P.Grosz, G.Haddow, P.Shiemer Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One (Flying Machines)

When Jakob Lohner & Co began to build aircraft in 1909, the new enterprise formed an ideal adjunct to its coach and auto chassis manufacturing business. The company, founded in 1821 and renamed Jakob Lohner & Co in 1868, was managed by Ludwig Lohner from 1892 until his death in 1925. Lohner was the first company to build automobiles in Austria, assisted by Ferdinand Porsche (of Volkswagen fame) who was hired in 1899 to develop an electric automobile. Over 300 examples were built, notably fire engines, some of which were still chasing fires in the late Twenties. In 1906 Porsche became technical director of the newly-organized Oesterreichische Daimler Motoren AG (known as Austro-Daimler) but maintained close ties with Lohner regarding aircraft engine development.
  Lohner's first aircraft were custom-built models commissioned and sometimes designed by wealthy, would-be aviators. Beginning with rudimentary gliders, Lohner's activity soon expanded into powered aircraft, of which the biplane designed by Rittmeister Hans Umlauff von Frankwell, an army officer and graduate engineer, was particularly successful. Not only did Umlauff provide technical expertise, but he guided the Lohner shop manager, Karl Paulal, through the intricacies of aircraft construction. Despite the fact that Paulal lacked formal engineering training, his intuitive grasp of aircraft design made him chief aircraft designer at Lohner.
  Umlauff's biplane, completed in the summer of 1910, was promising enough for Lohner and Austro-Daimler (who contributed a new light-weight 65 hp aero engine designed by Porsche) to jointly launch an improved version. The Lohner-Daimler Pfeilflieger (arrow flyer), characterized by an exaggerated sweepback (a Lohner trademark), made its maiden flight on 18 October 1910. Umlauff, piloting the Pfeilflieger, hit the headlines with a series of notable flights and achieved fame by winning the coveted Vienna-Budapest-Vienna prize on 24 June 1911. The Pfeilflieger, of which 212 were built in various versions through 1916, formed the bulk of Lohner's army aircraft business.