Schwade had the best prerequisites due to his rich experience in pump construction, because a supercharger for aircraft engines is basically nothing other than an air pump.